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Three of four hatchling Texas pink coachwhips from Glades Herp have now eaten voluntarily. One still takes defrosted pink mice via tease feeding although she swallows voluntarily once the food is in her mouth. Two of the others eat anoles. The best male started eating live pinks voluntarily and today ate a defrosted pink mouse left on the floor of his cage in front of his hiding bark. He's already begun to gain size on his littermates and if this early behavior is a sign of his attitude he may become a monster snake--power feeding a coachwhip can keep a person busy but the results are spectacular. Once he works his way up to large enough meals (defrosted fuzzy mice) I can think about color-enhancing food additives like Canthaxanthin drops or bits of raw chicken inserted under the skin of his defrosted mouse. Doesn't take much to color up a pink coachwhip.

Two of the four red X Texas pink hatchlings bred here have started eating anoles voluntarily, the other two still need to be tease fed. Uuuhhhhggggg.....what a chore. Me, they bite like banshees. Food, not so much.

To quote Indiana Jones, "snakes....why did it have to be...snakes?"

Mine are hatching now, 18 total, half the clutch is out and hideing, I'll post some pics soon but they will look just like they did last year, here are last years anyway...

...in a demonic sort of way. 18. I think I would have the rope over the ceiling beam and be standing on a chair at that point. I assume they can be expected to accept anoles, which are plentiful in your area?

I used to live in Arizona where feeder lizards were easy to come by. I don't live there any more and having to buy feeder lizards leaves me little choice but to use brown anoles. They work out OK but they climb the sides of the snake cages and the little coachwhips look up at them like kids whose kite is stuck in a tree. Frustrating. Can't wait until all are eating pinkies. Although I suppose the mice can wait forever for that day.

Yea I get that too, and I like your analogy, the kite in the tree, thats funny! I do have plenty of Anoles here, What I do is walk a mile down Midnight pass near the beach, it's a long road with a chain link fence on most of one side and wood privacy fences on most of the other, I collect them in a Carnation Coffee creamer container, modified to hang around my neck and place some ice and a paper towell inside, then drill a buntch of eighth inch holes in it and after I get about 30 in there I rush home and dump em into a bran new un-scratched 5Gl Home Depot bucket, when the bucket gets empty the babies are all in shed so I go a week or so and go get more, My nephew (11 years old) helps me sometimes, I pay him .50 apiece. I also pay $1.36 for mice too, I don't breed them, and the ADs don't eat rats so I spend $40.00 pr/wk all summer long, and If you really consider all that and how hard to start and how much time this species requires they should be priced just like their cousins the Indigo$ and cribo$, Mine will be available on the "other snakes" Classifieds ($50.00 CBs) Monday after I get back from Daytona!

Glad they are heading out Joe, I hope you get a few who automatically feed, that would be ideal eh? I fed their parents mice this morning that I gut loaded with beef liver......yummy lol.

Although out of four Glades babies only one still does not self-feed and she voluntarily swallows if tease started. The best of the bunch is a male who started eating live pink mice after three separate meals of anoles. Then I let him wait a day or two and offered a defrosted pinky, which he ate. He ate his next defrosted pinky the next day and today he ate a defrosted pinky large enough to have its first fuzz.

He's not related to Cujo, who ate a large defrosted rat this afternoon. I wonder what that Texas coachwhip looked like after swallowing that rabbit. Probably looked like a rabbit.

Wearing a coachwhip leotard.

The baby westerns hatched here are two-for-two on feeding. Both males have eaten anoles but both females still need to be tease fed--held in one hand and allowed to strike at food held in the other hand, preferably without hitting the other hand. After several strikes they usually swallow whatever is in their mouth. Very time consuming, as I have to continue to hold them until they finish swallowing to avoid scaring them by moving them to put them down.

