Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My female eastern will be a year old this month & is finally eating well & feeding on f/t rat fuzzies. She's grown qutie a bit & looks good although she's still only slightly over 2ft.
However, she seems to only eat about once a week & will never take food items that are dangled in front of her nose. I thought these guys were famous for grabbing anything & everything that moves & smells like food. If I lay the prey item on top of her hide box ( I place it on top so she doesn't get a mouth full of aspen) it's not long before she crawls over & eats it. Is this common?

Thanks!

Eric

Out of five babies going on three years two both males (if I remember right) are still shy & will not rush out to grab food but pick it up from the surface ( if I'm careful & move it very slowly they will sometimes take it from the Forceps) the others come out of the tank after anything that moves, I see the samething in my kingsnakes.

the aspen!! I'm sure I'll get lambasted for that opinion, but it sticks to food like crazy and gets ingested...It's supposedly non-toxic and I'm sure it's no different than leaves, dirt, what-have-U...But I tried it for a very short period of time a couple of years ago and found myself constantly pulling partially eaten and then regurgitated food items because of the sticky aspen!

If you use a separate feed box forget what I said..But if you feed in the cage, it won't matter what you put the item on, an Indigo is going to drag it around and get stuff stuck to it..

Just not worth the trouble to me...CG
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Carl W Gossett
Garage Door Herps
Monument,Colorado...northern territory of the Great Republic of Texas

Hi Carl,

I have observed that if you thaw out the food in a manner that leaves the hair dry the aspen really doesn't stick to the food item. I also will place mine on a piece of paper plate to try and minimize the aspen even touching it. The is not fail safe of course. Also, why the big worry over a snake swallowing a little bit of aspen? I am quite sure that they swallow and digest a lot more than that in the wild.

Keep typing,

Greg

I admit that it is probably no big deal when ingested as I said in my first post...It is just my experience that the snakes don't care for it in their mouths and would spit out the food item more frequently than I cared to deal with...

I loved the way it looked and the relative ease of cleaning when used as a substrate..Yes, the animals loved to burrow in it, but there are plenty of other options...

Use a separate feeding enclosure and you'll have no problems...

Getting rodents thawed without getting them damp is a skill I have never been able to master!!!

I gave up separate feeding enclosures long ago because it was taking up too much space...With 25 or so of these beasts to feed, it was also a time and work issue!! They don't quite go into a feeding cage with same ease as a kingsnake or boa! Try putting a 7 or 8 footer in a feeding cage a few times...They are just too strong and fast...I was always closing the lid on some portion of their anatomy...I just tap them with a hook when I'm picking them up for cleaning or a visit and I rarely have to dodge!!! CG
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Carl W Gossett
Garage Door Herps
Monument,Colorado...northern territory of the Great Republic of Texas

Getting rodents thawed without getting them damp is a skill I have never been able to master!!!

I have had good luck thawing them in zip lock bags & then placing them in a pan of hot water.

Eric

That's exactly how I do it Eric. You have to make sure you do not get cheap baggies though. I also know some people who do it under a heat lamp. You have to watch that you do not dry them up with this though.

Greg

in vaccuum packed, heavy duty plastic...They still get damp!!! And I use the same method of thawing as you...
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Carl W Gossett
Garage Door Herps
Monument,Colorado...northern territory of the Great Republic of Texas

I do have some concerns about ingesting the aspen but, I don't think it's a major issue (maybe i'm wrong)& I haven't had any regurg problems. On the upside, I like that she can burrow in it which she often does.

You won't get lambasted by me....I personally use newspaper for my indigos and even though it may not be as absorbent as aspen and other particulate types of beddings, I feel it is the safest considering the feeding styles of these snakes (messy). Eric, you may be able to get around it by feeding in a separate container, or, covering the entire bottom with paper and feed the snake on top....newspaper forces me to clean the cage right away so that is whay I use.

Rob, I initially used paper towels for mine when I first got him. He is a real nervous snake. I put some moss in his cage when he is in shed and one time I left it in after he shed and he seemed to enjoy burowing in the moss more so than using his hides. Since then I decided to give the aspen a try (I use it for some of my other snakes also) and after about 2 months of being burowed in aspen he seems to have become more comfortable and not as nervous as he used to be. He doesn't scatter anymore when I walk in the room. Now, this could all be a matter of coincidence, but could it be that he feels more secure now that he has more avenues to hide?

Greg

It's entirely positive that your snake does better on aspen...that is what is so great about this hobby; there's always more than one way to have success. I use aspen for many of my snakes and have never really had a problem with it but for now, I still use newspaper for my indigos and they have done wonderfully well. I lay a layer flat on the bottom of the cage and then hand crinkle several layers and lay flat...they usually seek this area over their plastic hides. I also like paper due to their messy feeding habits but it isn't as absorbent so if people cannot maintain their cages on a daily basis, something like aspen may be better as it makes spot cleaning much easier.

Rob Carmichael, Director/Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center - City of Lake Forest
Parks & Recreation
Lake Forest, IL

Eric, I have one that will be a year old on June 10th and he is the same exact way. As a matter of fact, if I stay even around the cage he usually doesn't come out to eat but if I just leave the room and go back 15 min. later the food is all gone. In a year I only got the pleasure of catching him in the middle of eating once. I am sure this will change though as I am starting to see it change with mine. He seems more comfortable now than he did 6 months ago.

Have fun,

Greg

I often seen mine eating however, i've never had her initiate feeding in front of me but she does not seem to mind if I walk in in the middle of it.

Eric

You guys that report "not seeing your snakes feed": Are you sure these are indigos ? I feed mine in seperate feeding buckets, and when I 'cautiously' approach with a food item (on long hemostats !), I have to stand back while they excitedly grab their food. They are fed frequently enough and sufficient amounts of food, so I know it isn't just hunger. Out of Dozens of species of snakes I have kept over the years, the only other critters that I've seen that excited are Burms, BRBs, Boas -and especially Kingsnakes. Maybe it is just Pavlovian conditioning when placed in the buckets (they are thoroughly cleaned between uses) just 'cuz they know it is feeding time. -Eric H...

I have often posted on this forum about how mine is a BIG PUSS!! and he seems so scared with anyone around him. He is loosening up a little bit though and isn't as nervous as he used to be. Now a friend of mine has the brother of my snake and that Indigo isn't afraid of anything and has a quite different demeanor (sp). His snake strikes when the air moves, mine scatters for the first hide it can get under. 2 snakes from the same blood line but with extremely different attitudes.

I once said that mine is a "Scaredy Cat" and my daughter promptly corrected me and said he is a "Scaredy Snake!"

Greg