Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just received the two from a friend because he was having a hard time getting them going. Wh have had them a few days now and have gotten both to eat by tease feeding pinky parts. I have them set up similarly to my Atheris, but am curious as to whether anyone can offer anymore info on these. I have never kept these two species. The puniceus is taking pinky heads and the macrops is taking jaws and legs.

Thank You.
Mike

Keep doing what your doing. Frogs, such as Acris are good to get them starting, but you have to feed them a lot to get them up to pinkie size (and scenting them, (pinkies) with Acris is a must)

As far as the macrops, Bob Neal (SnakesandStuff), had tremendous success starting my macrops to eat whole pinkies. Maybe he will chime in and give you some advice.

Randal Berry

Thank you for the advice. I can't wait til the macrops is big enough to eat whole pinks. It is as big around as a hanger(wire). They were initailly dehydrated, but are looking very good at this time. I will try and get some pics of them up soon.

There are many others on here with more arboreal experience than I have, but I'll share my 2 cents. Comments welcome.

When they're young, I tend to keep arboreals at mild temperatures... Say 80F daytime, 76-78 at night. Adults can enjoy higher basking temps, but for the babies they seem to do better with more mild temps.

Keep them very hydrated and in a small cage with a perch. Keep in a low traffic area and somewhere that the snake will feel secure.

A lot of times when an arboreal snake will strike/release instead of hold on to a prey item I find that this works, although it takes some patience. Find a nice comfortable chair to sit in etc, and have the snake on a perch in front of you... Not in the cage. For example, I like to take a snake hook and hang it parallel to the floor by placing it on a table etc and weighting the handle down with something. Put the snake on the hook so it has to perch and hang on. Let it get a good hold, then attempt to feed it. I find that a lot of times snakes that bite/release will bite and hold on better this way, and once they have a hold of the food item they'll go ahead and eat it as long as you can sit still and not move for 20-30 minutes. Feed them a good sized meal, but not something they're going to have a hard time hanging on to.

There are lots of other tricks that are used, but my favorite, and the one that tends to work best, is feed them frogs and let them decide when to start taking rodents.

All good advice. Let me add what has worked for me. I've had the opposite experience when feeding neonate or picky arboreals. I've found that when the snakes are on the cage floor, not perched, they tend to hold on to the food items better. I guess they don't feel the weight of the food item so it doesn't trigger them to spit. Also, feeding a food item small enough so that their mouth is slightly closed, not wide open, had produced results for me.
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Derek Moynihan
San Antonio, Tx

Hi Mike,

Randall and Bob had great advice (esp. Bob's feeding tips) and I won't clutter the forum with much more of the same, but I think 1 point may profit you.

If your basis of comparison is Atheris, you may find you're keeping these Asian animals too dry. I mention this because my personal experience ran the other way ("trimmies" first), and when I branched into Atheris I kept them too humid at first (and killed a few with respiratory issues). Neonate "trimmies" are more vulnerable to dessication than even Bothriechis. Adults are more robust, of course, but...just watch their skin for signs of dryness.

Cheers,
Jimi

Right on! Jimi!

I think you nailed it!

Randal

Wow. I truly appreciate all the advice. I have been misting them quite a bit more than my atheris, and aside from the macrops being very small. They look good. The macrops has 2 meals in it with me and the puniceus has 1. I am looking forward to watching them grow, and maybe visiting Randall's show again for possible mates. Once again thank you for all the help.

Mike Daniels

C'mon Mike!
Your always welcome at my shows!

Randal Berry