Reptile & Amphibian Forums

A couple weeks ago I bought a pair of nice rough scales from this season. The problem is that they will not feed for me. I have tried all the tricks, deli-cups, braining etc...no interest whatsoever. Looking at a range map it would appear that Roughscales could be subject to a period of dormancy in the wild. Does anyone have any ideas...should I put them down like colubrids for the winter? I have never hibernated sands so if anyone has any ideas or tips I would appreciate it. _Thanks

I never hibernated any of my conicus and never had any feeding issues. The only ones I cooled were the adults prior to breeding by dropping the night temps to the mid-60's and the day temps up to around 80 for a couple of months and also shortened the photoperiod. I was working with a large group of adults and always got a 80 to 90% pregnancy rate. They will breed without cooling but with not anywhere near the consistency that you will have when you cool them. I would definitely not cool young conicus. I had the best luck starting young conicus by placing them in small warm containers with about 2 inches of fine sand. Leave live pinks in with them overnight. The vast majority of young would eat within a week or so of the first feeding attempt when using this method. If they have been eating good and then stopped, I would be checking the substrate temp as it could be too cool. Good luck.

Kelly