I am by no means a TP copper expert, but i do keep and breed a lot of timber rattlesnakes. with the timbers, they are born LATE in the year...sometimes in very cold climates. Often these babies are born in Sep to Oct and then immediately burmate. They will not take their first meal till spring. Perhaps someone that lives in west TX can shed some more light on this. do they drop late in the year also? if so, perhaps after a cool down period, your babies will come up ready to eat. with baby southern copperheads, i have had some success getting them started on fish. we read from the researchers, that the yellow tail at birth is used to lure in fish to be preyed on. (i have personally never seen this in the wild) so, based on that supposition, i tried putting baby southern coppers in a deli cup. putting about an inch of water in the cup, placing a rock in the cup that is about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 inched thick, so the snake can sit on the rock just out of the water. then i placed a feeder guppy in the water. i left the coppers for 48 hours. its not a science, but some of the coppers that were refusing pinks, took the fish. its a cheap and simple process, probably worth a try with the TP. if you try, please let me know the results. thank you.

Chuck Hurd


Chuck Hurd Serpentology

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