Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,
I'd appreciate any feedback or advice you might be able to give concerning a pair of c.h. black racers I obtained this summer. They are currently cooling right now because of their preferred diet. Snakes ONLY! Yikes! From the beginning they refused all of the other obvious choices,e.g., frogs, skinks, anoles, and crickets. All were offered live. Then I tried frozen/thawed frogs, skinks, and anoles. Nothing. Then I tried live baby garters, and WHAM! Since then they will only take baby garters, red-bellies, and ringnecks. They will also take them frozen/thawed. They have shown good growth and are beginning their ontogenetic color change. There is no fooling them, though. Pinkies scented with any of the aforementioned snakes are flatly refused. My question is, how long does it usually take them to make the switch from this juvenile diet to mice? Any advice on how to switch them over to pinks would be appreciated, since I know you work with coachwhips, and they can be a REAL challenge in this regard when they are very young.
Regards,
Mike Collalto

That's interesting.... But odd to say the least.

What methods of scenting have you tried?

Using snakes such as garter snakes as feeders usually isn't a probably for scenting when it's that time. Make a garter snake crap on a pinky... And offer the pinky to the racers. With the musk that ringnecks produce.. The same can be tried with them.

If that doesn't work, you could always wrap a shed skin of one of the snakes around a pinky.

Something else I've done... Cut a garter snake's head off, and dig it's teeth into the pinky's head. And offer that.
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Mike
KingPin Reptiles Inc.
www.freewebs.com/mikesnake
www.freewebs.com/badyear2005

Get them hot 90F then feed the usual prey item try followup with pinkey scented with the usual prey item. This feeding should be back to back.