Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My little hatchling eastern has refused several f/t pinkies. I’m waiting on some baby quail…but in the meantime, I was thinking of scenting some pinkies with fish or frog. But I think I remember reading (in this forum) about dipping a pinki in chicken egg yoke and attracting the attentions of otherwise stubborn hatchlings. Is there anything in a raw egg that could be harmful to a snake? If not, I’d like to try this route before I go buy a frog as I’d have nothing to do with it after scenting the food.

Dear nevermore,

The inside contents of undamaged chicken eggs are considered sterile. The outside of the eggs (store bought) are treated with a bleach solution so they are pretty clean too. I wouldn't think twice about dipping a pinky in egg yolk.

I have never tried this. I have never tried frog scent as well but I have been meaning to experiment with it. Let us all know how the various things you try work out as I know that this is a topic that everyone is interested in.

Robert Bruce.

Frog, Cricket frog in particular has worked well for hatchling coachwhip. I am following the water debait but my hatchling coachwhips, if water deprived for two weeks are more apt to start feeding. I realize that my westerns are from a DRY area in compairison to Indigo. P.S. I am back from FL. I am now activly working on permits and it is looking good. If my spelling is bothering people using this forum I will start using spell ck.

Thanks, I'll try the eggs today.

So far I've tried one f/t pinkie and two pinkies dipped in chicken broth - she accepted a f/t dipped in broth when with the breeder (Rob Carmichael).

Today I'll try egg and let you all know what happens.

-Josh

Dean A. posted this in the Pit Forum so I hope he doesn't mind me copying it and pasteing it here, he did say he meant to post it here. Good timing as it fits this post perfectly. Ron

Posted by: DeanAlessandrini at Fri Aug 20 10:28:46 2004 [ Report Abuse ] [ Email Message ]

Hey All…

Sorry to those I missed at the Daytona show.
I had a family health situation I had to deal with. Hated to have to cancel.

Anyway…wanted to share this tidbit…one of my male ’04 easterns decided to eat twice and then stop eating for 3 weeks...I tried scenting with egg yolk from a recently hatched corn snake…NOTHING.
Then I tried a rat pup soaked in plain old hen’s egg from the grocery store yolk and BAM.

He sucked it right down!
I don’t remember who offered that little trick a few months ago, but THANKS!
-----
The Crawl Space

before you go trying frogs and such, you may want to search the archives for scenting tricks.

I know my personal favorite with indigos is a live small pink, scented with herring (or some other stinky fish). Other folks have had success with other scents. Sometimes it just takes some time to find the right one.

I have a pair of Boelens Pythons that wouldn't eat fuzzy mice unless I dipped them in egg yolk. They were driven nuts by the egg yolk smell and would scrape their open mouths up against the plate I offered the mice on, because it had just a touch of yolk on it.

I've seen indigos bite themselves because they had just a touch of herring scent on their bodies.

Find the right smell and you'll be off and running.

Doug T

A couple of failures,I have three blacktail babies left that have not eaten (out of 13) tried opening the head, chicken blood, frog & mullet (my adults love mullet & its a perfect size). Noting's worked yet on these, the others mostly took f/t pinks with the head opened.

aka 'deans dining tip'......or assist feeding. it works as a last resort on the most stubborn cases. just get the [split] head of a pink in it's jaws and if held still, they swallow usually w/out further intervention. not too invasive either. good luck david! keep us posted........

When I first recieved my indigo he would not eat. After talking to Robert Seib, he said "You live in the Everglades go out and try to catch a tree frog". Needless to say after a week of offering live and F/T pinkies he ate two small treefrogs. At the next feeding I opened up the abdomen of a treefrog and rolled the pinkie inside, offered it and BAM! He nailed it. Next feeding session and since are without scenting and have gone without any refusals. Don't know if you have access to any Florida treefrogs but I'd give it a try.
Good Luck!
Sincerely,
Roly
-----
Miami Hurricanes #1
NATIONAL CHAMPS 83,87,89,91,01

Well, my grandparents live by the everglades as well...but I'm stuck up here in IL.

I've had pretty good luck with corn snake scent over the years for reluctant feeder Eastern hatchlings. I've kept a hatchling corn in the freezer and use a cm long body section for scenting f/t pinks or fuzzies.

Related subject - a few years ago I had two clutches of Outer Banks kings that wouldn't eat anything, not even corn snakes. They ate immediately from hand when offered pieces of rough green snake. Transfer to scented pinks to unscented pinks was a breeze.