Just don't have enough coachwhips and racers. I know, I'll get a nice female for my pink male Western Coachwhips. OOO! There's one in the classifieds--I'll buy it. Good idea.

She arrived and ate the first day....OK, that's good. Then she ate just about every day for a few weeks....even better--need to fatten her up before her boyfriends come out of hibernation. Then she started eating defrosted mice from tongs--super! What a good snake.

Then....she decided she liked live better. Coachwhips are all divas. They think they're temperamental thoroughbred racehorses--moody, jittery, don't like the furniture rearranged. Not like boas--boas just take what comes but coachwhips, uh-uh.

I'm hooked, and she is a beauty. She'll make a fine mate for my pink males but...what exactly is the endgame here? The best outcome would be to have hatchling red coachwhips, which means....more coachwhips. Hatchling coachwhips.

Hatchling coachwhips can be very difficult to get feeding in captivity. A few will accept live or even defrosted mice right away, but most prefer lizards if they eat at all. The real holdouts will need mouse tails forced down their throats until their digestive systems become really active and they become more concerned over being hungry than being stubborn, which can take weeks or months. Times about 8 or 11 hatchlings, a typical clutch size, assuming all eggs hatch. Plus the original diva adults. I either need more stress or less hair. Or both--why not just both?

Bring it.

(Here's the new girl. Doesn't she have a sweet face? Maybe not so much?)

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