I think I’m going to switch completely to aspen. Maybe sand just for enrichment sometimes? And I will look into downsizing if that’ll make him more comfortable.
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Yes aspen will work wonderfully but that’s just my opinion and experience with it. As far as the sand goes I would get rid of it completely, especially if you are planning to feed him in his tank when he grows, which is recommended.
A much smaller enclosure for now I highly recommend. The one he is in now is way way way too large for him. A little 6 quart plastic tub would be much more accommodating to him for now to make him feel safe and secure enough to eat. In the wild a snake has to feel safe enough to eat because it is extremely vulnerable for a predator to attack it if it is in the middle of swallowing a prey item. Same concept with captive bred babies.
Now here is where some different opinions will come in which is what you want so you can choose which way to go. First and foremost your little guy is already stressed, imho, so moving him to a deli cup to eat will not stress him any more than he already is. I had a tiny sand boa that was eating live so I went the deli cup route placed in a quiet dark bathroom and he ate a nice warm ft pink after the second try over a 2 week span of course. If you go this route you will have hunger on your side. You can even put the deli cup inside his existing enclosure and turn off all lights and cover the tank.
Now you can try this a couple of times over a 2 week span and if he doesn’t eat then I would offer him live for a couple of weeks and then offer ft, live, ft, live, until he is switched. Be prepared to feed live for the rest of his keeping life if after a reasonable amount of time he won’t accept ft.
The above is my experience only so I am not speaking for others because there have been a lot of great suggestions.
The bottom line imho is that your little sandy boy
needs to eat no matter whether it’s live or ft. His current enclosure is beautiful but right now it’s too large for him and the sand imho should be removed and replaced by aspen. If you want to continue to feed him in his existing enclosure he needs to be in a deli cup cozy and safe with his live or ft pink. Or you can put him in a much smaller enclosure to live and eat until he grows into his beautiful forever home……
Again he is already stressed so moving him for his own good is not going to stress him even more. He needs to eat and everyone here wants that to happen no matter what method/methods you try!
Good luck!
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Looks better. Here is a picture of my hoggie’s tub. It has fake greenery, a thick blanket of aspen and some toilet tissue paper rolls in the aspen. Just lots of “stuff”. But I still have to feed him inside another smaller container and put it in his tub. He is weird! Lol!
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Thank you all so much for your input! I’ve put him in a smaller tub to make him feel more comfortable and will also add more covering for him to hide(besides burying himself). I will try feeding f/t again this coming Monday and will let y’all know how it goes!
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Best of luck, fingers crossed your next post will be, “he ate!”
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One last question… if I go the deli cup route should I place any substrate(aspen) in there for him?
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No @aliohara15 the deli cup is for eating and that’s it. Just put a nice warm pink in there, put him in there. put a lid on the cup put it in a dark quiet place or if you leave the deli cup in the enclosure cover it up for privacy……
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Guys, he didn’t eat… did the deli cup method, dark quiet space. I’m at a loss. Do I need to wait another week to try again, and do I even bother trying f/t again, or try to get live? We’ve now tried 2 times in the same amount of weeks.
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Wait three days or so, then I’d say try scenting next, and feed in the enclosure. Low sodium chicken broth, raw egg, or perhaps something like a very odiferous canned fish. Not eating for weeks isn’t as much of an issue, so long as the snake is still in good body condition.
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His body condition is still healthy and he acts healthy. I did put some hamster bedding in the deli cup to get that smelling good for him and then dumped the bedding out, put the defrosted pinky in nice and warm. I will have to try the other options.
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@aliohara15 if you do feed him a live pink you can try following up immediately with a ft while he is still in the feeding mode. Almost by placing the ft in his most while he is still swallowing the live one.
If the scenting attempts don’t work………
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Thank you! I really appreciate all this advice. I just want to make sure I do right by this little guy.
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@noodlehaus in your experience would you do this next try with scenting with the lights on or nighttime again? I did overnight for this last try.
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I’d say try right around dusk, dim lights or lights off as that’s when they’re most active.
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@noodlehaus so I discovered today that he’s shedding, should I even bother trying to feed this evening? I’ve heard it can sometimes halt their eating habits.
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Nope don’t bother. Wait until after the shed, could help with his feeding response!
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Hey that’s awesome news! Hopefully when he does shed he will be hungry again!!!
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@noodlehaus thank you! I’ve increased his humidity a bit to hopefully help him finish his shed. @caron yes I’m hoping this was the reason he wasn’t interested in any food!
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