Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok after giving the green another small piece of chicken I have been writing down all conditions in which she(?) eats and when I am offering. I have noticed that if she doesn't take the chicken and I cut a different size piece, it better the chances. I then noticed that if I put her in shallow water I am getting a better feeding response and if i use my bare hands it is working better than anything else(leaving it will never feed). So I just got a feeling she would take a ft chick today after she ate a small piece of chicken. So i thawed one out and offered it in a few ways and she didnt take it. I tried all the things i doo when offering pieces and it wasn't working and she just ignored it after looking for a while. then i got the chick all wet and teased it in the water and noticed this triggered something. I kept doing it and she struck at it and took it down. I was kind of liking the gentle taking of raw chicken out of my hand but this got her to eat a whole ft day old chick. If i can keep this up will that be a good staple diet? At least until we get some more size out of her to try large rodents or should i still try the chain feeding mice from raw chicken(i can't do rats if that will matter since the smallest rat i can get steadily is a small frozen adult). Or should I do both chicken parts with fuzzies folded in(havnt tried but im sure it will work) and ft chicks?

I don't think an anaconda would get all it nutritional needs met by just chicks. I think tricking it like you have been with a small rodent would give it a much better diet.
I did have to get my snake started feeding on live quail. She switched to rats pretty easy though. Now she's taking sm. rabbits and lg. guinea pigs with no problem.
I too noticed that when I put the live quail on the edge of the bath tub she was soaking in she didn't show much interest but when I got bored watching this and pushed the quail into the tub with her(lol) the snake imediately went for it.
Will the snake go for a live rodent?

Arik

If it was eating live rodents I would feed it live rodents. It was only eating chicken parts and it is a pain to get it to eat whole day old chicks. I really want to understand the big difference between a small rodent and a small chicken? but i know teasing wont work..i will have the best luck if i chain feed a small ft rodent from a piece of chicken...I really just want to know which is best, second best, and third best out of the things I described since I have to try everything to get anywhere with this snake...I was happy the day it ate a garter snake because it gave me hope that the snake would eat.

Whole animals are always best, and juvenile and adult animals better than newborns. Baby chicks lack the mineral content of older animals, although they would be more nutritionally complete than parts. I would feed her chicks preferably, or parts for a few months to get some weight on her, and then go to chicken scented rats and keep trying every couple of weeks until she gets hungry enough to take one. Just my thoughts on it.

Kelly

Thanks...I hope she takes chicks more often now, yesterday was a breaking ground after many thawed out chicks going in the garbage. Trying to chain feed mice on the chicken parts wouldn't be worth it then until I get her on scented rats?