Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Born in Nov. last year. 2004. He's grown a whole 6 inches already. The grow up too fast.

Heres his first pic.

And here is his most recent, taken today, March 21st 2005.
Might be a little blurry. He has been shedding out into a very light white color around the saddles. The more he sheds the prettier andlighter he gets. It's so beautiful.

Another

Aaaand another

Trying to get all angles here. He is just so preeetty.

And last but not least, the beautiful mommy having a meal.

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Crazy ZooLady

Hey, B e a uuuutifull snake you got there, what kind is it?. Question, My spec panamint still won't eat cb mice, ate two wc pinkies a week or so ago though. What to do? Seems to be adjusting to captive life alright, basks regularly, moves around comfortably, temp in cage is right, hiding spaces are plentifull. It seems to be more comfortable when I cover the cage (around the sides) with a towel (I do so regularly). Help? Do I even need to worry at this point?

You say it ate pinkies?? How big is it? It looked bigger than that in your pic. But hard to tell sometimes.
So how long is it and how big around at the widest point is it?
When dealing with WC snakes it can be hard to get them to eat CB mice. I find the easiest thing to do is get WC mice for these PICKY eaters, and put your CB mice in the same cage with them so that the smell of the WC mice rubs off on them. Keep feeding it WC mice, then every few mice offer it a CB mouse. Eventually it will start eating them. Then you can start weaning them off the WC mice .. Dont do it the moment it eats its first CB mouse though. Still give it a few more WC's and switching them off till he is eating every CB mouse you offer him. Then you should be able to start keeping your CB mice by themselves without worrying about scenting them. He will catch on eventually. Some take longer than others.

Oh, and the snake is a baby Great Basin Rattlesnake. And the one at bottom is Mommy.
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Crazy ZooLady

The pinkies were petty big, almost had hair, They were some kind of desert rat, about 3" long, big for pinkies. I'll try the mouse thing. Do I need to get the mice from were I caught the snake, or will the empty lot across the street do?

No, you don't need to worry about your snake going hungry. From your pics, your snake looks to have excellent body weight and could go at least 6 motnhs without a meal if necessary. However, the fact that he/she took wc pinkies is a good sign. If you can find a few more, I'd recommend scenting lab pinkies with them...Just put a wc pinkie on top of a lab pinkie and let them crawl all over each other in a paper bag.) Do this a few times, and your snake should be eating lab pinkies in no time....However, your animal is large enough to take full grown mice, so I'd recommend finding a fresh DOR rodent on a desert road, taking it home and freezing it...That way, you can use it numerous times to scent pre-killed lab mice...(You'll have to thaw it out multiple times to do this, so I wouldn't recommend feeding the DOR rodent to the snake after it has been thawed and re-frozen...it is a scenting tool, NOT a feeding tool.

Get yourself a LONG pair of feeding forceps (if you don't have them already) and wiggle the scented pre-killed lab mouse within the snakes' vision to simulate a live rodent...This should probably do the trick and pretty soon you won't have to scent lab mice anymore.

-AzAtrox

-PS-It's too bad that gerbils are illegal in Ca....I've had quite a few wc rattlesnakes that couldn't turn one down as their first captive meal....If they were legal, you could keep a frozen gerbil handy to scent your rodents as well, but as they are illegal, I'll discourage this. Looks like your stuck with the fresh DOR wild rodent, but it should work just as well. Good luck.

The pinkies you found were most likely Bushytailed Woodrat or Desert Woodrat Babies. Also known as "PAk Rats" I have stummbled across Bushytaileds babies once, and yes, the pinkies are about the size of a mouse! But I would never use them as food personally. Woodrats only reproduce a few times a year and usually only have between 4 and 6 babies on avereage. So to keep thier population up, I dont use them for food. I do love seeing them though too. But then, I am not JUST a snake lover..so
Try the mice across the street first. If he doesnt take them, then go for ones where you found him. But most likely the ones cross the street will do.
And Azatrox's Idea of getting one and freezing and using it for scenting is a great idea! I never thought about that one.
BTW, this is a pic of a Bushtailed Woodrat I found in the desert in a house that was about to be torn down. This is most likely what your pinkies would have been from.

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Crazy ZooLady

Cool!! Very nice animals...

Al
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Save a Rattlesnake...Skin a Sweetwater resident alive!