Well, it ate. It ate about a half hour ago, and you will not believe what it ate. A lizard? No. A treefrog? No. A salamander, or any other herp? No. Give up? I was there, and it saw, clear as daylight, eat... egg! It sounds crazy. I know. I would have never thought of it. You probably just can't pcture it, and I couldn't yesterday.
After it refused all I offered it, I started a new way to get a feeding response. This was ligning up its range maps on a transparent piece of paper, with the range maps of other snakes. The range it aligned with most? The Florida scarlet snake.
I have heard of people feeding these whipped chicken eggs, although their main food in the wild is reptile eggs. After doing a little homework, I found that the habitats of the two species were very similar. And it made sense to me that an Anole eater, who was also a terrestrial dweller of rotten stumps and dead bark, would also eat something the animals put there- their eggs.
This study involved much more, but it is too long to write here. Anyway, I whipped up some chicken egg (both the white and the yolk) with a whisk, and warmed it up really good. I then placed it in a saucer, took out the pine woods snake, and put its nose in the egg. It took awhile, but then I saw little bubbles rising in and out of the egg.
The snakes neck was wriggling, and every few seconds, the sides of its head would contract. This happened 10 times in a row. When I took it back out, it was opening its mouth just slightly, and sticking its toungue out for a long time.
Chicken eggs are a very healthy food, and I am gleeful that they were taken by a Rhadinaea. This just goes to show, there is still a lot to be discovered about the smaller snakes.
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DAVE
1.0 Western green toad
1.1 green treefrogs
1.0 Florida blue garter snake
0.1 Asian long-tailed grass lizard
1.0 Mediterranean gecko
1.1 Oriental fire-bellied toads
1.0 American bullfrog
0.1 Spanish ribbed newt
1.1 Eastern ribbon snakes
1.1red-cheeked mud turtles
0.1 Dubia day gecko
1.0 Sonoran gopher snake
1.1 rough green snakes
1.1 giant African black millipedes
1.0 Okeetee corn snake
0.1 Albino African clawed frog
1.0 Kenyan sand boa
0.0.1 Argentine flame-bellied toadlet
0.0.1 African bullfrog
1.0 yellow * Everglades rat snake intergrade
1.1 Western hognose snakes
0.1 fire salamander
1.0 scarlet kingsnake
0.0.1 Argentine horned frog
0.0.3 southern ringneck snakes
0.0.1 night snake
0.0.1 Florida brown snake
0.0.1 Pine woods snake
