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Broadbanded Copperhead
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by Agkistordon on August 8, 2003
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I have a neonate broadbanded copperhead that won't eat. I tried pinkies live/thawed and lizards with no luck. Its been almost a month still hasn't eaten any ideas?
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RE: Broadbanded Copperhead
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Anonymous post on August 8, 2003
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Go to Tongs.com Get a pinky pump. But remember, holding neonates behind the head is very tricky. If you don't know how, get someone who knows how to show you. Don't try to figure it out yourself. I have pinky pumped juveniles for up to 2 years before they started taking pinkies on their own.
lotsa luck,
anonymous because of liability
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RE: Broadbanded Copperhead
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by cottonmouth on August 8, 2003
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Like I have always said, copperheads are the hardest snakes to get to eat! I don't like to fool with them. They are little beauties though!
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RE: Broadbanded Copperhead
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by TomT on August 9, 2003
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Sometimes we have to be creative in order to get neonatal snakes to eat. One question I always ask myself is; "Does the snake feel comfotable enough to eat?" Stress (and "seeing" a hand with heat vision is stressful for a baby copperhead) will keep a snake from eating. I would try worms or pieces of a worm, soft skinned insects like caterpillars or grubs, salamanders, crickets, and I would leave a dead pinky mouse in a deli cup overnight with the snake once or twice before giving up on that route....
Freshly born snakes rarely eat before they shed the first time, so if your snake has not had its first shed, then it probably will not eat until it does. Although a pinky press is a viable option, it is more than likely not suitable for use on a venomous snake that small. I would keep trying more conventional techniques befoer I opted to pump food into the snake. If you aren't a lot more nible fingered than I am, you're going to end up with a brutalized snake or a fang in your finger somewhere...
If the snake is using a hide box, I would leave a freshly born mouse in front of the hide overnight. Make sure the snake has been drinking plenty of water. Do not assume it knows how and where to get water... let it hav a soak in an escape-proof container with somewhere to get up out of the water, partially, and let it soak a good hour or so... then offer food that night. A dehydrated snake rarely is interested in food. It takes water to be able to process the food item.
Above all else, be PATIENT.... the snakes generally can go longer than our nerves, if they're well hydrated. In fact, if you use pedialyte or something similar to that product for soaking the snake, the ingredients may stimulate it to want to feed....
Best of luck in your endeavors,
TomT
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