Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have 2 gray bands that I bought 6 weeks ago. One is eating anything I give to him. The other ate a small unscented pinky 2 weeks after I bought her. It has now been almost 4 weeks after that and she has not eaten. I have tried braining the pinky, scenting it, and parts of it. What else can I try? She is very small compared to the other, and they were the same size when I bought them. They are both living in identical environments too. Please help.

Have you tried putting the snake in a deli cup with a pinky? Some people use a very small paper bag to do the same thing. Try scenting like this too. Good luck. Let us know how this works. Derek

Yes, that is how I got her to eat the first time(unscented). Although, I have not yet tried the scented pinky in that same situation. That is what I will try next. Should I brain, scent, and feed in a deli cup all at the same time? What is the next step after that if it doesn't work? Any more ideas? I will try to feed her on Wednesday. I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks for the help.

You should try the small paper sack method. I have had a lot of success with that trick.

Get a small brown paper sack (sandwhich kind) and put the snake along with the pinky inside. Fold down the top several inches and either tape or staple it shut. Leave them this way overnight.

Try unscented first, then brained, then a scented one.

One other "trick" that I used to use all the time with alterna and thayeri is the bait and switch.

Get a small dead feeder lizard and hold it up to the snake. Have a very small pinky ready! Let the snake smell lizard only...hold it right up to it's tongue. As soon as the animal starts to open it's mouth switch it with the pinky....but keep the lizard right next to it so the animal still smells the lizard but it's actually eating the pinky. After a few times doing this they normally will take the pinky without the presence of the lizard. I have found that this works much better than actually scenting the pinky.

I tried each of those methods, with one day in between each attempt. She still won't eat. What is my next step? Thanks.

I often wonder why people do not use live pinkies when first trying out baby snakes. I believe that movement is a trigger for some snakes. Alterna being kingsnakes are also attracted by sight as well as smell.

I had a clutch of Langtry babies that I put in small sterilite containers and placed live pinkys with them 10 minutes later. Every one of them ate by morning.

If you get it to eat live, eventually it will be very easy to convert to dead then frozen/dead.

ECT

Thanks for your input but the only pet store around here is petco, and they never have live pinkies. Any other ideas would be helpful.

I went to a local small pet store and got a live pinkie. Cupped it with the snake. The snake was more interested in getting out of the deli cup. The pinkie was crawling, suckling at the air and the snake, it was disturbing. I was hoping the snake would just eat it already. I left them alone for quite a while. When I came back the snake was on the opposite side of the deli cup, coiled tight. Seemed AFRAID of the pinkie.

So, I opened the deli cup, left it in her habitat with the pinkie inside (under the light to keep it warm), and left for a while. Again, the snake wanted nothing to do with it.

When my son (10) came home, looked at it a while, he said "This is disturbing, dad, can you get rid of it?"

So, now I'm stuck with a live pinkie and don't know what to do. I can't raise it and keep it as a pet. No way to feed it. I felt terrible, but I felt the most humane way to dispose of it was to freeze it and then I'd still have it to feed to one of my eaters (corn snake and milk snake). I felt sick the whole time it was in there. I haven't even gone back to look yet to see what position it froze into... yuck!

Up til now, frozen pinks were nothing to me. Now I don't know how I'll do moving up in size to bigger mice... I still hate seeing those trays of live mice at shows...

Walt

P.S. It's a Christmas Grey Banded. Here's a pic. I don't know what else to do, except wait a few days and try again. I've already wasted two F/T pinks on it. I'd hate to have to go out and get lizards now. I didn't even know you could get F/T lizards? Where do you get them?

I mean, I don't care if I feed F/T lizards or F/T mice...

Walt