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RE: Copperhead
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by bush_viper17 on August 15, 2004
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Is it wild caught? He may need time to adjust to his new setting if he is. He may not eat as much (If hes wild caught) as a captive bred snake. You may be trying to feed him a mouse/rat that is either too big or too small. I have had a lot of wild caught copperheads and some will eat the second the mouse is in the enclosure, and some wont eat at all. Just give him time. Also try different things, like different colored mice (Brown instead of white, vice versa) Also let him bask before he eats, because he me not eat if hes too cold.
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RE: Copperhead
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by jared on August 15, 2004
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Good advice. If it is a wc copper its not as hard as it may seem. Give it a good month to acclimate, offering only water. Make sure they have a hide, it is necessary for many wildcaughts acclimation as they typically remained stressed much longer without a place thats dark and safe. As far as feeding, if its a neonate start by offering it a fuzzy, a small one, but make sure it has hair as the scent will stay a bit longer which provokes most of my agkistrodon to feed. Offer it at dusk, right infront of the entrance to the hide. start with live, if its an adult, use a mouse the same way but kill it first, for some reason many of my copper wc adults prefer fresh kills and will latch on to them with a vengence. Try and avoid feeding baby frogs or minnows due to the parasite loads and its a hard habit to break. As a last resort, by a green anole, scent some mice and try that. Your copper should be fairly active this time of year so be sure you give it time to acclimate before scaring it with food. And try dark mice, not white, many of my wc animals wont touch a white mouse as all. Hope it helps,
Jared
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RE: Copperhead
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by agkistrodude on August 15, 2004
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If its had time to acclimate, you could try a smaller mouse, if that doesn't work I've never seen one refuse a frog. I've got a female that won't eat anything else. I put her in a small empty rubbermaid container with a frog, and leave her for awhile and she'll eat it.Marty
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RE: Copperhead
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by Sal on August 18, 2004
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I had a neonate copperhead that was challenging to get started. The only thing she ate was squirrel tree frogs. I fed her a couple of those with pinkies, she only took the frogs. After a few frogs I tried brown anoles, she took those quickly. I started keeping the pinkies in the container with the live anoles for a day or two and put both a live lizard and pinky in with the snake. She ate both. After that, she has been eating mice. Some people will tell you that feeding a snake frogs and lizards is just asking for parasites, but if the snake is healthy and stress free, they should be able to control the parasites on thier own (if it is a local one).
Has anyone every tried to feed a neonate copperhead catepillars or cicadas? I read some where that they eat those in the wild too.
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