Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I know this question has been posed many times. My two previous queen snakes were both released within a month for not eating, but my desire to keep this beautiful species is still serious so please treat my question as such. Has anyone even heard second-hand of success? Wild crayfish with their claws removed didn't work for me in the past, nor did raw crayfish meat. I know some of them take fish and frogs as part of their diet and I need to find a way to encourage this. (Crayfish are no longer sold in this state.) Perhaps scenting them with wild crawdads? I have a mature female who has probably found other things to eat in her life to grow so big. She is hand-tame.

Len

Scenting pinky mice with crayfish is worth a try.
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Mike
KingPin Reptiles Inc.
www.kingpinreptiles.com
^ Updated 8/27

From what I've gathered from this forum and personal experiance,they pretty much require freshly molted crayfish. jeff

Here's what I've found so far for anyone interested in this species. There are food vendors online who sell "softcraws" by the dozens, unfortunately the minimum order is usually enormous. There are also bait suppliers although most seem to be attached to fishing tours, not mail order. I just read on a crab forum that you can force shellfish to molt by taking out an eye. I will catch as many as I can and try this.

Len

I couldn't even get them to eat freshly-molted crayfish, which I tried several times - I ended up releasing mine.

Tim