Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello.

I have 1.1 Rhyncophis boulengeri juveniles and one of them won't start eating. I have tried with pinki mice, fish, i have left it over night in a smaller box with both mice and pinkie and feeding in water and nothing works. So i wonder if there is anyone experiensed breeder that could give me some ideas how to get it to eat. My other one eats like crazy.

My english is a bit rusty but i hope i made my self understandable.

Cheers, Ronny

unfortuneately, I have never attempted to keep that species. I have had luck with other colubrid pickie eaters using small lizards, usually anoles. Hope it helps. Your english was better than mine and it's my first language. lol

I put a bowl with live feeder guppies in the cage with them. This is a good way to get them started.

Thanks Rick

My hatchlings would not take pinkies for around 3 months, i had some success with live fish, but did not have a readily available supply.
I found that they would bite a pink if you teased them gently, then would swallow most times.
While on vacation a friend fed them for me, he placed a d/f pink on the highest branch in the cage, and it dissapeared overnight, after that i have never looked back, they are now huge, and are amongst my best feeding animals.
Good luck with yours.

Thanx for the replys, i did try with leaving the snake in a small box with fish over night and that did not help......i'm thinking of buying "lizard scent drops" (don't know the name of the product) and see if that might help.

Cheers, Ronny

and is made by T-Rex. We just bought some today at a reptile show. Make sure that you check the expiration date on the bottle, as it doesn't stay good forever.
-----
phflame
kingsnake.com host

This species is likely an active hunter of small fish in streams. I'd try putting the fish in a water jug and letting the snake hunt them. Also put f/t mice on limbs, etc, when snakes get a little larger. You might want to check your temp range also.

TC

Hello Ronny,
Your english is fine- perfectly understandable. I have a pair of Rhyncophis boulengeri also, and the male was difficult to switch from live small fish to frozen thawed pinks. Here's what I did. Offered live small fish in his water dish (the splashing attracted his attention and he spent much of his time prowling around his water dish) in the evenings. Once he was eating the fish regularly, I started offering them on tongs (this only took a couple of tries before he accepted them). Then moved to frozen thawed fish from tongs. Then offering a fish on tongs and switching to a fish scented pinkie when he started striking at the fish. Then fish scented frozen thawed pinkies and finally, just offering frozen thawed pinkies. The process took about 12 feedings (3 months or so).

Here are a few feeding pictures to give you an idea on prey size.

Good Luck!

-----
Lora