Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Woo hoo! I just had to tell someone. My little wild caught Scarlet King is eating a pinky mouse! I found him in my back yard in October. He was heavy in shed and it was really cold so I had to bring him inside, right? I fed him anoles and then placed him in brumation for a bit, but it is just too cold in there for little guys so I brought him and a few other little ones back in the warmth last weekend. Tonite is one of my feeding nights, so I thawed an anole (I've been stockpiling them), washed a pink and rubbed it all over the anole. He looked at it, but that's about it. So I went ahead and gave him the anole. He ate the anole, and NOW HE IS EATING THE PINKY! OH YEAH! I'm so thrilled! Had to share.. I'll try to get pics of the little kings this weekend.

Amy C.
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Amy Claiborne

'A government big enough to give you everything...is a government big enough to take it all away.'

Wow, congrats ! Scarlets that eat pinks are worth their weight in gold.
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www.Bluerosy.com

"Pray for Obama. Psalm 109:8".

"They that can give up essential liberty, to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty or safety." -Benjamin Franklin

Gee, I wonder what he weighs... Hee hee!
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Amy Claiborne

'A government big enough to give you everything...is a government big enough to take it all away.'

Congrats! Major congrats! That is about the most difficult transition, what is the locale on the little guy? Some locales tend to be easier pinky feeders than others. When they are eating keep them going. There arent enough people working with that ssp..

I'm in Gadsden Co., Florida. Right on the Georgia line. I have found several around my six acre property. Usually I keep them for a day or two just to look at then release them. I have kept one for an extended period but when it got to where I was buying $6 anoles from Petco, I decided it needed to be released. LOL! It doesn't take long to deplete the local population of anoles. Fishing for anoles is pretty funny!

This one appears to be a male, tho I haven't probed it.

Yeah, I'm really excited. I guess I'll keep doing what I did last night and maybe it will eat the pink before I have to feed the lizard.

It is also very calm and easy to handle. Last one I kept was a biting maniac.
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Amy Claiborne

'A government big enough to give you everything...is a government big enough to take it all away.'

just hang a sheet of heavy rubber or a thick tarp on a tree or other vertical surface...they'll shelter under it.

I have a lot of pine trees, but never found one in a pine. This one was under a droppings tray for a rabbit cage. One was in a rotten oak tree stump and one was in an old rotting railroad tie. I'll try that, tho.

Amy C.
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Amy Claiborne

'A government big enough to give you everything...is a government big enough to take it all away.'

n/p
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Amy Claiborne

'A government big enough to give you everything...is a government big enough to take it all away.'

Used to live in Houston...that turned out to attract anoles like crazy. We used heavy tarps to protect our trees during cold snaps and WHAM...anoles like crazy under em a week later when the cold was past.

>>Woo hoo! I just had to tell someone. My little wild caught Scarlet King is eating a pinky mouse! I found him in my back yard in October. He was heavy in shed and it was really cold so I had to bring him inside, right? I fed him anoles and then placed him in brumation for a bit, but it is just too cold in there for little guys so I brought him and a few other little ones back in the warmth last weekend. Tonite is one of my feeding nights, so I thawed an anole (I've been stockpiling them), washed a pink and rubbed it all over the anole. He looked at it, but that's about it. So I went ahead and gave him the anole. He ate the anole, and NOW HE IS EATING THE PINKY! OH YEAH! I'm so thrilled! Had to share.. I'll try to get pics of the little kings this weekend.
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>>Amy C.
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>>Amy Claiborne
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>>'A government big enough to give you everything...is a government big enough to take it all away.'

Congrats!

I agree that this species is underrepresented in the hobby. I'd love to be able to get a pair to work with. Of course, then I'd need an anole producer to supply me with food...

Pics are nice...TC
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Conserving reptiles by helping to protect habitat...
www.ratsnakehaven.com
www.scenicsantaritas.org

That is fabulous!. When you have an elapsoides that will readily accept pinkies, everything else is "gravy"! I used to work with those many years ago, so I can certainly appreciate your excitement with getting it to feed on pinks. Living where I do, I also have the luxury of getting anoles outside at the drop of a hat any time I want to, so it wasn't much of a problem for me either way. I had a couple that would actually come shooting up to the lid when it was taken off to snatch pinkies from my hand, and as most people know, this is usually quite a rarity for those shy little guys.

Again,...........CONGRATULATIONS!

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com

In my experience, an adult that won't take pinks/fuzzies is the exception. I'd say that over 95% of the wc scarlet kings I've had over the years took rodents with no problems...
:Mark
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Surrender Dorothy!

crimsonking.piczo.com/

Very cool and congrats! All the adult L.t.elapsoides I had took fuzzies and adult mice no problem. The neonates were not much of a problem, took to feeding on small Sceloporus, then scented pinkies, to non scented pinkies. It was an easy transition. Have done this with neonate zonatas. Again congrats!

Scott

Thanks for that info. I wonder why so many people think it is hard to get them to eat rodents?

I had no luck with rodents with the only other Scarlet I kept, but I didn't know as much about getting snakes to eat then as I do now.
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Amy Claiborne

'A government big enough to give you everything...is a government big enough to take it all away.'

Glad I could help! All it takes is to learn the tricks of the trade and we have a lot of experianced people on this forum that have been there and done it. For me I had to learn by talking to more experiance people and trail and error. This was before the internet.

Scott D