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Feeding the Emerald Tree Boa
Feeding emerald tree boas can be either very simple or extremely frustrating. The first thing to learn about emerald tree boa feeding is NOT to feed them too often. They are not like other snakes and have very slow metabolisms. Although they are not like some arboreal vipers which are fed only monthly, emerald tree boas do best when fed bi-monthly or so. Problems can arise if snakes are fed too much... the most obvious being gut impaction. This can also be a sign of dehydration. Thus, adult emerald tree boas (thin or with good body weight) should be fed on a bi-monthly basis or at the most, every 10 days. Younger animals can be fed every 10 days while neonates can be fed every 7 - 10 days. What to feed healthy adults is a topic of great discussion. Again, it varies tremendously with the keeper but a majority feed their emeralds once every two, three or four weeks. Feeding adults even every four weeks does not seem to be detrimental to their weight and health and might be a safe route if youa are concerned with overfeeding your emerald. Animals which do not defecate after three or four feedings can be soaked in lukewarm water to encourage defecation. This often works with emerald tree boas when they are soaked for 30 minutes to an hour. Do not feed animals if they have an intestinal blockage, this only serves to strain the digestive system even more. Instead, wait until they do defecate before feeding.
What really makes the ideal prey for emerald tree boas? Well, what are they eating naturally? There is very little data on what emerald tree boas feed on naturally. The little we know shows that they feed on both mammals and birds while juveniles might also feed on amphibians and possibly reptiles. Robert Henderson found that 10 of 11 emerald tree boa stomach contents he observed were of mammals and most typically arboreal rats4. A few video clips exist of tree boas feeding on exotic parrots and some animals in captivity have fed on finches when offered. It is most likely that mammals are the major prey of emerald tree boas. This is contary to what has been thought for years. For years, everybody believed that both emerald tree boas and green tree pythons (Morelia viridis) feed primarily on birds. Take a look at the natural history section for a further explanation. Rodents likely make up the main diet of emerald tree boas. Adult emerald tree boas should be fed smallish rodents. Most adult emerald tree boas between 4 - 5' will do fine feeding on a large mouse or small rat every two weeks. Some larger animals have been fed adult rats without problems as well although this must be watched carefully. Ideally, prey should be smaller than prey fed to a "regular" snake the same size as the snake.
Feeding emerald tree boas is best done between the early to late evenings (after the lights have turned off). Emerald tree boas are crepuscular and offering food at night is when they are most accustomed to feeding. Some emerald tree boas will feed readily during the day however. Furthermore, offering prey at night will also allow the snake to utilize its heat receptors better as there will be a higher difference between the body temperature of the rodent and that of the ambient air.
Prey should be offered from below as emerald tree boas are arboreal and most likely ambush prey from above. Many emerald tree boas will refuse prey offered from above or at eye level. There are several ways to get the attention of emerald tree boas. For the most part, if they are being fed at night, they should already be alert and active. One can gently poke them until they come out of their coil. Another method is to pinch their underbelly with your fingernails. Some emerald tree boas are extremely aggressive and will strike readily at the prey and often constrict. Usually they will do one of these following things: 1) not pay any attention to the prey offered, 2) smell the prey but not attempt to bite, 3) slowly open their mouths to take the prey but then let go, 4) slowly open their mouths and grab the prey throwing coil(s) slowly around it or 5) aggressively grab the prey and constrict. On occassion, the prey might need to be held for several minutes in front of the snake before it takes the prey. Patience goes a long way with emerald tree boas. If there is no success in the first attempt, no attempts should be made until a week or two later. Individuals tend to stress easily so this cannot be a rushed situation. Individuals can sometimes take years of force-feeding before they begin to eat on their own. Of course, this is not to scare you away but to point out that they can be very difficult sometimes.
Dead prey should always be offered first as they present the smallest risk of injury to an animal. There seems to be a preference to freshly-killed prey over thawed. This is likely because thawed rodents tend to not be as warm as freshly pre-killed animals. A trick when feeding thawed prey however, is to heat them up. Since emerald tree boas are quite well at detecting differences in heat, they will often grab a thawed rat that has been warmed on a heat pad or in the microwave. Just as a side note, this also works well with other boids which are finicky feeders. This is called superheating the prey. Sometimes, another area of problems in feeding thawed prey is that many people defrost their animals in warm water which gets the prey wet. This can be prevented by thawing animals by leaving them out in a warm room or by placing animals in a water-tight bag before placing it into the water. But having wet prey sometimes can be an advantage. There have been a few instances where animals which are wet are presented to the snout of the snake. When this is done, the snake begins to drink the water off the prey and will sometimes then open its mouth and begin to swallow. This is not a very common occurance however.
When several unsuccessful attempts have occurred, the next option is to leave live or dead prey in with the snake overnight. Live prey should always be one of the last options since they may harm the snakes via bites, scratches, etc. The prey can be introduced at night and left either on the cage floor or on a branch just below the one the emerald tree boa is resting on. You must then LEAVE the snake alone. Do not keep peeping in on the snake during the night as it simply causes distractions and likely, will push the snake from feeding. The cage should be checked the following morning to see if the prey was eaten. If not, it should be removed immediately.
If rodents do not work, birds such as day-old chicks (although they lack the complete dietary requirements of many snakes), finches, and quail could be tried with the same methods above; first dead and then live. Some have found success with feeding frozen hairless mammals such as pinkie mice and rat pups. With juvenile emerald tree boas, hopper mice have been said to draw more attention from the snakes than pinkies. Also with juvenile emerald tree boas, frogs or small lizards might be necessary although no literature has cited amphibians or lizards as a prey source for emerald tree boas of any size.
