Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello all,

I have a hatchling (unknown exact age but less than 3 months old) hypo honduran that hasn't been interested in eating after being shipped to me. I've tried live pinks, frozen pinks, and even put him overnight in a closed box with pinks, including braining them with no results at all. This snake was previously on F/T so it should have taken live or F/T with no problems, but something has it upset enough to not want to eat. It is shy, but it has plenty of places to hide in both the warm end (UTH heater with a ceramic flowerpot base to absorb the heat to keep the snake from directly laying on the glass over the pad) and also the cold end. I'm using the "Repti-bark" substrate as I prefer the natural look over the ease of Carefresh or aspen shavings, and my other snakes have been fine.

I made a last ditch effort to get him to feed today by picking up a pet store green anole, which he was totally not interested in. So I left it in the tank and went about my business as usual and left the snake / computer room alone. Well, about an hour later I peeked in and he had the death grip on it, and now 30 mins after that, has completely eaten the lizard. While I am in no way wanting to keep feeding him $7 lizards, I am hoping that this will "Kickstart" his appetite and that the end of the week he will be happy to take F/T or live pinks. I am prepared however to purchase a handfull of the anoles to keep for scenting the mice if needed, but hope to not have to do this.

Has anyone had experience with this, as I have not? Am I going to have to continue the lizard feedings and wean him back to mice, or could this one time "treat" get him going again and back on mice?

Thanks to any and all who read, and a bigger "Thankyou" to any whom can reply and help me out.

Dan.
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"Colubrid-aphilia", adj; An inordinate love of Colubrids.

Dan, you don't want to get your snake used to lizards thats for sure. I understand your concerns but think the snake woulda ate a pinky soon. One thing I would do is as soon, and I mean as immediately as possible try offering the snake pinks again. It is a good guess that you have kickstarted its food engine and that it very well may start eating without hesitation from now on. What you may want to do is buy a lizard and freeze it. If the snake wont eat you can slit the belley of the lizard and once it thaws enough to actually get a pinky inside the body cavity....place one inside and let it thaw. This is a trick a good friend showed me for Brooksi. I had no success with Lizard Maker drops, but others have. Some of my 04 Hondos are alittle fussy. I think until they hit sub adult size they can be a little finicky but in my limited experience it is a preference for SIZE of the food, and not actually what they prefer to eat. My 04s will eat a pile of large pinkies but not want to eat fuzzies. My adults are ravenous feeders and I expect soon yours will be too. One more question, are you 100% sure it is a Honduran? Good luck Tom Stevens

Hey thanks Tom,

This is the rascal in question, 99.9 % sure it's a Hondo The hockey puck is to show the amount of reduced black in the snake as I don't have a normal Hondo to contrast him against.

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"Colubrid-aphilia", adj; An inordinate love of Colubrids.

If that pic was taken before you fed it the lizard I would say it looks fine to me. It's my guess he may have preferred a smaller pinky than you offered him. On the other hand I have also had stubborn colubrids that attacked a larger than average food item, maybe out of fear? and then went on to eat it. When I have a finicky hatchling I make sure it is drinking water and watch it for signs of emaciation like wrinkling skin and a soft belley. That's when I panic[I think we all have one time or another] and I try many different things. For Kings I prefer Garter snakes for scenting. They're stinky snakes to begin with and are probably a normal prey item for them in the wild....to a degree anyways. Another trick I do is I work with Corns,,,,so when I hatch out a clutch I save all the skins from the hatchlings from their first shed. I keep them in a baby food jar with little or no air holes. I take a live pinky and leave it in the jar with the skins for a while. Sometimes that is enough. Also 1 or 2 tiny live garters in the jar with a live pinky can work too. Matter of factly it is not uncommon to have one or 2 hatchlinsg from a clutch of Corns that is a non feeder, or just looks like he was not meant to make it. I freeze them and when you scent with a snake instead of a lizard the results are usualy astounding. The Kings usually attack with ferocity and go on to eat the pinky, and soon after switch to non scented. Knock on wood I haven't had to do any scenting for any of my Milks. Hope this helps you out. Tom Stevens

Thanks again Tom. This is my first stubborn feeder, well for snakes anyways. I've had to nurse some leopard geckos along untill they decided to eat on their own. I just don't want to wait too long and have an "oops" with this guy. I wasn't sure if cooling him was a good idea as he is pretty young yet and didn't know if he would have the reserves needed to go a month or two without food. I can't take that chance as they are my "babies" first and fore-most. I'll post what happens in the future as it happens, but he's got some food in his belly for the moment at least. Yes the pic is from before he ate, like almost a week ago. Thanks again,

Dan.
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"Colubrid-aphilia", adj; An inordinate love of Colubrids.

I start mine on fuzzies the day they hatch. I've had 100% success starting day old hatchlings on frozen thawed fuzzies. I've got some that were hatched in mid september that are 24" long and eating small mice now. Just another idea. I think pinks are too small for hondos.

Brandon Osborne