In other news, five of nine Aesculapian ratsnakes are feeding voluntarily, both adult Regal ringnecks are eating every baby snake I bred for feeders, only three of 18 hatchling Eastern Kingsnakes are eating voluntarily and all 9 baby Oregon red-spotted gartersnakes are eating defrosted pinkies. A few of those are stunners, too. I have some baby salt marsh mangrove watersnakes which eat defrosted minnows and the bloody gray-banded kings finally all eat defrosted mice after a year on anoles.

Now I have to finish training the Sonoran whipsnake to eat off forceps--she already eats mice after her first year on anoles, but she just started taking defrosted mice off forceps. She's still not satisfied with the forceps but I'll let her get hungry enough and she'll learn to overlook them.

The southern black racers take food off forceps just fine--both are about four feet long now. The Blue racer takes his food off forceps but he likes to shake it--one time he shook it so hard he ripped a bit of hide off the mouse carcass, which flung across the cage leaving him sitting there with a tuft of white mouse hair sticking out of his mouth--he looked like some sort of Tim Burton Santa Claus. We call him The Mangler. Racers are not right in the head.

At least the ratsnakes are good eaters. One time I had a row of small Sterilites laid out on the floor, each with a fuzzy defrosting on the lid, for the occupant to eat. I checked each Sterilite before defrosting to be sure each occupant was ready to eat--nobody in shed. I didn't close one of the Sterilites properly and one of the baby Corn snakes got loose. When I came back into the room he had escaped but stopped to eat the fuzzy on his neighbor's Sterilite. That's a rat snake for you--"I'm free! I'm free--ooo food." The Labrador retrievers of the snake world.

We're not talking about the Desert horned lizards and their need for fresh ants every day. I'm too old for this.

KW? Kevin, Ken, Kile, Kirk...? Kelly? After reading that and a few more of your other long posts all I can say is I'm glad I'm not the only guy to put out so much for this uncommonly kept species,I have to commend you considering their popularity and value, you seem to have it down too, congrats on the Westerns eating, I'm down to 14 now, gave some to Max at the Expo in Daytona, which was kina dull, 80% Balls and 10% Geckos, never see CWs there but I keep stating that the snake world is just exploding right now, I know this forum is quiet but it's interesting and informitive and new posters all the time, I'm thinkin all the millions of new Indigo fans will spill over to Coachwhips, eventually! anyway, keep up the good work. oh! website KW?...

Hopefully with successive captive bred generations the self feeders will cease to be so few and far between. If we can get a few drymarchon guys ( like myself) hooked on them it will really help. I have invited a local dry keeping friend to come see my new easterns, Hes going to love them and in turn hopefully want some 9 and spread the want). I am willn gto bet that captive breds from captive bred parents will have a higher percentage of easy starters.

Im eyeballing a red coachwhip that DTS has on kingsnake right now.. says hes a tame mouse eater.. we shall see.

I offered my easterns pieces of chicken when I was feeding my False water cobras and I swear the male ALMOST took it off the tongs. he wanted too but he is still unsure of me as it has been less than a week since they have been here.. I bet with time he will take alternative food sources other than his 5 pack of mice per week. The female wanted nothing to do with me or my stupid chicken on a stick lol

How are the babys doing Joe?

The babies are still underneath the coconut, but yesterday we got 5" of rain and lastnight the frogs, toads and anoles were under every tire and on every leaf so I've got lots of food already. Too hot for snakes this time of year, drove for two hours lastnight and seen not a single snake, dead or alive, strange cause we have not had that much rain in one day for five years. anyway jay I'll post some pics as soon as I see some sheds in the container.

Its an odd year for snakes here too.. I went cruising 3 night in a row looking for gophers and blanked except for a DOR cal king.

looking forward to seeing the babys! I moved the parents into a 6' cage and they are even happier now, its got a bi level shelf int he back and I think they are becoming coopers hawks because they will sit up on that shelf then pounce on the mice..its hilarious.

I never thought of a shelf, maybe I'll install one see how it goes. the babies have been fed two 2 1/2 Inch anoles each and seem to have grown 2 inches in a week.