Probiotics: One of the newest weapons in attacking a problem with lack of appetite or regurgitation is the use of probiotics. Probiotics are combinations of different strains of bacteria that are native to the gut and actually are helpful in aiding digestion. Probiotics are now available for humans and for reptiles (Nutribac df). See the supplies section for more information on where to obtain these probiotics.
Probiotics are administered orally in response to regurgitation or after several feeding attempts have failed and have been shown in several private collections to be beneficial in restoring the digestive system.
Force Feeding: Force-feeding is the last option when emerald tree boas do not eat. It is not something that should be done by someone who does not have any experience. A qualified reptile veterinarian should be able to show you the proper techniques for force feeding. Force-feeding should only be done on hydrated animals. Make sure your animal received several days or weeks of proper hydration before any force feeding as it is very stressful and dehydrated animals will typically regurgitate the force-fed items or even die.
Some force-feeding techniques include using a catheter and injecting a liquid or semi-liquid food item such as Ensure? or certain baby foods down the esophagus of the snake. On of the most popular force-feeding ingredients is pureed pinky rats. This is obviously not for the weak-stomached individuals. It is done by blending pinky rats until they are a mush and placing this into the catheter. For adult, non-feeding emerald tree boas, I use a 2:1 Ensure? to purified water mixture. This is much "neater" to me than pureed pinky rats and also fulfills nutritional requirements. I try to tube-feed 45cc of this solution every two weeks or so depending on the body weight of the animal.
Force-feeding solid food items is another method of force-feeding. If doing this I prefer to use small, hairless prey. For an adult emerald tree boa, I find pinky rats to be good sized prey. Of course the prey should be lubricated with water or a non-toxic, digestible lubricant. If adult rodents are to be force-fed, they should be de-furred to ease the movement of the prey down the esophagus. Be very careful when force-feeding. It is possible to put the catheter tip into the trachea and drown the snake or if force-feeding to puncture or irritate the esophagus. The best thing to do is to watch it and assist several times first as an experienced herpetologist/-culturist or veterinarian is doing it. Regurgitation: Probably the single most important character that separates emerald tree boa husbandry from common snake husbandry is that emerald tree boas are much more prone to regurgitate than any other snake that I have seen. It is truly mindboggling how easy it can be for some emeralds to regurgitate their food. Now, don't get me wrong, there are some that are just extremely tough. I used to have an adult female that would take bi-monthly meals of medium rats and show no problems with digestion, regurgitation, or defecation.
So what makes an emerald regurgitate its food? Well, it is not a simple explanation. It is something that can be one simple factor or a compounded effect of various problems. First, let's look at the disease aspect. Emeralds infected with a virus or bacteria usually suffer from chronic and repeated regurgitations.
As far as parasites go, Cryptosporidium serpentis is one of the true nasties in emerald herpetoculture. Cryptosporidium is a coccidian parasite of the small intestine. Cryptosporidium causes tremendous disruption in the intestine and will lead to regurgitation, runny feces, and loss of appetite as a result. The sad thing is that there is no known cure for Cryptosporidium as of now and treament can only be taken to try to decrease its effects. One possible solution is to try to outcompete the parasite with intestinal bacteria (see probiotics). Cryptosporidium is most commonly found in freshly wild-caught emerald tree boas. These snakes are usually thin and stressed from the shipment and are commonly kept together in large enclosures. This leads to sub-optimal conditions further suppressing the immune system and because there are many snakes in an enclosure, it allows easy mass infections.
Bacterially, there are again several bacteria that can play a factor such as Salmonella and Escherichia coli (E-coli). To treat these bacteria, different antibiotics must be given by a veterinarian after diagnosis of the problem. These bacteria can be harmless in small amounts but in captivity, bacteria and parasitic loads tend to build up in "ideal" conditions and become problem makers.
So what else can cause a regurgitation problem? Well keeper errors play a huge role in emerald regurgitation. Usually, it is a husbandry error that leads to regurgitation or simply compounds an infection and makes it worse. There are three basic things that lead to regurgitation.
Temperature is one factor. Emerald tree boas seem extremely sensitive to temperature extremes. Regurgitation can happen if an emerald is exposed to temperatures that are either too high or too low after feeding. Temperatures only up into the low 90?F's and just into the low 70?F's can lead to regurgitation. Even perfect captive bred individuals can do this. Make sure to keep temperatures in a good range after feeding 78?F - 84?F.
Hydration is another factor. If your emerald is dehydrated, do not feed it. Do the skin test a day or two before you feed your emerald.
Prey is the other factor. There are a couple of things as far as prey is concerned that can lead to regurgitation. Both of them have to deal with how much is in your snakes gut at one time. Be very careful about the size of prey you feed your emerald. Large prey items have a larger diameter. This means two things. One, it means it will be uncomfortable for the snake to sit on the branch. Remember emeralds are 99.99% tree snakes and one of the few times you will see an emerald on the ground might be after a meal that is too large. Two, it means that it is going to take more time for the stomach acids to reach the gut of the prey. Why is this important? Because there are bacteria in the gut of the prey as well. If the acids do not get to the bacteria soon enough so that they can be killed, the bacteria will putrify the prey. If you want to feed a certain amount, it is a bit safer to feed a couple smaller items than one large one. The other thing you have to watch for is frequency of feeding. Overfeeding an animal will also disrupt it digestive system and simply overload it. Emeralds are not very active snakes and don't burn up fat as quickly as say a garter snake. Thus, you don't really need to feed them excessively.
The above content is from Corallus.com, which has the most extensive information that I have found on this species of snake. Please click the link above to read much more about this amazing snake!!