Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello, I have a 6 to 7 inch baby kenyan that does not seem interested in the F/T I am trying to feed him. I was told that he was accepting frozen. I would like to know if there is anything I would do or should I try live?

How long have you had it? If it is 'brand new' I would give it ~7-10 days to chill out (don't handle, etc...). When trying to switch kenyans from live to f/t I let them get hungry (don't feed them for 2-3 weeks) and then I wait for them to poke their head out of the substrate. At this point I put a small pinky mouse on forceps and dangle the pinky in front of it (bouncing if off of the substrate at times). If this doesn't get the reaction you are hoping for I will try tapping them on the head with the pinky mouse.

Best of luck and keep us posted.
-Chris
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Christopher E. Smith
Contact
Captive Bred Herps
Wildlife Research & Consulting Services, LLC

So, don't take the snake out to feed it?

One more question for you. I bought xs pinkies for my small kenyan, but I also have a larger 11 inch kenyan. She ate 3 without a problem. How many should I feed her?

I would try feeding the new kenyan in the cage at first (to get it started). I feed my kenyans 1 food item about as thick as it is, once every 7-10 days.

-Chris
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Christopher E. Smith
Contact
Captive Bred Herps
Wildlife Research & Consulting Services, LLC

Kyle,
You hit one of the big issues with young Eryx: many will prefer live pinks in the beginning. If you are moving it to a separate feeding unit as you stated earlier, then you will likely have problems getting it to feed. Some tolerate this, but many will not. You should always feed in the primary unit as these are shy snakes as juveniles and moving them is going to put them off feed in many cases.

I had a large breeding colony of Eryx conicus in the 1980's and 90's. The young always fed the best when kept on an inch or two of fine sand and given live pinks left in overnight. Out of a couple of hundred young produced, I never had one that failed to feed. Substrate temps should be in the mid to upper 80's, and humidity relatively low. Always measure your temps just slightly under the surface of the sand. I always used flexwatt under half the unit which also supplied a cooler side, and did not use an overhead heat source. Shavings don't work as well as sand for the young as I believe they need the security of something more substantial pressing against them until they get older.

Kelly

Thank you everyone for the information. I just wanted to let you guys know that he finally ate. I moved him to a deli cup and let him sit with a live pinky for half an hour. He was not interested at all when I was there, but when I left after about 15min he was constricting it. =)
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-Kyle
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1.1 Anery