Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Thanks all. My little scarlett king that I rescued on the 28th ate for me last night. She ate a nice sized anole.. Once she is steelted in really good and eating well, I will try to convert her to pinks.

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Jenea
Guardian Reptiles

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

That's fabulous!!

I've always loved those little dudes, and also bred them(among many others) for some years as well.

I've been into snakes since about 1967 when I was seven years old, and vividly remember seeing a Scarlet King in person for the first time at a kids house in my neighborhood,.....man, it was the coolest, prettiest animal on the planet to me!!....It looked like it was "hand-painted" by an artist!........and ever since that day, I have been fascinated with snakes!

Glad you got "little dude" to eat!,.....it shouldn't be a problem to eventually switch it over to scented pinks in the near future.

Hopefully anoles are plentiful where you live, and you can grab one at will from the yard to scent. I usually just grabbed one of hundreds from the yard(living in South Florida) and simply crushed a portion of the tail I'd snap off, then rub it on the face of the pink, and I have sometimes even crammed a very small piece of tail directly into the dead pinks mouth as well to make it irresistable. I would then put the pink in a small "shot-glass" to keep substrate from sticking to it then put it directly in front of the "hide box" opening at NIGHT with no lights on. This method worked remarkably well for me. After a while of this, you could very well get it to eat pinks that aren't scented at all. But even if they DO have to be scented, it's no big deal, and is well worth it to own these neat little guys!

Oh, I forgot to also add that many people simply let a big anole chew all over the head of a dead pink to transfer saliva onto the pink, instead of snapping a piece of tail off!, but
one, or both of these methods should work just fine.

In any case,...good luck with "little dude"!

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

Very nice of you to follow up on your earlier post!

I would add that once the snake is eating the anole, you might try throwing in a live pink, it may just have enough hunger/feed response to go ahead and eat anything and everything wiggling, even unscented. Ditto on keeping it dark.

Hey Doug. I’ve got some similar experience with scarlet kings- they were always quite a prize find, even though they were sometimes pathetically small. You made me recollect the first time I laid eyes on an exotic tri-color at a pet shop down here- a Mexican milk snake! I thought I was looking at the ultimate scarlet! I couldn’t afford the $125.00 for it though. Still a very under rated milk too!

She is kinda small, 7g and 11 inchs, so she does need a little beefing up. I keep anole on had for scenting purposes, but not feeding. I am in NW Florida, so for a little while I should be able to find some. Hopefully she will convert fairly easy. Really appreciate all of the advice. I keep posting updates. And pics if she will come out of hiding for me. When do you recommend I start handleing her. A few more weeks? After she has eaten a few more meals? Or is it better not to handle them much? I would like to use her in some of my educational talks in the future to demonstrate some of the local species.
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Jenea
Guardian Reptiles

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

You're welcome!,.....personally, I wouldn't hold it for another couple weeks to make sure it feels good and comfortable. Maybe even after you see if it will take pinks as well.

Then you could see how it reacts to some gentle handling.

As you probably already know, they are notorious for being nervous and "flighty", but I have also had some that were fairly goo about being held.

I even had one years ago that would literally shoot up to the top of the cage when I took off the lid to snatch a pinky from my hand!!!....that's almost unheard of for Scarlets!

Don't forget let it hide!, that's what they do!LOL

Good luck with it!, ~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

I know what you mean, there are SO MANY snakes that go un-noticed in this hobby!...If folks only knew some of the cool stuff they were missing!LOL

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"