Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I posted this yesterday on the "General" forum and was directed here. I'm new here so if this has been discussed before, please direct me to the thread....

I just got two green bush vipers three weeks ago out of a place in Miama (I'm in Detroit). They are wild caught, a pair (male and female, 10 inches 14 inches respectively) and appaer in good health. However, they won't eat and it's starting to concern me. I've tried taunting them to strike at a fuzzy, a piny and a small hopper, with no luck. Should I wait or do I have a serious problem?

Thanks

What have you been doing to taunt them? I've never actually worked with this species, but tail tapping sometimes helps with eyelash vipers. I can't actually say that bush vipers use tail lures or not.

Also, are these live or frozen/thawed mice?

My friend just lost an import puff adder. It would take a mouse here and there. He has parasite meds (some perscription combo... can't remember what exactly) that can easily be injected into frozen/thawed mice and then consumed. Only problem is that you can't do this with live mice. We were trying to convert him over to f/t so he could be treated, but his health began to decline rapidly.

When we saw this, we tubed him and intubated him with a greased up red rubber (feeding tube). We administered parasite meds this way, along with high calorie foods. After two med doses and three total feedings, we lost him. This is the only reason I'd be concerned.

Dave

They will respond to tail or body tapping. However, they are very good at striking straight up so carefull with those tongs! Mine charged me across a table once (he was only 11" at the time but not lacking for aggressive/defensive behavior). Kind of like being attacked by a slinky.

I got mine as a netonate and it prefered geckos when it would eat It was a bear to get started. later on it graduated to fuzzies (live it totaly refuses dead prey). I leave the food in over night and if it is not gone in the morning then I try tapping. This can take up to 15-20 min with repeated kill and release strikes.

Eventually it will either accept the prey-or it will hide it's head which indicates lack of interest. But it will eat once every two weeks and often it will skip a feeding. Mine seems to be more responsive in the 80* to 85* and likes a daily misting (Very Important).
Good luck....Mine is a greenish turquoise. What color are yours?

Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

I suspect, that if you got the snakes from an importer in Miami,
that it is a wild-caught and probably has a heavy parasite load.
MsTT can probably respond to this better than I can, so wait for her response.

Randal Berry

Thanks for the advice...I went out and bought some gekos, so I'll see if that helps.

I considered parasites, but they look healthy and have good color, so if they had parasites (which I am not discouting) they still ate in the wild so why would the parasites be a factor in captivity? I understand that parasites need to be taken care of, but how do I determine the problem? And, if it's parasites, what's the solution?

The color on the male is classic green with faint yellow triangles in a pattern along its back. The female is pure green with a slight yellow tint under its jaw area. Both are beautiful looking snakes.

Yes, these snakes most likely carried these parasites in the wild, HOWEVER, once exposed to the stress of shipping, these very same parasites can overtake an immunocompromised snake....so, it is a very serious problem and one that might require a round of panacur.

We keep a variety of atheris and some adapted quickly to captivity and a few others took a ton of TLC, time and attention to get them going in the right direction. "Taunting" as you put it is probably not the right approach. Tease feedingcan be tried but I wouldn't go beyond taking a fuzzy mouse and gently rubbing it on the neck or tail region of the snake (that tends to elicit a strike and hopefully, the snake will hang on to the prey). Some of our atheris have to be fed by holding a pinky/fuzzy (via LONG tongs of course) motionless in front of their mouth until they strike and grab the prey. You may have to experiment a bit.

Good luck,
Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center at Elawa Farm
City of Lake Forest Parks & Recreation (IL)

Hey Rob, that just goes to show that "absoulutes are rare when it comes to feeding snakes. As I said above mine would starve rather than take dead (or motionless) food. I checked with a friend who has several species of Atheris and they all to some degree need to be tease fed, till they get the idea. That you are succeding with motionless food is good. But the other option can be just as successful.

Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

Your are Absolutely right; as I said, we tried many methods (including tease feeding which is working well with one very stubborn individual)...I guess the bottom line is that the best practice to use is patience and perserverence. Just like baby eastern indigos, atheris are worth the effort.

np
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."