Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have 3 wc juv. pigmy's. I have had them about a week now and since offered them thawed pinks for there first meal with no luck and offered them live pinks for there second meal with no luck. One of them killed one of the pinks but none show interest in feeding on them. What should be my next step in trying to get these little guys to feed?
Thanks for your help!
Trenten

hi,

well i gotta hand it to you for optimism with the f/t pinks, ha ha. didn't hurt to try though, and you could have gotten lucky.

my only experience with neonate pigs is cbb streckeri. they're not easy, but not hard enough to make me swear off on culturing the taxon. some take salamanders (P.cinereus) right off, some take anoles right off, some take nothing right off and have to be force-fed for months and months. some eventually switch to pinks, some don't. never tried frogs, but i bet they'd work, with the caveat below. i've never, ever had one just take a pink right off. maybe other races are different though, i hear the red miliarius aren't as hard as streckeri.

one important thing - they're shy little snakes. excessively active and energetic prey items seem to scare them into head-hiding. they can actually eat some impressive-sized animals (especially if the shape is right), like anoles not too shy of their own length, nose to tail tip. if you can get them to take something tiny on their own, switching them to bigger items of the same species, offered dead, is easy. then you can just keep frozen anoles or whatever. scent-switching to dead pinks is easier than to live, too.

also, keep the snakes in very small containers, with a hiding place. and if they're a little thirsty, a wet prey item might be especially attractive (careful not to dry them out though). i found the little piglets to feed best in changing light (dawn or dusk) at first. some eat after the item's been in there with them for 6-8 hrs, so don't quit too soon. and they're pretty alert, so leave the room and stay away for a while. you might remove everything from the cage before you try feeding, so they find the food.

i keep them in deli cups, use baby food jar lids as water bowls, and something like half a walnut shell as a hide box.

you may need to assist-feed, but don't rush to it.

good luck,
jimi

I've had great success getting baby barbouri to take baby squirrel/green tree frogs. Make sure they are small enough. I think one of the reasons they work well is that you can leave them in an enclosure overnight without any worries. Also, in the wild both live in the palmettos. good luck.