Tuna water works very well, and it is MUCH cheaper than getting anoles shipped to you (assuming they aren't found locally). So, if that works for you, GREAT!!!
The trick to is to get them eating something relatively cheap FAST, so that you can then keep them healthy enough to worry about weaning them off of their preferred scent over time. Worrying about parasites found in wild anoles et. al. makes sense, except when you consider that even the most parasite free hatchling that starved itself to death is still dead.
Although it doesn't specifically address this question, the following is related, and I thought I would repost it here for those seeking similar help:
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You can hatch a clutch of corns and many of them will take pinkies right away. Others will take an anole without hesitation. The rest? Well, there is something out there that trips their trigger, but we just don't usually research enough to find out what that SOMETHING is.
A well-known breeder once told me that he was at work (back when he had a full-time, non-corn job), and a co-worker, who knew he liked snakes, brought in an apparently healthy juvenile corn, that looked to be about one year old from its size. This breeder asked the guy where he was getting his pinkies, and the guy had no idea what a pinkie was! When the breeder then asked what the guy was feeding his cornsnake, the guy said that the snake had always eaten earthworms straight from the garden!
So, I don't think very many corns (if any) are actually born not wanting to eat. I think that many of them are actually born with an internal wiring that tells them to eat other things than their clutchmates are wired to eat. If you think about it, this makes perfect sense...
You have a clutch of thirty eggs in the wild. They all hatch within a day or two of each other, and after their yolk sacks are all depleted, you have thirty baby corns in an immediate area, all looking for food at the same time. If they are all looking for mice, or they're all looking for anoles, then some of them are obviously going to have to do without for those first few vital weeks. BUT...if some are programmed to eat earthworms (or whatever), then perhaps all of the clutch gets to eat more easily, without directly competing against their siblings all of the time.
The trick to getting a cornsnake to eat is to try lots of food items. But, start with the most readily available, cheapest items, and work your way up the scale. The reason for that is because if you get your corn hooked on baby quails, when it would have been satisfied with anoles...well, you've just taken on a VERY expensive menu selection, and I have seen corns starve themselves for something they WANT, even though what is in front of them is something they have readily taken in the past.
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Good luck with your hatchlings!
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Darin Chappell
Hillbilly Herps
PO Box 254
Rogersville, MO 65742
