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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

thank you all for you kind responses -- regarding the poop, i'm worried now, my snake poops about once a month at the MOST and it eats once a week.

also, the person I bought the snake from has always fed him live mice and he told me that he tried to switch him but it was no use. is it worth trying again? So far, every time i've tried feeding, the snake has only taken a couple seconds to strike and has never not been interested in his food. i'm not too excited about dealing with frozen dead mice, but if it's the best for the snake then of course I would be willing to deal with it.

and as for the cat, i think i'm going to have to consider getting one!

If you are only feeding one mouse a week the snake is being underfed and this explains the length of time between deficating. A snake of that size really should be on something a bit larger than a mouse.

Many people loudly espouse the feeding of live food but, for most, it is far more for THEIR entertainment than the well being of the snake. Since boas have a strong feeding response it shouldhn't be too hard to switch it over to pre killed. And then you do not have to worry about either you or the snake getting bitten. Keep in mind that you will not be feeding mice to it for much longer unless you are intending feeding large numbers of them at a time! And a live rat can do some serious damage to a snake.

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

Hi again. Your boa should be eating prey that is at least 1 1/2 times as big as the largest part of him around. I have a freezer full of rats and mice of various sizes. I will not feed live, and so far all of the snakes we have enjoy theirs anyway. We have had a couple who were fed lives by previous owners that we changed over to frozens. It can take a couple of feedings to get them started. We have friends we have helped get their snakes onto frozen also. My 8 foot boa eats what my supplier calls Colossal rats with no problem, although he favors large. Large are his favorites, but my supplier was out last time I ordered. We thaw them by leaving them out a while, and finishing with either the rat in a ziploc bag placed in hot water until heated nicely, or put under a heat lamp until nicely heated to snake loving temps.

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Kat