Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi all, my name is Dave and I have been doing some reading up on racers and whipsnakes. I have recently read that racers have a ravenous appetite, but I read from another book that racers make poor captives and refuse to feed and are prone to illness. is this true of mostly wild caught specimens? Do captive bred/born racers do well in captivity, also are whipsnakes and racers that are captive bred as nasty as people say? Also I read that racers can eventually be tamed, how long does this process take?
Thanks for everything
Sincerely,
Dave

In my experience, racers aren't that bad as far as getting them started eating in captivity, the trick as I stated below is to absolutely leave them alone, if they're wild caught, for at least a couple of weeks when you get them, don't handle them, don't feed them, don't do anything, give them time to adjust. Make sure they've got a hidebox, or a couple...give them a spacious cage, 40 gallon minimum and larger would be better. Keep the cage away from a place where there's a lot of action going on. When it comes to feeding them, it's simple, drop the food in the cage, and leave. Don't watch, just leave, try small pinks at first, racers tend to do ok with that, and coachwhips love them. If they don't take it after a few days, take the food out, and try again in a few days.

As far as taming goes, it all depends on the snake. I've had racers that were complete devils, and I've had racers that were dog-tame. It would probably help if you got a young one and started working with it at a young age, one of the tamest racers I've ever had was a young adult male, about a foot and a half long. That snake never bit me the entire time I had it, not even when I first caught it. So anyway, trial and error I guess.

Kevin

good advice above. Though in my area they tend to be more fixated on anoles at a young age. Smaller the better for adaptability. N/B is best.

Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

ok i have a black racer i am taking care of for a friend and he told me to feed it anoles. well its getting colder so what else can i feed her? i have heard insects but what kinds? will she eat earthworms? i know she wont eat grasshoppers. i heard it would eat fish too so maybe feeder goldfish? i dunno. she eats the lizards just fine. so what else? i am used to ball pythons

I don't have a lot of experience with racers but here's some stuff that's worked for me the past couple months.

You can try crickets but it might be better to switch the snake to mice ASAP so you don't have to worry about finding food for it in the winter. If you have any anoles left over try scenting appropriately sized mice with the lizards. If the snake is small enough to be eating pinkies you might have to dangle the mouse in front of it to get it to eat. Pinkies just don't seem to move enough to get the attention of my racer so that's what I've had to resort to.

Good luck with it.