Posted by:
anuraanman
at Mon Feb 16 19:45:38 2009 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by anuraanman ]
I'm in no way judging because I find many hybrids very attractive, but it almost doesn't surprise me that it was hatched without a tongue. While anomalies like this can occur within pure-bred species the two parents of that snake and its sister are far enough apart that I would expect there to be occasional genetic incompatibilities within parts of the same gene in the two species.
That being said, I don't know what to give you in terms of advice. It seems like the only thing you can do is keep doing what you are doing and hope that one day the snake takes food voluntarily from the start. Some people claim that warmer food induces a stronger feeding response but personally I don't see how that can be expected to work on a species without a heat-sensitive organ. Many of my colubrids will take either live food or wiggling food without ever using their tongue. If you tried moving the pinkies around with a set of tongs before offering each of the pinkies it may eventually figure out that small objects wiggling around are food.
I remember somebody posted on this forum a while ago about an adult snake that lost its tongue and never ate again. Since yours does eat the second pinky on it's own, I suspect that eventually it will start taking the first as well.
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RE: I need a few ideas, please help! - anuraanman, Mon Feb 16 19:45:38 2009