Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My Glossy (caught in Texas)used to eat pinks till I started feeding fuzzies and then he quit. I finally started feeding lizards but I find that he doesn't always want them. So now I'm wondering if when he doesn't take them that I'm offering him the wrong kind of lizard. And this is why I come to you. Do glossy's only like certain types of lizards, and if so, what would these be?
Thanks
MissHisssss

The few glossy snakes I have ever kept at rodents pretty well, but they wouldn't take live rodents. I found that if I left a small frozen/thawed rodent in the cage overnight, it was invariably gone by morning.

Like many burrowing snakes, however, glossies don't eat huge food items very often. Try offering food that is about the same diameter as the widest part of the head.
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Chris Harrison

Mine is a wc Desert Glossy, Arizona elegans eburnata. It has been doing well in captivity for several years on a diet of f/t mice. He likes to be left alone in order to eat and he does skip a meal or two now and then. It seems to be an obese snake of low metabolism and I am now only feeding it 2 to 3 times a month instead of weekly. Since yours has accepted a rodent diet I would try and stick with that. His refusal to eat could be changes in his sense of security or some other environmental factor, or it could be "normal" for that individual snake. Try to avoid “snake keeper syndrome” where we worry about healthy snakes that go off feed for a period of time do to preference or some transient factor.

Randy
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Firehouse Herps

I currently have a glossy who usually takes f/t pinkies from my hand (once I dig him out of the substrate). I had another that only ate lizards, which I set free. Check the temp, and make sure it has enough substrate to
feel secure, also keep the room very dark and only feed at night.

I must have a weird glossy because he never burrows in his two to three inches of aspen substrate, except to get rid of a shed, nor does he use his hide that has the heat source under it. In fact he usually lays out across the front of his 20 gal long aquarium instead of hiding. No drastic change in his temps or environment for that to be a factor in his missed meals. He used to eat F/T mice. Never would do live (either). When he quit I continued trying mice for several months, not wanting to start the lizard thing, but finally decided that I'd rather do the lizard thing than to watch him waste away like I had often seen glossy's do at the pet shops. (Literally skin and bone, sniff). I tried a pinky first (yeah back to pinks since he didn't seem to like the larger hairy kind)... and when it was still in there the next morning I tried a lizard and he leaped on it instantly. After that, shedding was the only thing that stopped him for awhile and then the off again on again games began. While trying to figure out why he started this game I realized that I was offering different kinds of lizards and wondered if that was why he was rejecting some meals. It's like he'd act really interested... tongue going like mad... reaching up to take it from my fingers and as soon as his tongue would touch it... off he'd go. This is why I was asking if they only take certain types of lizards. Oh and... I agree about the FAT thing. He now has a very tiny head because of it.

Thanks for everyones suggestions.... but I still need to find out about the lizards if anyone knows.

MissHisssss

He might not like the smell of the aspen and thats why he doesn't burrow. Try sand. I have never had a problem with that.

The small head is the key to why so many petshop Glossys starve. They are by nature primarely lizard feeders so they lack the "gape" of a ratsnake. Unfortunately many people don't realize this and feed them Ratsnake sized food which is much more difficult for them to eat.

Possibly when you upgraded from pinks to fuzzies you actually started giving him too big a meal. Go back to the pinks and see if he doesn't start feeding again.

I recently wrote a short article about glossys for the South Fla league news letter. if you would contact me I will forward it to you.

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

Are you talking about playground sand? Looking forward to getting your article.

Thanks for your input.
MissHisssss