I have hopes that you will be able to do well with this young coachwhip. In my experience, wc coachwhips feed soon after capture. I would advise against setting it up in a rack, as coachwhips are creatures of light and ventilation, and my preference is to use a well-lit and well vented cage. I make my own cages and it's not always practical to expect everyone to be able to do that but if you can, I'd make your snake a four-foot or longer front opening cage with those inexpensive fluorescent lights from Home Depot (the 9 dollar 18 inch fixtures) installed inside the top. Replace the bulbs with good full-spectrum bulbs. I use Lumichrome bulbs but any of the better full-spectrum daylight bulbs will do provided they have a Color Rating Index of 85 or better. UV is good too, so ZooMed might work, if a tad pricey. I'd install at least two bulbs in a four foot cage, plus a heat bulb at one end. Make a vent hole at the heated end and install a small axial fan in the vent to pull the hot air out of the cage so you don't end up heating the entire cage. Coachwhips like to harvest heat and will warm their bodies to about 95 but they do not like to be trapped in a hot cage. After they have accumulated enough heat they will move away from the basking area, so be sure they can escape the heated end of the cage.

If you don't have a large cage and can't make one, I'd use a 15 gallon or 20 long fishtank with a screen cover. Put a fluorescent fixture on top of the screen and a heat bulb in a reflector (also available from Home Depot--do I spend too much time there?). Put the reflector at one end of the cage and don't use a huge bulb--45 watt spot bulb should do it.

I am not a fan of Neodesha or other commercially avaiable cages, as they offer little by way of lighting or ventilation, and have sliding glass front openings. The glass panels overlap where they meet, leaving a small gap. Some nervous, active, obsessive snakes (like coachwhips) will rub and rub that gap, trying to escape the cage. In time, they can deform their face permanently. I use a framed panel for my front opening cages, either on a hinge or just fit the bottom into a groove and fasten the top--the whole panel comes out when you open the cage. Front opening cages allow keepers to access the snake's living space without coming down on it from above, which is pretty intimidating. Front opening cages can also be stacked and have lights installed on the inside of the lid.

I use forest mulch as bedding and offer a piece of cupped bark for the snake to hide under. This setup works fine for quarantining even a large coachwhip, and I've kept animals in a 15 or 20 long tank for months while they gained weight and passed quarantine. In most cases, the snakes struck at food from under the bark where they felt secure. Another potential problem with a rack is that you have to pull the cage out to feed the snake, which can scare him right before you present food. Coachwhips (and plenty of other herps as well) learn fairly fast, and if he decides food and fear are connected it will make it that much more difficult to get him calmed down.

Fuzzy and pink mice are too tasty to resist for most snakes, so do offer those. Scenting with lizards might be necessary if your snake eats lizards at first, but I never had a coachwhip I couldn't switch eventually. The worst case would probably be if you had to force rat tails for a few weeks until your snake got the idea to eat on his own. At least there is a bit of meat on a rat tail, and some calcium. If you do have to force rat tails, the day will probably come when you notice your snake chewing and swallowing food which has been started in his mouth. Self-swallowing of better food, such as pre-killed fuzzy mice, is not far behind, and soon after he will take his own food. I have used fresh chicken to rub on food for racers and coachwhips and sometimes that is the thing which triggers them to eat at last. Coachwhips that are willingly eating may eat several times a week until they gain weight, after which they will probably settle into a more typical snake feeding pattern of once a week. Be sure your coachwhip gets enough to eat--healthy wild racers and coachwhips are muscular animals with good weight (appropriate to their physique as slender, active snakes). If you take note of photos of wild coachwhips and learn your animal's habits you can trust your judgement when you evaluate your snake's weight--you don't want to see backbone; a little heavy is better than too light IMO.

I've hatched and collected many coachwhips and had good luck with the wc animals. Don't be surprised if he eats right away and never gives you any trouble. Coachwhips can be emotional and nervous but many are also easy captives--we just need to find out which yours is.

Please keep us posted on your progress and good luck!

[ Reply To This Message ] [ Subscribe to this Thread ] [ Show Entire Thread ]