Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Here are the two babies that were born at my house on 8/20. They are proving to be extremely stubborn about eating on their own, so I have been assist feeding them with mouse drumsticks (rear legs). They have each eaten twice now, and the second feeding went well, with them doing most of the work once the leg was started for them. Here they are right after their second meal. Anyway, I think they are absolute rippers, but since I produced them, I may be a little biased.

Billy

Very pretty babies Billy. What did you start out trying to feed them? I have found over the years that babies are much more apt to take peach fuzzie mice,even though they may seem kind of large, they tend to generate more heat and movement wich attracts the amazons to them. Pinkies have never seemed to be a big hit with many of my babies. But this is all what I have noticed, others may have had different luck. Good luck with them though!! What did the parents look like?

Thanks Jasin. I have tried everything from superheated pinkies and fuzzies to scented (lizard, chicken) pinkies and fuzzies, I have tried f/t, f/k and live, both dangling and leaving the prey items in their cages overnight. I have also teased them until they took off the other way. All to no avail. But like I said, they seem to be "getting it" now and took down the rear legs all by themselves once I got them started. Hopefully just a few more assisted feedings and they will start on their own. Other than that, they are doing great and are very alert and active. The parents are below and the dad looks alot like one of the ones you posted. Mom is really dark read and black - kind of a granite-ish looking girl. Your ammies look really nice too!

Billy

>>Very pretty babies Billy. What did you start out trying to feed them? I have found over the years that babies are much more apt to take peach fuzzie mice,even though they may seem kind of large, they tend to generate more heat and movement wich attracts the amazons to them. Pinkies have never seemed to be a big hit with many of my babies. But this is all what I have noticed, others may have had different luck. Good luck with them though!! What did the parents look like?
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>

regarding feeding: I bought some babies at a herp show in May. One of them wouldn't feed for three months, so I was making it take mouse tails. I had tried just about everything...live, dead, brained, pinks, fuzzies, lizard scented, etc, etc. In the meantime, I hatched out some Indigo snakes. One of them was hard to get started too, so I tried scenting it's food with catfish from the grocery store. The Indigo took it right away, so I figured what-the-heck and tried it on the ATB. She took the small fuzzy right away too! She has now fed several times on catfish-scented small fuzzies, both live and f/t.
-----
Paul Weaver
Carolina Herps

Thanks Paul. That is definitely worth a try. Funny thing is, I've heard that dipping pinkies in tuna fish water (from the can) can sometimes get stuborn baby corns to feed, so who knows. I will give it a shot after they digest this last meal. Which also reminds me that dipping food items in chicken broth sometimes works too. Hmmm, maybe I haven't tried everything yet.....

Billy

>>regarding feeding: I bought some babies at a herp show in May. One of them wouldn't feed for three months, so I was making it take mouse tails. I had tried just about everything...live, dead, brained, pinks, fuzzies, lizard scented, etc, etc. In the meantime, I hatched out some Indigo snakes. One of them was hard to get started too, so I tried scenting it's food with catfish from the grocery store. The Indigo took it right away, so I figured what-the-heck and tried it on the ATB. She took the small fuzzy right away too! She has now fed several times on catfish-scented small fuzzies, both live and f/t.
>>-----
>>Paul Weaver
>>Carolina Herps

I actually had tried the tuna fish approach. That didn't work for my ATB either. I don't know what it is about catfish that got her eating. We just happened to be having some for dinner so I gave it a try...
-----
Paul Weaver
Carolina Herps