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Non feeding Blacktail
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by SimplySnakes on April 13, 2006
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I need some help, I purchased a Blacktail rattlesnake from the LowCountry Expo and have yet to get the snake to feed. "Suposed" feeding on large mice, but nothing here. The Neodesha I have it in has a hidebox, water bowl, and several flat rocks about for basking on. Temps are from 70's at night to 82-85 during daytime. Rat fuzzies live or dead, adult live or dead mice, fuzzy mice, nothing. Should I try a chick? What about a hamster or gerbil?
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RE: Non feeding Blacktail
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by petra on April 13, 2006
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How long is it since it has eaten? Sometimes they just aren't hungry for a few weeks at the time.
Did you try feeding in the evening or night? Or cover it with a towel. I'm not sure about the chick. I tried to feed chicks to my rattlers and even the one that eats like pig wasn't interested. Also did you try different color mice? Baby hamster may be a good idea to try.
I had a non eating black tail and I have tried all this, at the end I got him eating with wild caught mouse. I know it's a bad idea because of the danger of parasites but, it was either that or force feeding so I risked it and it worked now he eats happily regular white mice.
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RE: Non feeding Blacktail
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by venombill on April 13, 2006
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Also depends on weather or not it was wild caught or captive born. I have a couple wild caught rescued atrox that will only take rabbit pups. You may try that.
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RE: Non feeding Blacktail
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by Crotalus_Catcher on April 13, 2006
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Yea, wild caught molossus are NOTORIOUS for not eating. One trick to try is to stack up bunch of flat rocks in the cage. It'll make it heavy as hell but all of the holes for hte snake to poke around in and for the mouse to jump in/out tend to entice them to eat sometimes. Otherwise, head the advice about wild caught prey. Wild rats, mice, rabbits all tend to work well. If nothing else, i've never had something refuse a gerbil or hamster when they won't eat anything else. Just WATCH THE TEETH on the above mentioned. They can drop some nasty bites, but if I ever have a finiky eater, the hamster/geril usually does the trick. Good luck!
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RE: Non feeding Blacktail
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by Frawgg on April 13, 2006
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If you haven't had the snake for that long, sometimes it takes a while for them to acclimate to their new surroundings. Try a few large pieces of slate for the snake to hide under. The pressure exerted on the snakes body from the weight of the snake may make the snake feel more secure. I would also leave the snake alone as much as possible. I am currently going through the same problems with an Aspidelaps male...he has only eaten four times since I purchased him in October. As long as he is drinking water, I really don't worry about it that much. When the ambient temps really rise (summer) and are here to stay, I imagine your snake (and mine) will start feeding again. For what it's worth, I personally will never feed gerbils or hamsters to an anorexic snake again. I tried this when I was a kid and "fed" a gerbil to a reluctant juvenile Burmese python. The gerbil had gnawed its right eye socket out...OUCH! But that's your call. Although I haven't tried this method myself, some swear by dipping the prey item in chicken broth. Good luck and be safe!
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RE: Non feeding Blacktail
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by SimplySnakes on April 14, 2006
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The Blacktail is a wild caught from last year. She has not fed for four weeks now and is starting to lose a little weight. The snake has plenty of hiding areas, and I have tried the morning, afternoon, and all night leaving prey in the cage. I do not feel it needs covered as the snakes are all outside in a large building with no traffic by their cages. They only see me before and after work. And this is my only snake that is not feeding. I am going to try a fuzzy hamster, one with it's eyes still closed to see if it sparks a interest. I appreciate all the help and I will post again to let you guys know if it works. Thanks
Paul
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RE: Non feeding Blacktail
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by Rob_Carmichael on April 14, 2006
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Although wild caught molossus are known to be stubborn feeders, I have personally never had any problems getting our black tails to voluntarily feed (some came to us as wild caughts). Here's what we did:
1) Created as semi naturalistic set up as we could. This included a SECURE rock pile of various rocks that also created a ground level hide area. The rocks were placed directly under the heat lamp so that the snake could decide where it wanted to rest. We also placed a hide area (rock cave) on the cool end. We used a substrate of torpedo sand (kind of like a real small grade pea gravel but it has both tiny pea gravel and actual sand), top soil, a little forest humus, and we sprinkled dead leaves all over the surface along with some pine needles to give a real nice "high country" look. The water bowl was just large enough to allow it to easily enter into to drink. The day temps ranged from 70 on the cool end to the low to mid 80's on the warm side with a basking spot that reached 90deg F. Night temps dropped to the 70-75 degree range. For the first six weeks we just leaved the snakes alone only going into the cage to change the water, or, spot clean (this gave the snakes a chance to realize that we were not going to hurt them). We started by placing a frozen/thawed dead large adult mouse near where the snake was resting; this was done towards the evening. Many times, the mouse was gone by the morning. For real stubborn feeders, we warmed up a large adult mouse and offered via long hemostats (creating a lively looking mouse w/out being threatening to the snake). With either of these techniques, both of worked for us and we have never had to resort to force feeding.
Here's something else.....the original poster didn't mention if this snake has been seen by a vet including full fecal and blood work ups. If that hasn't b een done, that would be a very good idea. If this snake is sick, the best set up in the world won't help it. W/C snakes can harbor all sorts of parasites and when placed in a stressful situation, like captivity, those parasites that would normally not cause any problems, end up killing the snake.
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