Reptile & Amphibian Forums

And them being picky feeders!?!?

I have a group of 2.4 - various ages, not all related, and very healthy. Every single one of them will get picky from time to time wanting live prey or going off feed for several weeks to a month.
I keep them just like all my other Cal kings - that never give me these problems. I know they (the ghost lines)can be hard to start as hatchlings but this has me wondering........

Anyone else have feeding issues with them??

byron.d

I have heard some people have problems with these guys, and others who say they don't. Though you may not have too, for the sake of experimenting you may wanna outcross into a normal female and raise the babies up to be bred to see if the babies are less finicky. Since you have a few, why not try setting each one up a bit differently. Try different temps, humidity and feeding at different times of day to start. That is an uncommon morph, I'd stick with the project and hopefully it will be worth the effort. Those are really cool looking snakes
Tom Stevens
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TomsSnakes.com

I do think they're worth the effort and plan on sticking with them..
I know of one breeder that had them very early on and had lots of problems until he ourcrossed them. Now, his lines are super strong feeders right out of the egg...

I like your idea about setting them up differently... I'll do some re-arranging this weekend and will report the results.

BTW. Those SD gophers I got from you last year are doing really, really well.

byron.d

That's great Byron, I got bit brutally by a SD Gopher last week haha! That sucker was hungry after winter cooling.

As you probably know I have quite a few Florida Kings. I kid you not I had about 20 all roughly the same size set up the same way and one kept dehydrating. This is common for babies who don't have water all the time [it is here anyway] and these were large sub adults. I had to have a 6 qt box with a hole in the lid full of damp moss for most of the season for the snake to thrive. Why? I could not tell you. However it worked out well. Even 2 siblings showed little interest in a damp hide but that particular snake needed it.

When I have babies that are just not eating everything in sight I move them to different shelves and sometimes one area seems to work better than another even if it is one degree different. I don't pay much attention. Just try the bottom, middle and then eventually the top. Some also prefer the corner of the room with the least disturbance. There's lots of things to try. I eventually want some of those so please figure this out LOL
Tom Stevens
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TomsSnakes.com

I currently have one ghost.
And she eats like crazy and has since I got her early last summer.
But she went off feed kinda early. Snake room got cold around October.
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Mike
KingPin Reptiles Inc.
www.kingpinreptiles.com