Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I got a pair of these feisty little guys late last year and had to force feed them for quite some time. As my luck ALWAYS happens, I managed to kill the female with an oversized meal (a section of rat tail that was too long). The male finally took off on his own though and has been eating like a champ, but remains pretty small still. I just thought I'd post a photo update of this little guy. 12 months later, he's FINALLY calming down somewhat.

I'm not sure anyone else can share in this experience, but I'd been feeding rat tails to these for quite some time, and got frustrated a tried scenting small pinks with an eastern 5 Lined skink twice (I didnt have access to any central US lizards). That didnt seem to trigger anything, however, after stuffing a whole skink down this male and really filling him up, his next meal was a voluntarily-taken scented pinkie and he's eaten on his own since then. I was able to stop scenting 2 or 3 meals after that. Maybe it's just coincidence though.

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Tom

"The more people I meet, the more I like my snakes"

First of all, great looking Pale. Good job getting him started.

I've had similar experiences w/ most the North American milk neonates. Some are so easy it's laughable, while others take a little more work to start.
One thing I'm wondering, it seems to me that a rat tail could be a little big for a NA neonate, even cut down to fit the milk it would seem a bit big and stiff to me. I've alway used mouse and hopper tails when forcing.

Back to your Pale. White nose, small black head-cap, thin red saddles, lack of newsprinting, wow get a female for him.
Cherry co. NE, right?

-Dell

I meant to post a photo w/ the last post. Man, did I screw it up. I have a 4 year old little girl sitting w/ as I write this and she can't stop talking.

Here we go.
Stillwater co. MT

Cherry co. NE

Stillwater co. MT

Great looking snakes yourself! Yes sir, Cherry Co.
Here's the darned female I offed.

My money priorities are elsewhere with snakes right now, but yeah....I'd like to get a mate for it.

Funny, when a snake dies in my care, I usually freeze it and hang onto it for some morbid reason. This one, without even thinking, I flushed it. I regret that now, for....whatever reason. I did shoot this post-mortem picture though.

The rat tails......I started them off with the ending third of the tail. Mostly just flesh and very little bone, then moved up to more of the bony part as they grew. I wanted to include bone in there for the calcium they need. I was using maybe only 2"-3" sections to start off with. They were no more out of sorts than my baby corn snakes with a pinky in their belly.
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Tom

"The more people I meet, the more I like my snakes"

I'm up for donations and will gladly split the kids up with the donor as well as return the parent once breeding is over

Since I have the male though, I guess I'd be the one shipping my snake huh? Reputable names only!
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Tom

"The more people I meet, the more I like my snakes"

In pops tricolorbrian w/ a photo, nice.
Nice looking adult Brian, I like how the saddles get further and further apart down the body of the Pale. That's a nice looking snake.
-Dell

Cherry co. NE

This one is even better then the first one. I really like the light terra-cotta flecking in the saddles. It's interesting to me how a multistrata like that can have so much newsprinting, but yet be so white at the same time.

-Dell

I know you have been missing these green speedsters.

Cherry co. NE

Oh, yes, I missed those speedsters a lot. Not many of those in MT.