Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well, I did it ~ I broke down and bought a pair of 10" Scarlet King's. I have never owned them before because of their reputation for being difficult.

The guy I bought them from said that they are eating live pinks, scented with ground skinks.

Any suggestions from anybody? I have them in an 85 degree room, in shoeboxes with 1.5" of mulch, water dish, and hide box (converted delicup with damp spaghum moss).

Any body else keep these?

What have been your experiences?
Thanks

I have a beautiful pair of large WC Scarlet Kings. The setup you have sounds just about right.I got mine to eat thawed pinkies by setting one outside the entrance to the hide box and scratching the box with my finger. Feed them in the evening, the later the better as they are pretty much nocturnal. Dont keep them in the same box if possible and you will have to dig them out if you want to look at them. They are nervous and secretive. If you get up in the middle of the night you will find them roaming the box.My female laid 6 eggs this spring and produced stunning babies. Today I found 3 eggs in her hide box. I didnt think Scarlets double clutched and didnt mate her after her first. They look good so I put them in the incubator and crossed my fingers. But try to get them eating thawed pinkies unless you have a year round supply of skinks! -Mark

Mark,
Thanks for responding. Did your's eat pinks right away or did you have to switch them over? If so, how did you do it? I put a f/t pink, wrapped in some fresh corn snake shedding, in with each tonight and I just checked - each one had at least "pushed" the pinky across their respective enclosures. Does this sound right? You are right - they were both "roaming" when I clicked on the lights. I have read all over the 'net that these little guys also take insects and earthworms. In your experience, is there any validity to this?

Thanks in advance,
Peter

I tried to get my hatchlings to eat worms and crickets but nothing doing. I finally had to cut the legs off pinkies. Then I would get an anole to bite them and hold them in its mouth for a minute. The lizard saliva seemed to do the trick. They then started eating the pinkie legs. Your animals are older and bigger than hatchlings so you shouldnt have to work that hard. My adult male ate pinkies from the start, the female only anoles. I rubbed a pinkie on an anole a couple times till she finally ate one. She been on just pinkies ever since. These snakes are the finickiest Ive worked with and you really have to love them for all the effort to be worthwhile. You should contact Mark (CrimsonKing) "www.funtigo.com/crimsonking" he really knows these animals and has been a great help to me. E-mail me at hhuf@aol.com and I will give you his e-mail address.