Maybe it's just me, but I've always found racers very easy to keep. I've gotten several babies started feeding before on a steady diet of crickets and small pinkies. I've also had several adults that were downright pigs. The trick with the babies is to put them in a room where they aren't exposed to a lot of activity, give them a huge hide, or several, and then toss the food into the hide when they're hidden in it. Then leave the room. I've had several that wouldn't even eat if I was in the house, but if I'd leave and come back a few hours, or a day later, they would be fat, and the mouse would be missing. Racers are very intelligent snakes, and I think they can sense when they're being watched. They don't like it.

As for my coachwhips (two red westerns and one sonoran), they don't ever turn down a meal unless they're in shed. The two piceus seem to prefer pinkies over anything, they'll down a dozen between the two of them in one feeding. My big sonoran female will take two or three mice in a feeding, and be ready to go again in a couple of days. Amazing the metabolism these things have.

Let me also say for the record that I think it's astonishing that the vast majority of the reptile keeping community have turned their noses up at these snakes forever, deeming them impossible to keep, bad tempered, downright bad captives. All of my coachwhips have proven to be very tough captives, the same can be said for the racers I've kept. They require patience and a unique spin on snakekeeping, but they are, without a doubt, the most rewarding, responsive snakes I've ever kept. If the rest of the reptile community would open their eyes and give these snakes the attention they deserve, these things could be the next kingsnake. Then again, they'd probably lose some of their appeal if they became downright "domesticated" (translation: boring.) I think that's their magic, honestly. I've never seen a snake look at me the way a coachwhip does.

Kevin

Kevin

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