Hi

[MisssssSyrine]

Greetings All, I have just joined in hope of making some new friends who can give sensible advise when it comes to my baby. He is an 8 year old Diamond, which was rescued from a moron who had been keeping him and his enclosure in the backyard exposed to rain which had destroyed the electricals in the enclosure so he was left without flouro lighting and heat, the enclosure was filled with kitty litter, the cheap clay granules :/, not to mention the average night temp was about 3 degrees in june.
I have got him a new enclosure and slowly taken the temp up to suitable over the last few months, he is very active which is a good sign, and has had 1 shed in my care, but still hasnt eaten. I do understand that they can go for almost 6 months without eating, and it can be helpful to not handle them whilst encouraging them to eat, so if anyone can give me anymore advise i would truely appreciate it, Cheers

 

[byron_moses]

hello and welcome to aps

how long have u had him for? and how long has he been in his new enclosure for?

 

[J-A-X]

Greeting to you too, it sounds like you are on the right track with bringing heat up slowly, but i cant advise what temps you should have as i dont keep Diamonds,
as for the not eating: how are you preparing the food? are you getting it to room temp or warming it up in hot tap water - a nice warm smelly rat may be more appealing than a cold one. Does he show any interest in it at all ? You may need to stick it right under his nose and wiggle it around a bit. If the previous owner is as smart as he sounds then maybe he was live feeding ? Does he seem to be alright around the mouth, no obvious signs of trauma ? ... the more info the better. Lets hope it all goes well for him, sounds like he has 'fallen on his feet' so to speak

 

[MisssssSyrine]

thanx for the welcome , i have had him since 18th of june, and his new enclosure was purchased about a week later, so he should be used to his enclosure by now :/

 

[sara_sabian]

You could also try offering a mouse and if they take that you follow with a rat. I know it sounds silly offering a big snake a mouse but it always gets my stubburn snakes back on schedule again after winter cooling.

Poor guy, seems like he's very lucky you came along.

Also I know Jax mentioned possible mouth infections but does he have any red marks etc on the rest of his body? Does he make wheezing/sneezing sounds when he breathes at all? sounds like he was kept very poorly before and any kind of illness would likely throw him off feeding.

 

[MisssssSyrine]

hey there, ive brought bis temp up to 28 at 1 end so he has a temp variation and he moves round his enclosure quite happily, as far as the prep goes when it comes to the rats, i have tried both room temp and warm water aswell as braining to produce more scent, he does show interest but does nothing about it? As far as the last owner is concerned, his stupidity started early as he originally got said python for his teenage son who lost interest :/ so only knows what the son did when he had him, he has no signs of trauma round the mouth just a burn near his tail.
I really dont think he has eaten live food, as we have wiggled the rats infront of him to which he seems to move away from and sulk
I guess i will have to persist, but thanx for your response, will keep you updated

 

[JAS101]

id try a fresh killed rat , and see how ya go . just out of interest what state are u in?

 

[MisssssSyrine]

@ sara, he isnt wheezing or sneezing, but have noticed some very slight patches of pink on his belly scales since shedding
Sorry i didnt direct the messages previously jax and byron, i seem to have forgotten my cyber ettiquite

 

[MisssssSyrine]

@zoojas, am in vic

 

[J-A-X]

@ sara, he isnt wheezing or sneezing, but have noticed some very slight patches of pink on his belly scales since shedding
Sorry i didnt direct the messages previously jax and byron, i seem to have forgotten my cyber ettiquite

any chance of some photos of his belly ? i've been lucky enough to be spared 'problems' with my snakes, but a pic will help others give an opinion on what it is likely to be, and as for the lack of cyber ettiquite, your forgiven, once you've been here a while you'll notice how rude some can be, so forgetting to directly address a member is easily forgiven, but thank you for caring

 

[MisssssSyrine]

@ Jax, will post pix, but marks are very faint so hopefully they show,
thanx for your understanding and forgiveness

 

[Fantazmic]

hi and Welcome

Something i did to get my jungle eating was to 'start again' so i started with pinkies and at first gave one then two etc and then id give a pinkie and then a fuzzie last feed he ate two fuzzies so next feed i will gradually go up in size again..........

Others may not agree with what i am saying but it worked for me.........the tiniest pinkies you can find

where abouts are you in vic 9just general area) (i am also in victoria) there are two places i know where you can get really good quality rats with a good variation in size.....better than the pet shop where you dont know where they come from

i dont know a lot about diamonds but from my reading on this list i know that temp wise i know they like to be cooler and need a big temp gradient in their enclosure also it is temp that is most important and they dont need UV light

Serpenttongue is the person who knows about diamonds if you look up his posts you will learn a lot

welcome to the list

Regards
Elizabeth