It's likely stressed...leave the poor critter alone (more)

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Posted by AnthonyCaponetto on March 12, 2003 at 13:49:05:

In Reply to: baby atb will not eat.. posted by donk142 on March 11, 2003 at 18:01:56:

First off, I am going to assume that you bought it from a reputable dealer and that it's healthy...if not, there's your problem.

Assuming that it's healthy and feeding like the dealer says, I really believe that your snake is just plain stressed out.

When I get a new snake, I try feeding immediately (about 75% of new snakes eat the day I receive them in the mail), then wait a week in between attempts. Never offer food every day, as you've just found out...it doesn't work.

Trying to feed it a variety of prey every day is not going to help matters at all. The snake is probably just stressed out of it's mind, so the best thing you can do is to leave it alone for several days.

The fact that you're keeping a baby ATB in a 20 Gallon tank does not help either. A 20 Gallon Tall is way, way too big for a baby ATB. I keep mine in 12 quart rubbermaids, and that is a bit on the big side. Too big of a cage can and will stress out a young snake.

If you don't have something smaller to keep the snake in, you at least need to make sure that you have plenty of hiding places in there (including hide boxes on the ground) in addition to climbing branches.

About food choices...Tree frogs and lizards are going to be full of internal parasites, so those are something that you should only try to feed to WC animals or freshly born neonates. If that animal was already eating pinkies, there's absolutely no reason for you to be offering lizards or frogs.

Just be patient and make sure your husbandry is proper. A skinny little Amazon can go for longer than you think without eating.

:I purchased him off the internet about a month ago from a site that guarantees 100% satisfaction. He hasn't eaten anything at all, from pinkys, to tree frogs to house geckos, or lizard scented pinkys. I wrote to the cust. support for the site I bought him off and they said that all their atb's are all eating pinkys no problem.. I have unsuccessfully tried to feed him nightly since a week after i got him....I house him in a 20gal tall with a zoomed uth hooked up to a esu thermostat keeping the temp to 85 in the day and 75 at night. I spray daily and cover 3/4 of the screen top with a warm moist towel. That keeps the humidity to 85-90%.. I can't think of any reasons that he isnt eating, other than shedding...but he dosent have eyecaps yet and he dosent appear to have any signs of shedding... The site dosen't help much, all they say is to try to bump him in the face with a pinky....How do i get him to eat, and what are some of the first signs of an unhealthy atb?? thanks for any help...

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