Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a 1.2 trio of 100% het extreme flame lavender albino brooksi that I'm having trouble getting them to feed. I have tried live day old pink mice and deer mice pinks, prekilled pink mice and deer mice pinks, Splitbrained of both as well. I'm gonna try prewashed next feeding. Any other ideas some of you more experienced brooksi breeders might recommend will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
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Joe Deavers
J & S Reptiles
http://www.jandsreptiles.net

Put a moistened piece of fresh shedskin from another snake onto a pinkie like a little raincoat. Or scent a pinkie with an anole or skink.

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

Florida kings love the scent of baby water snakes if you can get any. Those are the best thing for scent.

otherwise get an anole and put the pinky in its mouth. That is right, when the anole opens it mouth get the saliva of the anole on the pink. The saliva of an anole works wonders for reluctant feeders.

also have you tried just braining a pink? That is usually tried first.

or take a brained pink with water snake scent and the nose bitten by an anole >..YUM!

LOL! Poor pinky!

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ÌÏËÙÍ ËÁÂE!

table #184 DAYTONA EXPO

I have tried braining. I will try scenting.

thanks
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Joe Deavers
J & S Reptiles
http://www.jandsreptiles.net

Two things that worked for me in the past are.

1. Get a cheap coffee bean grinder. Grind up a frozen anole with a quarter cup of water. First try rolling the pinky in the juice/soup alive if that works freeze off the soup in small portions as you might need to do this a couple times before they go to unscented. If that fails freeze some pinkies in the soup the pinky will absorb more of the juice this way, when it's thawed it will smell more like an anole and be cool (don't atempt to feed the pinky frozen) like a cold blooded anole would be.

2. If you try everything everyone has suggested and nothing works. Your last attempt can be force feeding it mouse tails. Cut the tail off a frozen mouse then the tip of the tail, let it thaw, use a little veggie oil to lube it and slide the tail down it's throat. Use something blunt to get the whole tail just into the throat so it doesn't bring it back up. Do this 2 to 3 times a week and the snake will actually gain some weight and size.

WARNING, watch the snake the next 2 days. It might get the tail stuck in it's throat trying to regurge.

Keep offering live or frozen unscented. Some snakes will take to unscented after just a few scented pinks or mouse tails.

Last resort, the tails will keep the snake alive and put some weight and size on it. Enough that you can put it into a short 3-4 week cooling off period.

100 percent of the snakes I forced fed tails to, came out of the cooling period eating live unscented with no problems and later moving on to unscented F/T.

I bought a lot of non eaters (nelsonsi, E. chain's, and a few of my own lavender floridana and mole kings) last year just to experimented on. The only snakes that didn't make it were the ones I didn't cool off.
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B

I'm surprised no one questioned the husbandry? Sounds like the snakes might be kept too dry. Give them a very moist hide and see what happens. No offense, but if someone can't get a brooksi to eat then perhaps they should try their hand at keeping guppies or goldfish? Ken

Ken,

Thanks for the input. As always someone has to jab people. I have 20 years keeping and breeding pituophis, many pythons and boas. Haven't been to interested in kings. Someone actually gave me these and I've seen the adults so I thought I'd like to work with them. I have a cousin that breeds many brooksi and he never had a problem. The snakes are being housed to a T as they should be.

Thanks

Joe
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Joe Deavers
J & S Reptiles
http://www.jandsreptiles.net

Joe,
Don't think anyone wast trying to slam you. You just have to cover all the bases. Unless I missed it, you didn't say anything in your original post to indicate that you have plenty of snake keeping experience.
I don't know how old your hatchlings are, but you could just try brumating them for a few weeks if they're not too underweight before stressing them with force feeding them mouse tails.
Jeff

He has his website in his sig which more than speaks for his ability to raise herps.

But anyway - I would try reptile scent (or reptiles) as that seems to work with my difficult kings (and corns).

The het PB brooksi I got from Tom last year ate twice after arriving, stopped eating for a few weeks (and not for a shed cycle), I was really starting to get worried - and then suddenly he went crazy eating everything in sight and has continued since - I'm completely clueless as to why it did that.
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Arrrggg!
It's like Shalom, but for pirates.
- iCarly

>>I have a 1.2 trio of 100% het extreme flame lavender albino brooksi that I'm having trouble getting them to feed. I have tried live day old pink mice and deer mice pinks, prekilled pink mice and deer mice pinks, Splitbrained of both as well. I'm gonna try prewashed next feeding. Any other ideas some of you more experienced brooksi breeders might recommend will be greatly appreciated.
>>
>>Thanks
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>>Joe Deavers
>>J & S Reptiles
>>http://www.jandsreptiles.net
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www.brandonosbornereptiles.com

Thanks alot Brandon. I'll try that.

Thanks
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Joe Deavers
J & S Reptiles
http://www.jandsreptiles.net