Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,

I am very happy to see this forum created. I have a question for the Candoia owners out there. I have 1:1 Red Paulsoni, 1:1 Silver Paulsoni, and 1:1 Isabels (these two from Jerry Conway). I am having medium luck feeding them anoles, some will eat, others will not. Any suggestions? I am going to order some tree frogs and may try force feeding guppies, though, I am always against force feeding if it can be avoided.

thanks.

norm hill
Seattle, WA

I had HUGE success force-feeding my candoia baby pinkie heads
(2 per feeding). It is easier if you use plastic tweezers too.

With your one hand, hold the snake just below its head. With the other hand, hold the pinkie head in your fingers and gently open the snake's mouth with it. Once it is in the snake's mouth, use the tweezers to slide it in just past the snake's jaw line...It will do the rest by swallowing it down. If you do it correctly, the snake in no way should be able to spit out the food. It can be a little messy BUT much better than guppies AND much more nutritious. After a short while of doing that, my candoia started taking whole pinkies on its own.

GOOD LUCK, let us know how you make out.
-----
BA HUMBUG until Dec 12th
www.members.aol.com/northeastsnakes
Causa : Latet : Vis : Est : Notissima
The Cause Is Hidden, The Results Well Known.
-carl3

Feeding baby Candoia is not as hard as a lot of people make it out to be. The majority of people take the easy and very lazy cop out of feeding them tree frogs and anoles. My question is why pay the usually substantially higher CB price for a snake that has been fed wild caught food? Trust me, there is not a wild frog alive that does not contain internal parasites. While reputable dealers will not sell their neonates until they are established rodent feeders, some are all about the money. To get them feeding properly, simply offer day old pinkies at night. If this is refused, then try mouse tails. One way to try and get them to take mouse tails without force is to keep your neonate in a small rubbermaid shoebox with the small vent holes around it, then wiggle a mouse tail through a hole close to the neonate. If this fails, go ahead and stick the larger end of the mouse tail in the neonates mouth and gently push until it is over half way down, then let the neonate do the rest. After each tail place a very small pinkie in the box overnight and check on it the next morning. If it refused, then chuck the pinkie and try again in a week or so. The neonate will live, is eating non parasitic food, and is getting a taste for what you want it to eat.

I put the thickest end of the tail in their mouth, push it doen a little, they do the rest (usually) while I'm still holding them in my hand. Dave @ East TN Reptiles

The advise given is great, although I noticed your in Washington State. Hence, to get a paulsoni interested, you must keep it warm and cool and humid on a normal cycle. With dry air and cool temps in your state, that may be difficult so your in a hard situation for them to feel comfortable eating on their own. I have kept these animals in the deep south, and in an air conditioned house, they have had minimal success. Only when I placed them outside in my patio in the heat of summer with a pinkie or lizard did they turn on, and these were captive bred babies that never ate before, so apparently their conditions were an important aspect of eating, however the hide box idea given is a significant part of their feeding response, so good luck and get them going as they are such an admired species.