Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello Guys,

I bought a pair of cb. baby Vipera xanthina (ottoman viper) from a respectable breeder and the snakes looked nice and healthy when they arrived. (One of them was smaller than the other but looked fine).

I got them set up in their tanks with room temperature of mid 80s in day time and low 80s at night. After a week of getting them settled, I offered food. The bigger one had a great feeding response and ate immediately but the smaller one is refusing food. I have tried almost anythink that comes to mind like paper bag method, scneting the mouse, frozen vs. live but the little guy refuses. It looked quite thin to me yesterday (its been three weeks) so I tried to forcefeed it with a tiny pinky mouse but no luck with that either.

Can you guys give me more ideas? What should I do next?

I am keeping them in 10 gallon tanks (tehy are tiny) with no extra heat source accept for the room temp and paper bedding. Clean water is always available.

Thanks beforehand.
Yasin
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We are the best GALATASARAY

Have you tried keeping them in smaller setups? I've never kept this species before. Is that nighttime temp in the appropriate range? I'm not saying that it isn't, it just seems that 80's at night is rather warm, especially for a small snake.

Have you tried offering frogs, skinks, other prey items etc? If it were my snake I'd move it to smaller cage, and probably deli-cup the animal with a live pink overnight and see if it helps.

I agree. Baby snakes have difficulty (mostly) finding a prey item in a large enclosure.
I would deli-cup it and leave it overnight.
Randal

I forgot to mention, it might be in a shed cycle. It might be refusing to eat if thats the case.

Randal

I have worked with ottoman vipers for around 10 years now, we keep all our juveniles in 6qt rubbermaids with heat tape. Background temps are in the mid 70's with the heat at 90. Ours feed readily on rodents, you may want to try lizards or lizard scented pinkies as some vipera prefer lizards as a first meal. They are quite hardy, rarely have I encountered a feeding problem with V. xanthina. If you need any more assistance feel free to contact me Lepidusman@msn.com I'd be more than happy to help.

James

I found the little snake death today. It is sad as the clutchmate I bought with it is doing wonderful...

Anyways...thanks
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We are the best GALATASARAY