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Baby scarlet ?

candb Sep 26, 2005 07:22 PM

I have recently aquired a baby scarlet which i thought was a scarlet king but isnt, it has a white underbelly. Ive red all the scarlet post on here and the information helped alot but he wont take whipped chicken eggs. There are alot of anole eggs at my work ill try to collect some for him but they may be a tad to big. Any other information would be appricieated. Thanks.
Heres some pics( sorry bout the quality )
Sorry if u saw this in general forum i thought i posted it in here, but i did by accident in that one.

Replies (30)

caecilianman02 Sep 27, 2005 02:10 PM

Hello,

Looks like you have one nice little snake on your hands. I once owned a baby scarlet snake about seven inches in length. I kept it in a 2.5-gallon glass vvarium with a moist cypress mulch substrate, and a few pieces of cork layed on the surface with some plastic plants. Heat ws provided from below on the end of the vivarium opposite the water dish. This specimen began to grow quite nicely on raw, whipped chicken eggs LEFT IN THE CAGE OVERNIGHT. Surprisingly, this snake also relished small white slugs. It probably would have grown even larger, finishing its life cycle, if it hadn't been for a terrible outbreak of crypto in my collection.
The 32-inch specimen that I have at present continues to grow and thrive on raw whipped cicken eggs, shell and all, mixed with Reptitive and water, left in a shallow dish in the vivarium with a pinky mouse OVERNIGHT!
Good luck. These are really beautiful and pleasant little creatures.
-----
DAVE

1.0 Western green toad
1.1 green treefrogs
1.0 Florida blue garter snake
1.1 Oriental fire-bellied toads
1.0 American bullfrog
0.1 Spanish ribbed newt
0.0.1 Eastern ribbon snake
1.1 red-cheeked mud turtles
0.1 Dubia day gecko
1.0 Sonoran gopher snake
0.1 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
1.2 fire salamanders
1.0 scarlet kingsnake
0.0.1 Argentine horned frog
0.1 Southern ringneck snakes
1.0 Florida scarletsnake
0.0.1 Florida brown snake
0.0.1 Northern brown snake
0.0.1 Smooth earth snake
0.0.2 Western worm snakes
"And tons of garters and ribbons are being born in the reptile room this very minute..."

candb Sep 27, 2005 05:12 PM

Thanks for the info, i did leave it overnight but im not positive he ate any of it, i even put him right in front of it and it looked like it was trying to drown himself in it but his mouth was closed, im going to keep trying

rick gordon Sep 27, 2005 02:13 PM

its a scarlet king snake.

Snake_Master Sep 27, 2005 03:45 PM

Face looks more like a scarlet snake..but the pattern is more like a scarlet king..but i would say scarlet snake...

HerperHelmz Sep 27, 2005 04:53 PM

Definitely looks like a scarlet king to me...
-----
Mike
KingPin Reptiles Inc.
Helmz777@aol.com
www.freewebs.com/mikesnake
Updated 9/19 NEW PICS/INFO

Oxyrhopus Sep 27, 2005 08:06 PM

White belly and odd snout means it has to be a scarlet snake despite it does look like a scarlet king. To induce it to feed, try and take its water dish out for a couple days and allow it to become thirsty and place the egg yolk in a small dish at substrate level at a corner of the cage and it will find it and drink it hopefully. Late evening and early morning is best to try this. Also, get some big bull ant/carpenter ant eggs and they will eat the heck out of em. If it does not eat or drink egg in two weeks, perhaps you should let it go where you found it as some small specimens never adjust to captivity. At any stretch of keeping it, if it looks meek, take it to where you found it as long as it has not been exposed to other snakes in your room that may have a disease.

Dan

Oxyrhopus Sep 27, 2005 08:07 PM

focus for that camera or step back a few feet next time.

Dan

candb Sep 27, 2005 08:37 PM

Where do you normally find carpenter eggs or bull eggs. Are they normally in trees or ground, i live in florida and all i find are anole eggs but there to big for the scarlet snake, where do u think i could find the ant eggs?

Oxyrhopus Sep 27, 2005 08:52 PM

Just go into some junk and cardboard in the field and lift it and you will see hundreds of large ants surrounding large eggs. Those are bull and carpenter ant eggs. Now have a net or small shovel and bucket and scoop up the eggs and get out of there quick or else you are gonna be toast from them big ants. Just look for old rotted trees also and peel back the bark and eggs will drop here and there. Its a lot of work but if you are eager, you can get a thousand eggs in an hours work. But 10 ant bites don't make it even. Now anole eggs should be small enough for even a baby scarlet snake to eat. Are you sure you are finding anole eggs and not house gecko eggs which are three times the size? Just put one of those small anole eggs in there and the scarlet will either eat it whole or cut it with specialized teeth for cutting eggs and suck the yolk and eat the shell and look for more. They have quite a nose for anole eggs. I had a baby scarlet snake which I never saw emerge from mulch and if I threw in one tiny anole egg and came back 10 minutes later, the egg was gone and so was the snake back in the mulch.

