Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello all,

I have now a very young (about a month or two old) Pueblan milksnake who I tried to feed for the first time last night - unsucessfully.

I have the husbandry up to par (hiding spots, warm/cool areas, drinking water, etc), and I stayed out of the room after I offered the prey items to avoid 'spooking' him. But alas, he just wasn't having it.

I had offered him two pink mice (f/t); neither of which he took.

Does anyone know of any tricks or a good way to get a young Pueblan eating?

Thanks for any advice,
- Mark

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Try the old mouse tail trick - Take a frozen thawed med / adult mouse and cut the tail off close to the base of the body. I thaw in warm water and keep it ( Tail) a little wet.
I then like to use a very small piece of index card to insert into the mouth. Once you have this cracked insert tip of mouse tail and roll between your fingers slowly to get it going. Let the small piece of index card fall away and keep the tail going down. Most of the time it is so small that the animal tends to bite it and work it down by them self. It gives them a little sampling of food. You may have to try again a week later and then try to offer a frozen thawed pink at you next feeding. Put it in and check a few hours later.
This works for me on hondos, hope it works for you.

have you tried placing the baby pueblan in a deli cup with the pinky and leaving him in it in his cage over night? I did this with my honduran when he was little and he usually ate right away. He is a yearling now and I still take him out and place him in another container with the meal (he's eating 3-4 fuzzies now). Otherwise I don't think he would eat. He hides 24/7.

I would try this before resorting to force feeding.

Put the snake in a deli cup with a live split head pinki and put the cup somewhere where the snake won't be disturbed. Works almost every time. tom h

You can also try the brown paper bag trick, it's the same as the deli cup trick but instead of the cup, use a brown paper bag. Make sure you staple th top of the bag so the snake can't go out. Also, leave the bag inside the cage.
I tried this for my Sinaloan, worked great.
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-Miki

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