Reptile & Amphibian Forums

...and racers.

Lots of replies and some questions to the post on March 20. Sorry I did not reply sooner--for what it's worth, here goes:

To Kevin's question re: dietary supplement, one option is to buy some Canthaxanthin supplements from a health food distributor. Canthaxanthin is sold as a dietary supplement and is taken in a gelcap. Each gelcap contains a small amount of liquid Canthaxanthin. If you have a coachwhip with red or pink potential, and if your snake is eating defrotsted or killed prey, you might try slipping a Canthaxanthin gelcap into the body of the food animal before feeding it to the snake. I don't think pink coachwhips need constant dosing with color enhancers, but periodic dosing will probably keep them looking bright. There is also Canthaxanthin in store-bought chicken. I've fed raw chicken to two of my coachwhips, and their pink color increased afterward. Canthaxanthin, BTW, is the color enhancer used for captive flamingoes in zoos. Speaking of chicken, sometimes snakes that are reluctant to eat will eat chicken or chicken-scented prey--worth a shot if you have a problem eater.

To Benjamin's question regarding lighting, I tried ZooMed lights and was not entirely satisfied with them. I prefer Lumichrome, as those have the highest Color Rendering Index of any manufactured bulb, unless there is brand-new news on that front I'm not yet aware of. Lumichrome 6500K have a CRI of 98. Sunlight has a CRI of 100. I buy Lumichrome bulbs in bulk at budgetlighting.com. You need to go to the search box at the top right corner of the page and enter "Lumichrome" then click "search" to get to Budget Lighting's Lumichrome page. Best price I've found if you need a lot of bulbs, as I do. However, if Benjamin is having good luck with ZooMed bulbs, perhaps there is no need to switch. Snakes are less sensitive to light than lizards, so if things are going well, I say let it ride--I'm not a believer in tinkering with success.

To regalringneck (hi and good to see you're still around, BTW): that's a dandy setup for a small coachwhip. Lots of security and places to climb. I have branches like that in my smaller whipsnake (Sonoran Whipsnake) cage and she seems to be more comfortable with them than without. Also, cool pic of the King eating the coachwhip, which I did notice was a road kill from the guts oozing out the cloaca. Waste not. Very nice King, too.

To joscovry: my snakes will sometimes periscope into the slipstream created by the air moving through the cage and flick their tongues into the flow. I'm reminded of dogs sticking their heads out of car windows to ramjet air into their nostrils (dogs must think technology is way cool). Good air flow also carries the odor of live mice (always some live mice nearby for spur-of-the-moment feeding) into the cages, which may explain why my snakes seem to always be ready to eat--it's like living in a house where there is always a Thanksgiving turkey in the oven--drool! Great looking cages too BTW. I don't shoot digital yet so a friend has promised to take photos of my cages with his digital setup so I can finally post some pics.

Sighthunters rule!

Thanks a lot for answering! Lumichrome bulbs are unfortunately not distributed in Europe; the only solution is to order - in the U.S. - a batch of 27, which is a bit beyond my needs. Still, I was suggested by a friend to switch from Reptisun 5,0 to ReptiGlo 10,0 (by Exoterra). This, coupled with a good day-ligt tube, was connected to an electronic ballast, and both tubes were fitted with a reflector. The trick IMMEDIATELY triggered a much better feeding answer from my female Desert-Striped.
Another question concerning your Sonoran: is there any substance in the statement by Mara (questionable reference, I know), saying this species is reluctant to consume small mammals?

Baby Sonoran Whips do seem to prefer lizards. They are hardly alone in this--many baby snakes are more readily drawn to lizards than to mice. My Sonoran Whip female ate some small fuzzies when she first came home, but it turned out she did it just to bust my chops. Soon, she refused anything but lizards, but at least she ate Brown Anoles. I fed her as much as she would take for a summer, then hibernated her. When she came out of hibernation I offered her a small fuzzy mouse and she accepted it. I decided she had seen her last lizard, and I'm very grateful that she's eaten steadily on small fuzzies all season so far. I see no indication that she will try to switch back.

As young racers and whipsnakes grow, they gain strength and confidence, and gradually take larger prey. I hope in time to get my Sonoran Whip to eat fresh-killed mice off forceps, or left at the edge of her hide bark. That may be some time off, but for now I'm satisfied to have her eat fuzzies a few times a week.

A friend of mine has a younger Sonoran Whip which still eats only anoles. These are such elegant, clever snakes, I think they're worth the effort but they are definitely not boa constrictors. Boas are such great feeders, I have to restrict their food intake to avoid letting them become too heavy. I doubt I'll have that problem with the Sonoran Whip.

Thanks for this further reply! So the feeding habits of the Sonoran Whip are not that different from those of the other members of the genus. For sure they are among the quite few snakes that should be kept virtually as fat as possible, what you accurately stressed out in your "how to keep" post. I'm trying to achieve this with my Desert Striped Whip, being fortunate so far.

Best regards,

Benjamin.