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The little Indigo shed on his own tonight, without any help from me, for the first time. He's still receiving injections, almost done with the amikacin. There are no visible signs of the skin infection. His tail still needs assistance with removing the shed, but after tonight's shed, it was bleeding and it appears the muscles there are still working, as is the circulation.

I've been force-feeding him rat tails once every other week. I do every other week because I am trying to get him eating on his own. So far, I've tried mouse pinks, mouse fuzzies, and I left a rat peach fuzzy in with him tonight to see what will happen and will check on him in the morning. So far, there has been no interest.

He has a lot more energy than he did at first, and is very active. While he was in shed, the fluid that normally accumulates between the old skin and the new looked pretty pussy, but it disappeared once he shed the old skin off. Lets hope the skin infection went with the old shed!
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My collection and herp photography

www.lowergroundreptiles.net

Good luck! It sounds like you are doing a great job with a nasty situation.

Incidently, how are the other young indigos that went out (in various places) this year, doing?
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One female Eastern Indigo. That's right, just one snake. But she's my dream-snake, so back off man.

Have you tried gold fish?

I just got my new eastern male to eat for the first time (for me) last night. He ate 6 gold fish.
All 3 of my indigos were obtained from the same person and he had all of them feeding on quail & pink/fuzzy mice before he let them go.

I'm hard headed though and with each baby I tried to get it eating rat pinks right away with NO luck. Each one finally ate it's first meal for me when I offered it gold fish. If my male is anything like the 2 females he should begin eating goldfish scented pink rats very quickly & then switch to unscented rats.

I recall someone here saying that they used tuna juice as a scenting item. Try that also it may work. However, my boy didn't go for it.

Eric

Yeah, the tuna trick worked for me. I had tried egg yoke and chicken broth. Finally I put in a live pinky, and my girl investigated it (and I think may have nipped it) but then went into her hide. I then took the poor pinkey out of the cage and was contemplated putting it out of its misery and freezing it...but then remembered tuna. I scented it (still live) with a little tuna juice and then dumped it right into the hide with my snake. She was startled...then curious, and then ate. So it was some combination of tuna juice, live prey, and getting anoyed with something invading it's hiding space.

good luck
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One female Eastern Indigo. That's right, just one snake. But she's my dream-snake, so back off man.

I have had luck dipping the pinkies in eggs. The best luck with snake eggs. I used mice instead of rats, Indigos don't like large food items, try the smaller mice instead of the rats.
I would find stubborn feeders that would eat fish and nothing else. I would put them in a small container with a couple of fish and a couple of live scented pinkies. They would usually come around to eating everything.

>>Have you tried gold fish?
>>
>>I just got my new eastern male to eat for the first time (for me) last night. He ate 6 gold fish.
>>All 3 of my indigos were obtained from the same person and he had all of them feeding on quail & pink/fuzzy mice before he let them go.
>>
>>I'm hard headed though and with each baby I tried to get it eating rat pinks right away with NO luck. Each one finally ate it's first meal for me when I offered it gold fish. If my male is anything like the 2 females he should begin eating goldfish scented pink rats very quickly & then switch to unscented rats.
>>
>>I recall someone here saying that they used tuna juice as a scenting item. Try that also it may work. However, my boy didn't go for it.
>>
>>Eric

Yep, I've tried goldfish, thawed herring, and scenting with chicken broth. Nothing has gotten his interest.
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My collection and herp photography

www.lowergroundreptiles.net