1992 I attended one of the first decent herp shows to hit the Phoenix area. While there, I saw my first knoblocki Mt King, a really fine white and orange beast about four feet long. Not for sale. Dwayne Richards had it at his table. He now specializes in designer ball pythons, but at the time, he and Steve Osborne of Professional Breeders were in on breeding knobs, among other extraordinary and cutting-edge coubrids. Anyway, this knob was to die for, and a few years later, I saw its twin as a hatchling for sale at another phoenix show, again at Dwayne's table. Had to have it, even though Dwayne warned me that it was a finicky eater. I had some experience with Mt Kings, having bred Sonoran Mt Kings for several years, so I decided to have a lash, since I kew this knob would haunt me if I passed on it.
It was years before I saw another like him, although I have seen a few since.
Well, in for a penny, in for a pound, so I had to get a female to go with. I chose a classic looking female hatchling, and brought them home.
The white male ate the same day I brought him home. Just a bit of scenting, and he was off on defrosted fuzzies. He's coming up on his twelfth birthday, and has fathered some nine clutches.
The female was another story.
She refused anything that even looked like food, and had to have mouse tails forced for months. Then I started forcing baby lizards....for months. Grrrr! I built her a rockpile in a ten-gallon aquarium. I heated one end of her cage. I left food magazines around where she would see them--nothing! Each time I forced a meal, I first offered the food to her choice. One day, for no particular reason, she ate her first lizard voluntarily.
Gotcha.
In time, she got so used to the idea of eating that she was willing to consider alternative food items rather than go hungry, and she began to accept scented, defrosted pinkies. Eventually, she took unscented, and turned into an eating machine. She's eleven now, and huge. She eats defrosted jumbo mice every week, and has given me six clutches, last year's numbering thirteen. All healthy, all hatched, all sold.
Here she is.
These days, I'm trying to get my Eastern Coachwhips to routinely accept food voluntarily. Each has accepted small lizards from time to time, but then they go off feed again. As Sighthunter has pointed out, it's a bad idea to allow a coachwhip to go too long without food, since they decline rapidly with that high metabolism, so....I'm forcing rat tails and defrosted pinks again. Grrr! Again.
The lesson of my mama knob is one I've had repeated many times in over thirty years of snake keeping. I'm not giving up. Someday, maybe I'll be able to post the hatching of the first babies of the little poops who now vex me.
Anyway, it's time for a feeding. Gotta get out the forceps and beaten egg. Again. Grrr.
