Posted by:
phwyvern
at Mon Nov 27 08:50:29 2006 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by phwyvern ]
>>I purchased 3 newborn Central Asian Sand Boas last week . They are just newborn and maybe 1 month olds only . They are really so small and tiny even I am wonder if they can swallow pinkies .
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newborn pinky mice ("reds" should be small enough for the snake to take. I had a very small eastern king hatchling who was able to take down a day old even though it "looked" too big for the snake's mouth to get around. I do find that looks can be deceiving with tiny snakes like this. A nice rule of thumb is, if the width of the pinky at its widest part is equal to or smaller than the width of the snake at its widest part, you should have no problem with the snake being able to get it down on its own. The question then becomes will the snake want to eat it or not - not that it can't eat it.
Another alternative is as someone else mentioned -- rodent tails. I honestly have better luck using the tails from fuzzy/hopper rats rather than from adult/subadult mice. Mouse tails are very boney with little meat in comparison to baby rat tails. With the rat tails you are probably getting more meat into the snake the with a pinky overall..you are just missing out on the organ/milk content of a pinky so the nutritional makeup is not quite as good. Again the rule of thumb applies. If the width of the tail at it's widest part is equal to or smaller than the width of the snake at its widest part, it can be safely given. I also like to cut the tails from the frozen rodent at an angle to create a nice pointed "wedge" that slips into the snake's mouth easier. I usually dip the end of the tail into some water before feeding it to the snake.
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PHWyvern
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RE: Diet Instead for tiny newborn sand b - phwyvern, Mon Nov 27 08:50:29 2006