Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just wanted to share. I have been working with a group of difficult feeders for some months now. After cooling in a wine fridge and scenting with anole skin I have gotten all of them to eat but several only with scenting still. Now here is the trick I wish to share...Put the corn in a small, white deli cup with vent holes with a live unscented pinkie(you may have to wash the pinkie the first time or two). Next, put that deli cup into a larger deli type container also with vent holes and place one large, juicy, live green anole or house gecko or whatever lizard you have been scenting with in that cup. The baby corns smell that lizard and start searching all over the cup for it. I do not use any bedding or anything in the cups with the snake because it is important that the snake bump into the pinkie as often as possible. I came across the idea when I was feeding one of my more difficult holdbacks a frozen thawed anole in a cup. To make sure that I wouldn't mix her up with my regular babies (she is possible het for something pretty unique) I put the cup into the cage of her siblings. I checked her later and she had eaten and all 6 of her siblings were covering the cup trying to find that lizard(they eat pinks).
If you are stuck scenting anything you should try this. I have used it with success on pygmy pythons, kingsnakes, and rough scale sand boas as well.

That sounds like a pretty neat little trick! I just might have to use that next time I come across Candoia species which are the most difficult feeders I've ever dealt with. Beats force-feeding pinkie heads, which I've always resorted to since I can never get the scenting trick to work for me (probably the source of geckos, anoles and other small lizards). Thanks for sharing!
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"Time's fun when you're having flies." -Kermit the Frog
NORTHEASTSNAKES.COM
-carl3

>>That sounds like a pretty neat little trick! I just might have to use that next time I come across Candoia species which are the most difficult feeders I've ever dealt with. Beats force-feeding pinkie heads, which I've always resorted to since I can never get the scenting trick to work for me (probably the source of geckos, anoles and other small lizards).

I tried my first baby paulsoni last year and after learning how they fed I lost all but one to a heat wave (ugh). I did learn that the little monsters went nuts for baby (larval) dusky salamanders. I learned a lot, got one baby out of six through and once they took sals I could get them 'trained' to take food from my hand. Then they switched to scented tiny tiny pinkies with almost no trouble. I am in upstate ny with a creek out back...so the baby sals were a piece of cake to get my kids to collect. And it was SOOOOO much easier for all of us.
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Sonya

Failure is not an option. It comes bundled with the software.

I love candoia...by far the best type of boa, hands down BUT I lost 12 of 13 solomon island ground boas on my first try. The one remaining is doing great after having force fed him guppies, then onto pinkie heads, and now he's eating full pinkies on his own and it makes me so happy (tear). Candoia are truly a mysterious and intriguing species of which little is still known about them. I wish more people took interest in them BUT the addition of the Candoia forum is a great start!

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NORTHEASTSNAKES.COM

(Corns, GTPs, BRBs, Candoia, BPs, Ringed Pythons, NPines, GBKs)
-carl3

np