Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey all-

It's been a while since I posted here, but I recently picked up a baby tiger retic (Bob Clark line) at the San Diego IRBA show. He's in a 20L tank right now, and will be moved VERY shortly into a larger vision cage! I am fully aware of the adult size of these snakes, and have kept several sub-adults, just to ward off any comments that he's in too small a cage! Anyway, I've had him for about 6 weeks or so. Temps are good, humidity, etc, and he ate a FT rat like a champ when I got him. He then ate another frozen rat which I will admit was a bit large for him, and took him the better part of a week to digest. Then he shed, and "relieved himself" of the larger rat. Well,I tried another rat last week, and he seemed frightened by it. I must have woken him up, because he immediately got defensive when I lisfted his hide box. When I dangled it in front of him, he struck repeatedly in defense, then tried to escape. Once riled up, he predictably struck at the glass(which I know is bad for the snake) until he calmed back down after the lights went out. I know this is normal defensive baby snake behavior, but the weird thing is, after he refused the food, I lifted him out of the tank, and as soon as he was out, he calmed right down. Handles fine, but shows no interest in the food. If it were me scaring him, wouldn't ou think he would strike at me when I took him out, or act shy/agressive. He then returns to his hide box where he spends every minute out of site. This routine has repeated itself twice now. I lift to box and dangle the rat, he huffs and hisses, striking the rat but not coiling it, then tries to escape. Again, once removed from the cage, calms right down as if nothing happened. Twice he coilied it, and then let go, holding the rat but keeping his head free for defense. How can I get him to eat again? I REALLY don't want to revert to live rats again if I don't have to, but this is frustrating. It's like the minute he sees/smells the thawed rat on the tongs, he starts breathing heavy and coils back to attack the intruder? What spooked him? Please help.

Brian

It may be the feeding ritual that's freaking him out. The lifting of the hide box scares the crap out of him and then something hovers over him (the rat). In his eyes this may look like a large predator that smells like a rat. Once he goes into fight-or-flight he probable won't switch to a feeding response too quickly.

With this in mind, wait a few days and then try to setup a different feeding ritual. Since he spends all of his time in the hide box, here's something I do:

I get the thawed rat ready on tongs. Then I lightly and quickly tap on the cage with my index and middle finger nails, trying to sound like the pitter-patter of tiny rat feet. After a few seconds the snake usually pokes his head out of the hide box and starts flicking the tongue. Then I gently wiggle the rat a few inches from the hide box. Usually that's all it takes.

After a few of these feedings your retic will associate the light tapping on the cage with food, so don't tap on the glass for any other reason.

If this doesn't work, leave a f/t in the cage overnight. He probably patrols the cage during the night and will find it.

The biggest thing is not to make feeding dramatic -- don't scare him by lifting the hide box. And make sure you're feeding an appropriate size rat. Your retic needs to feel that he is bigger and stronger than the prey he goes after.

Bill