|
1-4 of 4 messages
|
Page 1 of 1
|
|
Feeding a small western diamong back
|
Reply
|
|
by kablam on September 9, 2000
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
I have a small (possibly a hatchling) western diamond back. It's around 7 inches long. I've had the snake for a couple week and haven't had any luck on getting it to eat pinkies. Do you have any suggestions on what I should try an feed it.
thanks!
|
| |
|
RE: Feeding a small western diamondback
|
Reply
|
|
Anonymous post on September 9, 2000
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
Try feeding it split-brain pinky heads. Hold them in front of the snake's mouth and see if it will take them. If you have to force feed - be careful!!! It's the easiest way to get bitten. If you aren't familiar with the 3 finger viper hold, I suggest you go to Venom 101 and read up. The link is on this website.
You can either tube the snake and let it crawl out the head end only if it eats the pinky head or use a 3 finger hold on the head and put the food in it's mouth with tweezers or hemostats. When you are picking the snake up, put something under it's chin as you lift to help you establish your grip. Support the body with the palm of your hand. At first just use pinky heads lubricated with egg yolk. Use a pair of small hemostats to slowly push the pinky head down. Once you get it in the mouth or past the throat, the snake will take over and swallow it on it's own.
Just remember, it is a venomous snake and if you get bitten, you are going to the hospital. Handle at your own risk !!!
|
| |
|
RE: Feeding a small western diamong back
|
Reply
|
|
by JIM on September 24, 2000
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
|
I have had good luck with frozen pinkies. Try warming the C. atrox up to about 85F and offer a warm pinkie with tongs. If the atrox is not interested, try puncturing the brain cavity with a needle and forcing a little brain material out and then "painting" it on the face of the pinkie. The smell of pinkie brain seems to interest young atrox. You can also try to get him to strike the pinkie by wiggling it in front of him. If he gets angry enough to strike, drop the pinkie, close up the cage and leave him alone for at least an hour. The act of striking prey sometimes stimulates feeding. Good luck, Jim
|
| |
|
RE: Feeding a small western diamong back
|
Reply
|
|
by SnakeBit on June 18, 2001
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
I might be able to help here, I recently aquired a 2 week old C.v. helleri. It was absolutly not interested in pink mice, so I froze it and forgot about it being the freezer(duh) anyway on the return to the petshop
to try another pink I was told that they had no more but did have fuzzy mice. I figured he could probably handle something that size anyway. When I dropped it in the cage the snake instantly struck at it, killing it in about 20 seconds, and ate it. This may be a case of them liking something a bit bigger, like some baby pythons I've delt with in the past.
|
| |
|
Email Subscription
You are not subscribed to this topic.
Subscribe!
My Subscriptions
Subscriptions Help
Check our help page for help using
, or send questions, comments, or suggestions to the
Manager.
|
