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wild baby copperhead
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by REPTILENERD on October 2, 2008
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i just caught a baby copper head and i'm having trouble getting him to eat. I've tried crickets and pinkys. I thought that since he struck and most likely excreted his precious venom that he would take the food. But all he does is inspects it and then leaves it alone. Can you give me some helpful pointers.
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RE: wild baby copperhead
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by LadyBloodRose on October 2, 2008
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best thing to do is to take an leave him in with the pink, an sit him in nice warm dark place where theres no traffic an leave him alone for a bit an see what happens.
Crickets aren;t usualy their favorite of insectes. I belive loctus an cecedia are more likely to get a responce if your gona try insects.
If the pinky doens't work then you may have to try an anole or a small frog.
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RE: wild baby copperhead
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by REPTILENERD on October 2, 2008
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I just caught it about a week ago and I love him to death. No pun intended. But he's very nice; he's not aggressive at all and he doesn't hardly strike defensively ether. He seems to just be an all around docile snake.
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RE: wild baby copperhead
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by earthguy on October 2, 2008
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Celeste is right - proper cage setup can go a long way toward getting a WC (or a CB for that matter) to eat.
At the risk of sounding like I'm jumping on your case - please be careful. Docile snakes are like dull pocket knives - more dangerous (because you aren't as focused). Good luck, too. I love southern copperheads.
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RE: wild baby copperhead
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by earthguy on October 2, 2008
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I just looked at your profile picture. Is your profile picture the snake that you were asking about? Absolutely beautiful. I would suggest, though, that it is a mokasen (northern subspecies) or an integrade (mokasen x contortrix). I think you're a little far north for the pure contortrix. Of course I could be wrong - it's happened once before :). At any rate, northern, southern, or integrade it's nice. Good luck.
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RE: wild baby copperhead
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by FSB on October 2, 2008
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I'm partial to southern copperheads too, but this is a spotless northern. What part of SW Virginia are you from? I have collected or seen many snakes like this in Patrick County... they have few to no spots between the bands, which are often broken in places (like southerns) but they are darker in color, like northerns. In fact, one such female I caught this spring recently gave birth to some spotless babies that look just like yours.
Newborn (neonate) copperheads can be difficult to start sometimes... I don't think you're going to get much of a response to crickets, but you might try a small skink or fence swift (spiny lizard). Then you can try scenting a pinkie with a little blood from a dead lizard (or from the stump of a freshly-discarded tail!) and get him switched over. Pinkies don't hold a scent very well... you might want to try one that's just developing some fuzz.
Good luck, and be very careful. Baby snakes are easily underestimated, and easily frightened, so they will suddenly strike when you least expect it. Mature snakes develop a certain amount of "consciousness" about things that the babies do not have yet, so they are much more unpredictable, and make no mistake, this guy will put a serious hurtin' on you no matter how small he seems. Do not try to pick him up! I know the temptation is there, but tiny snakes are very difficult to handle. As a teenager in the dark ages, the first venomous snake I ever attempted to pick up behind the head was a baby copperhead, thinking that would be less risky than handling an adult - wrong! It was incredibly hard to keep him from wriggling out from between my fingers and thumb, and he dang near sank a fang into my thumb before I could put him down again.
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