Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Anyone have much experience with feeding mouse tails? I still have 4 or 5 alternas from last August that are only surviving because I am force feeding mouse tails. They are easy to push down about 3/4 of the way, then the snakeling finishes swallowing.

I wonder how long they will survive this way, and if they will EVER start eating on their own.

My adult corn snake are wondering where these tail-less mice are coming from!?!
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Kent

1.1 Hypo (het lavender, striped) corn snakes, 2010
1.1 Gray-banded king snakes, blairs phase, 2008
6.8 Gray-banded king snakes, 2011
1.1 Oregon rubber boas, w/c 20??

I start all my coastal plains milks on mouse tails. I tease feed twice a week for about 6 - 7 weeks. By then they usually have had a shed and are big enough to take small pinks.

I can't speak for alterna switching over this way but I can think of no reason they wont continue to survive and grow given you're tease feeding them often enough. I little vit supplement dusted on the tails might not hurt either.
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“Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.” Emmerson

WWW.TDSNAKES.BLOGSPOT.COM

I fed a pair of baby Cal kings I had mouse tails and legs for over a year and they hardly grew. They seemed healthy, but they grew very little. When I started feeding them fuzzies, they were out grown by a baby Cal king that was a year younger than them, so it seems the longer you feed them that way, the more it stunts their growth.
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I have two tiny male pyros who did eat a few times willingly last fall, one even ate a pinky. This year since coming out of brumation they have not yet eaten. So every evening around dusk, when they are most active I put a few fence lizards in the cage. The other three babies have eaten at least twice, first with the lizards they could hunt, then with live pinks in a little cup they could easily find. My theory is that they want to go hunting around dusk and will catch and eat the food if it is available. This worked with three out of five so far. In the morning I remove the surviving lizards to their own cage so they can eat and drink.

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Bob
Pyromaniac AKA Greatballzofire
Keeping cats allows man to cohabitate with tigers. Keeping reptiles allows man to cohabitate with dinosaurs.

they will need tails frequently. usally soon after they will take live newborn pinks, not always.
have you tried some differant husbandry technics with them? i always experiment a bit with my problem kids with things like temp&humidity, substrate types, hides etc. not only is this a great way to learn what your particular snakes want/like sometimes you can key in on a husbandry issue that is causing the problem kid not to eat.
good luck
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,thomas davis
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Morphs... just like baseball cards BUT ALIVE, how cool is that???

my website www.barmollysplace.com

>>they will need tails frequently. usally soon after they will take live newborn pinks, not always.
>>have you tried some differant husbandry technics with them? i always experiment a bit with my problem kids with things like temp&humidity, substrate types, hides etc. not only is this a great way to learn what your particular snakes want/like sometimes you can key in on a husbandry issue that is causing the problem kid not to eat.
>>good luck

Great information Thomas...IMHO....
I think the main problem is the fact that folks are trying to feed f/t domesticated EUROPEAN fancy mice to neonates that are wired to eat a certain type of lizard or rodent. In one clutch you will have immediate f/t feeders but some will be live pinky feeders while others are reluctant to feed on these mice that are offered. That doesn't make them weak feeders. Try feeding a sceloporus, teiidae, uta, field mice or deer mice.....Once one finds what their snakes like (want) they can scent with that prey of choice......Anoles and Med. Geckos are usually turned down because they aren't lizards they recognize......

Plus a cool down nearly always helps....

They are ALL great feeders if fed what they want......
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John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...

How about taking them for a ride. For some reason the bumping around or rattling of deli cups seems to work too. I always take my problem feeders for a ride to work and then back home. Keep them in a deli cup over night with a live or F/T pink. Crazy but seems to work....
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My buddy drove my new pyros from Texas and gave them to me because he couldn't get them to eat. After I got them I put a prekilled anole in with each and they ate the first night. They seem to like anoles fine, I'm going to try some skinks next week. It's weird how that travel method works.
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Gerard

"The only difference between myself and a madman is that I am not mad."

www.livebaitclip.com

GONE FISHING!!!

It is, I think maybe it get's the belly juices flowing and actually makes them hungry. That's why when I find a really good deal on non-feeders I usually get them because 9 times out of ten after the airplane ride the usually feed. You always have to look at the risks and how long it's been too. Thanks for sharing Gerard.
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Thanks everyone for the feed back. I will keep at it. Tonight I opened a package of frozen adult mice, cut the tails off all of them, and put them in a separate bag. I will run out of tails before I run out of mice to take them from!

I don't have a supply of fence lizards, and anoles are 6.99 each at Petxxx, so this will have to do.
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Kent

1.1 Hypo (het lavender, striped) corn snakes, 2010
1.1 Gray-banded king snakes, blairs phase, 2008
6.8 Gray-banded king snakes, 2011
1.1 Oregon rubber boas, w/c 20??

BTW, they have been for a ride, and had live and f/t pinkies in a deli cup overnight. The ride was back in January while they were still in brumation, to visit a friend who sexed them for me.

Maybe they need another ride now that they are warmed up.
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Kent

1.1 Hypo (het lavender, striped) corn snakes, 2010
1.1 Gray-banded king snakes, blairs phase, 2008
6.8 Gray-banded king snakes, 2011
1.1 Oregon rubber boas, w/c 20??