Keep in mind that they dehydrate 10 times faster than any snake I ever saw. They drink almost every day so just keep a good eye on it and keep the substrate moist but not wet on one end and dry on the other.

Dan

candb Sep 28, 2005 04:57 AM

Thanks for the information, and ya the scarlet has a really pointy nose, when i was holdin him he tryed to hide and tryed digging into my hand, I think i know where to find the ant eggs now so thanks.

Oxyrhopus Sep 28, 2005 10:53 AM

Oh, I forgot to add that when you scoop and dump the eggs into the bucket you are going to obviously bring with it some hot tempered ants. After you gather them, place in a stick or branch that allows the ants to crawl out of the bucket and back to the area of the nest. If they are carrying the eggs, then knock the eggs out of their grip. And don't take all of the eggs, and if you go back in a couple weeks, there should be more eggs. If you totally destroy the nest or area, you may risk ruining chances of returning and getting more. Those snakes are also very shy so if you hold it all the time it may continue to stress and not eat. Personally, I would never hold it at all until it was eating all the time.

Dan

candb Sep 28, 2005 02:28 PM

Hey thanks for the information, ill make sure not to hold it till it eats, is there a certain spot i should put the eggs in the tank. Im gonna try to take some better pictures tonight of him.

Oxyrhopus Sep 28, 2005 10:55 PM

They create a crawl track of the outer border of the cage so any corner should do. And the egg mixture should be place there also. If the scarlet eats them or not, let us all know on this forum. I knew a guy that made money collecting ant eggs for people who maintained scarlet snakes. Oh, just put the food in that same place once a week and it will go to the same spot looking for food.

Dan

candb Sep 29, 2005 01:30 PM

Ok thanks for all the information, im going to go looking for some ant eggs now, also i have another question, when you have a chicken egg do u break it all up and whip it together and put it in a little dish with the broken shells or without?

Oxyrhopus Sep 29, 2005 05:00 PM

Crack the egg in two and mix the contents it in a bowl and then return some mix to half of one of the egg shells and put that half in the cage in the corner supported by mulch at ground level so the scarlet has to run into it or over it. They often smell the egg shell and start to drink it. Sometimes they will press their face against the chicken egg to see if they can break it but of course they cannot. They have small teeth to slice reptile eggs but they do not seem to work on chicken eggs.

Dan

candb Sep 29, 2005 06:52 PM

Ok thanks for the information im going to go do it now, thanks so much , uve been a real help.

candb Sep 29, 2005 07:14 PM

I did exactly what you said, and put the egg in the corner, hopefully he'll eat. By the way you seem to know alot about this snake, do you breed them. Do people even sell them on the market? Thanks

Oxyrhopus Sep 29, 2005 09:05 PM

I've not bred them nor heard of anyone who did. I did however place a male with a female and he bit the heck out of her to stimulate her to breed but she was stressed and I separated them. Maybe next spring?

Dan

candb Sep 30, 2005 09:27 AM

Do you have any pictures of your scarlet snakes, if so i would like to see them. oh ya and He finally ate the egg, i am so glad he finally did thank you so much for the information you gave me, it helped me out alot. And i hope to see pictures of yours also.

Oxyrhopus Oct 01, 2005 10:32 AM

Here is one I posted earlier.

Dan

Oxyrhopus Oct 01, 2005 10:33 AM

Here is another one eating a snake egg.

Dan

candb Oct 01, 2005 08:34 PM

Yours are very nice looking

Jeanin Sep 30, 2005 07:51 PM

forget about the ant eggs if you have anole eggs thats better for them and easier for you its a win win.

candb Oct 01, 2005 08:44 PM

i got some anole eggs today, probably about a dozen. I put one in each corner of the tank because he always crawls along the corners, i hope he eats them, he hastn yet thev been in ther since 2 and its 950 now

Jeanin Oct 01, 2005 09:27 PM

If he does post it as we are curious . You might put a small slit in one of the eggs see if the scent attracts him just a tiny slit .
Those are neat snakes but to hard for me to keep feeding wise.

candb Oct 01, 2005 09:46 PM

ok, im going to go put a small slit in one of the eggs right now, thanks for the information and i hope that the scarlet will eat a egg, im just glad i have the time to feed him, its a new challange for me but im willing to do it

candb Oct 03, 2005 06:33 PM

Today i finally reliezed that he wasnt going to end up eating as i thought he would, i put so much effort in it, but like some of you said it may be better off to let him go, well i did and it was hard, hope the little guy makes it out there. I put him in a safe area.

Oxyrhopus Oct 04, 2005 02:16 PM

Well perhaps he will make it and grow larger and you will find him later? Nature makes them snap back like magic.

Dan

candb Oct 04, 2005 05:50 PM

Ya im just glad that hes in a safe area. And thanks for all the information you gave me about scarlet snakes, it was a real help. And maybe in the future i will find him bigger.

Jeanin Oct 04, 2005 04:54 PM

You did the right thing because he will live. They arent easy snakes to begin with .

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