Reptile & Amphibian Forums

well, it's been almost a month and i want to thank captainjack and whomever else that might have been wishing me luck. my wild caught Eastern Milk ate yesterday! and i found out what his favorite food is - lizards, namely skinks. this is how it came about. the other week, i was looking at a snake book that had a picture of a Red Milk constricting a skink. the wheels in my head started turning. skinks are pretty common around here. all i have to do is go find a rotten log and pull some of the bark off. i caught a five-lined skink and brought it home. i put the skink in the snake's container and immediately he livened up. he started doing that jerky, twitchy searching thing like most Kingsnakes do and grabbed the skink. it struggled and got away so i caught it and put it back in front of the snake. the skink's tail broke off, so i took it and scented a couple pinkies with it. the snake ate the lizard and the pinkies! now, a few questions: should i try to get him switched over to mice? if i have to keep scenting, where can i get lizards in the fall and winter? does anybody know where to get feeder lizards at a reasonable price? i know i could probably catch my own and freeze them. there was a vendor at the last show i went to who sold frozen ground skinks, but i can't remember their name. would an Eastern Milk eat an anole? well, thanks again and i appreciate any advice!

greg

"i caught a five-lined skink and brought it home. i put the skink in the snake's container and immediately he livened up. he started doing that jerky, twitchy searching thing like most Kingsnakes do and grabbed the skink. it struggled and got away so i caught it and put it back in front of the snake. the skink's tail broke off, so i took it and scented a couple pinkies with it. the snake ate the lizard and the pinkies! now, a few questions: should i try to get him switched over to mice? if i have to keep scenting, where can i get lizards in the fall and winter? does anybody know where to get feeder lizards at a reasonable price? i know i could probably catch my own and freeze them. there was a vendor at the last show i went to who sold frozen ground skinks, but i can't remember their name. would an Eastern Milk eat an anole? well, thanks again and i appreciate any advice!"

greg

Greg. First, I would warn you to not feed the snake too much all at once after a long fast. It might regurge something.

Terry

feeding wild caught skinks is a good way to give your snake parasites. I keep L. t. syspila (red milks) and I have a few that won't eat without scenting. I have 2 skinks in my freezer that have been scenting my pinks for over a year.
So I would just catch one, freeze it, and use it for scent.
Now I have had VERY picky eaters that needed me to be a bit more creative. For them I would snip off a tiny piece of lizart tail, and stick it into the pinkies mouth....works every time!

D

thanks for the advice! i'll try that.

Great news Greg! I have a Scarlet king that is tough to feed every spring. He has only taken a lizard as his first meal for the past 3 years. After he has eaten his first meal he will take fuzzy mice with no scenting at all. Many snakes need something to trigger a feeding response, and the act of feeding to get the metabolizum up. Your snake may very well take pinkies, or fuzzies without scenting now. I would keep a frozen skink handy just in case you need it, and yes Easterns will eat anoles as fast as skinks, so you can use them for scenting as well.
Jack

thanks alot, Jack!

Instead of feeding skinks or killing skinks, a broken off skink tail can be used as a scenting device for thawed pinks. You can wash the pink first then scent. Works great. Then, little by little, reduce the washing and scenting until the snake is taking thawed pinks with no scent if possible.
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Mark