I have a Saharan I purchased from a pet store (almost certainly wild caught) who could not get him/her to eat. No info from the wholesaler when his last meal was, no idea on age or sex, but I got him in March 2024 and now (October) he is at 46g and has never eaten on his own. With assist feeding he fluctuates between 46 and 50g: I started assist feeding in August when he first began to lose weight.
Any tips on getting him to eat on his own? I’ve tried everything I could learn from breeders and other keepers with no luck. (Scenting with chicken broth, quail, asf, tuna, vanilla extract; upping and lowering heat and humidity, changing substrates from paper towels to sand to coco husks mixed with sphagnum; feeding in tank, in hide, in separate container, in paper bag; leaving mouse in overnight; blowing the mouse scent Into his tank with a hairdryer, superheating the mouse, offering it wet or dry; and even taking him for a ride in the car.
He will swallow if I put a small piece (ie mouse head or rat leg) in his mouth and keep his mouth closed; anything larger and he spits it out like he doesn’t like the taste. Right now I even have two tiny feeder minnows in his water dish overnight, which he is ignoring.
Have you tried offering live? If I missed that I apologize.
Also I would try boiling the rodent. Just heat some water to boiling point and drop the ft rodent in the water for about 3 seconds and then dry it a bit before offering it to your snake.
Some snakes such as gray banded king snakes don’t like the rodent taste at first but eventually they will accept an unboiled rodent.
Forgot that one but yes, he turned his nose up multiple times at different sized live ones too. I’ll try the boiling water thing though, thanks for the suggestion!
I’m not going to offer feeding tips just yet, what I will offer is the recommendation that you consider fecal parasite testing if you suspect it’s WC and from a wholesaler. Could be parasite burden causing the poor appetite.
Aside that, I’d like to know:
What are your enclosure temps, and how are they measured?
live hopper mice usually work for us, sand boas need live active jumpy prey. Also theres not many instances of parasites in saharans, it would be a very rare occurence, you may find that if you treat with panacur + flagel you actually do more harm than good with a non eater, best to try nutribac sprinkled on live wetted hoppers, and put him in a normal soil style substrate with good heat. show more pics of setup