Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I had a clutch of 14 emeralds born on 12/28/08. Half have shed by now the other have not. I tried feeding the half that had shed already tonight with no success. I tried live day or two day old pink rats. Temps are monitored by a herpstat thermo at 83 degrees f. Humidity about 70-80% during day and allowed to drop at night. 3 of them struck a few times but just grab it and dropped it and the rest just ran. I tried the feeding session for about 2 hours between them all. Not wanting the pinks to die early I fed them to my other snakes. I used both rubber tipped 12" tweezers and 18" hemostats. Gonna give it another week then try again. Any suggestions or sure fire tips you guys might have?

Ok...

1 - Use crawler mice because they move around more and it frustrates the snakes enough to make them strike even if they aren't hungry.

2 - Take everything out of the enclosure make sure it's bone dry (even a few drops of water might lower the temp of the crawler if it gets wet) and put a piece of paper towel down as substrate. No water bowl, no misting...nothing. The enclosure should be small enough where the snake will have no problem striking from a perch to the bottom of the enclosure.

3 - Put the live crawler in the enclosure right at lights out for the night.

4 - Check back in the morning and see who ate.

5 - If a snake didn't feed kill the crawler and try tease feeding. I have a warm mist humidifier running and hold the crawler over mist so it heats it up a bit. I will then touch the emerald on one side of the body maybe 1/3 down from the head. The snake will usually whip around because it feels the heat. When it does pull the crawler away and touch the emerald on the opposite side of the body...and it should whip it's head around again. Again...pull the crawler away and hold it over the mist again and repeat. When the snake gets agitated enough leave the crawler in place one time and it should strike. If it doesn't repeat a couple of times and then move on to another. I would give the snake a week and repeat from step one.

Your babies look healthy so they just need a little coaxing

Lemme know how it works and if you need any further help give me a ring!

Matt
(561) 373-5063
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Matt Lerer
Ghi Reptiles

Thanks Matt. Gonna give them about another week or 2 and let them get real hungry. They are all almost shed by now. I think 3-4 left. On another forum I've been talking with a few other corallus breeders. Time will tell.