Reptile & Amphibian Forums

It's now been a couple of months since my baby whitewalls hatched and I still have not been able to get them to eat. I've tried frozen, live, brained, lizard scented and in a pillowcase and nothing has worked so far.

Do any of you PLEASE have any suggestions or tricks I can try???

Here's a pic of Dad.

Jamison
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another try with the pic

And a baby!

A good friend of mine who has bred holbrooki in the past has said more than once that the babies are difficult to get feeding. All the WC holbrooki I have ever kept, even juvies, took f/t mice with out problems, so I have no experience with hatchlings. A suggestion would be to try snakes/snake scenting. If you have any dead-in-egg babies, extra corn babies, or something similar, try feeding them that. Sounds a bit gruesome, but I have another friend of mine who swears by starting off brooksi and other non feeding getula with snake. After all, that is how they got the common name of "King".

>>A good friend of mine who has bred holbrooki in the past has said more than once that the babies are difficult to get feeding. All the WC holbrooki I have ever kept, even juvies, took f/t mice with out problems, so I have no experience with hatchlings. A suggestion would be to try snakes/snake scenting. If you have any dead-in-egg babies, extra corn babies, or something similar, try feeding them that. Sounds a bit gruesome, but I have another friend of mine who swears by starting off brooksi and other non feeding getula with snake. After all, that is how they got the common name of "King".

"Only those weak, deformed brooksi with a little eastern in them are difficult to get to feed......" (Bluerosy)

LOL......

To the orignal poster:
Try a LIVE / Brained pinky under a dark colored bowl.....
And try the snake scenting or pieces of Dead in egg snakes.....All of us have a few in the freezer, right?
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John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...
www.coastalbendcaptivebreeding.com

Before trying actual snake scenting I would try to take a piece of snake shed (if you have any and fresh if possible), wet it, then stick it to the head of a small pinkie and let it dry. If you have the tail section or shed of a small snake you can pull it onto the pinkie head like a sock. This has worked many times for me, but there have been times where nothing but scenting with worm snake, ringneck, ect. would work. Good luck.

>>Before trying actual snake scenting I would try to take a piece of snake shed (if you have any and fresh if possible), wet it, then stick it to the head of a small pinkie and let it dry. If you have the tail section or shed of a small snake you can pull it onto the pinkie head like a sock. This has worked many times for me, but there have been times where nothing but scenting with worm snake, ringneck, ect. would work. Good luck.

Scenting with Garter snakes worked for me....
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John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...
www.coastalbendcaptivebreeding.com

seem to make it on the diet of holbrooki here in LA pretty frequently as well. I remember a kid I went to school with way back in the day who would feed his speckled king small water snakes he would catch around the canals.

>>seem to make it on the diet of holbrooki here in LA pretty frequently as well. I remember a kid I went to school with way back in the day who would feed his speckled king small water snakes he would catch around the canals.

Yep...nerodia smell has to be enticing......LOL
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John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...
www.coastalbendcaptivebreeding.com

>>>>seem to make it on the diet of holbrooki here in LA pretty frequently as well. I remember a kid I went to school with way back in the day who would feed his speckled king small water snakes he would catch around the canals.
>>
>>Yep...nerodia smell has to be enticing......LOL

I keep a few small water snakes in the freezer along with frozen pinkies, in case i encounter a trouble feeder. I don't know the precise science, but i believe freezing for a month or months would help knock down any parasites in the WC water snakes.