Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Got this little girl today as a rescue. Any tips on setup and getting her to feed?

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Jenea
Guardian Reptiles

"When your memories are bigger than your dreams, you're headed for the grave" Author unknown

I've fed Skinks and Anoles with much success. I kept mine in a tank with a small amount of soil to cover the bottom and lots of cork wood for cover. Hope this helps

awesome snake i keep my milk which is pretty close to these in a 20L tank with plenty of cover everywhere you dont want the snake to be insecure just have enough hide spots all around on both ends of the tank. always have a hot and cold side. your water should be on the cold side and make sure your light is a 75watt that will be on for 12 hours a day. feeding start with a pinkie to see how well it will eat and not try anoles

Hey there -- first off sweet little scarlet! It seems to have great body so I'd just try a small day old pink left in with it in seclusion @ first. If that works you can probably shift to f/t though not always. If not you could try scenting pinks and progress down toward just anoles/skinks. I have several and actually find smaller cages with adequate substrate (aspen chips, etc.) to burrow work just fine. Generally I know they get a tough wrap regarding their feeding but I've found working with a respectable amount of WC animals that they tend to acclimate to pinks with ease... lol... although the rule is made to be broken and I do have one that it seems will only ever prefer anolis. Anyhow, great rescue and I hope you enjoy working with her!

Chris

I had great luck getting WC Scarlet Kings to eat f/t pinks by putting a piece of shed skink skin over the pinkies head (wet it first). I had a pet Eumecus tetragrammus that I kept for just this purpose - when it shed skin, I kept it.

After a scenting or two, the normally ate pinks without hesitation.

My only admonitions about scarlet kings are ...

1. they are escape artists with no equal

and

2. they tend to get obese in captivity. Don't be tempted overfeed just because they are pigs and will eat.
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

I wouldn’t go for the skinks first. Try using a cardboard tube from a paper towel roll. Staple one end shut. Put in about four real young live pinks, day or two old if you can get them. Fill the opening of the tube with a loosely wadded up paper towel, as if the snake has to locate and hunt for the pinks. Put the whole thing under a piece of newspaper or a couple of paper towels then leave it alone for a day. Then check and see if the pinks are gone. I would wait about four days and try again before going to lizards. Also, don’t pick up the pinks with your fingers, try not to mess with the scent of them too much. These snakes will climb too, if you put a plant under a basking light, sometimes they will sit right on top and you get to see them a lot! Make sure they have a cool area too- they dehydrate quick. It would be cool to keep up with how you’re making out with this snake, not many are kept successfully.

Before you try all the tricks, just try putting a f/t pinky in overnight. I found one in my yard a couple of years ago and was holding it a couple of days to get some pictures. I was feeding some other snakes and threw in a f/t pink just for the heck of it. To my surprise, it was gone the next day. Try the easy route first, you might get lucky.

Todd

I am going to give her some time to settle in, and then see how it goes. I really hope she eats for me. Cool thing is that I already keep "scenting" animals (skink, Med. Gecko, toad, anoles, and tree frogs) for my stubborn hognose, so if worse comes to worse I am setup to try a multiple of things.

Has anyone every tried scenting with tunafish water for Kingsnakes? Works pretty well with tricolor hognose.
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Jenea
Guardian Reptiles

"When your memories are bigger than your dreams, you're headed for the grave" Author unknown

The biggest everglades rat I ever caught (or ever saw for that matter) was on the road trying to eat a nasty road kill bird! I had that thing in my lunch box until I got off work and got it home! The snake, not the bird... You’d be surprised, or maybe not, some fresh snakes will take a stinky day old dead pink and refuse fresh or live ones too. Never underestimate the power of a gross scent! Sounds like you’ve got all the goodies to get it feeding eventually. Hope you’re lucky enough to have it feed for you right away.