Peter and Sara made some excellent suggestions (as did the other post). Neonate popes, like many of this genus, tend to be lizard and frog eaters as babies in the wild. I've had luck scenting a head of a pink with my "lizard mix" and worked well. Patience will be your best asset right now as it takes a ton of patience. Many will strike, hold and let go...you just have to be persistent - it is definitely an art at times as you have to have the right "feel" when doing this. If you have access to live small anolis lizards or house geckos that could be a nice way to jump start a stubborn animal. I have also smeared a pink head with quail and that has worked.

You might want to contact Tim Cole at Austin Reptile Services as he breeds quite a few and might have some helpful hints as well.

Good luck.

Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center

>>I have looked for months for any documentation on feeding baby pope's vipers to no avail. I even posted on here before about how to get non-eating pope's to eat and I never got any real answer. Here's the situation: I have 2 pope's vipers who would eat initially but only by assist feeding and it took about an hour for them to even accept food. Now only one is eating at all, and still being unbelievably difficult. I am trying every part of the mouse to get them to eat, heads, tails, feet,etc.. The other viper will not even hold food in his mouth for a moment. Neither have ever even tried to strike at me or any food item at all. Is this common with pope's? Is there any way to get them to eat? Even feeding a full size mouse tail down their throats it gets spit back up. The one who wont eat has not even unhinged his fangs in months for anything at all. This is starting to worry me as it seems there is no way to get him to eat. Is this snake a lost cause? Please somebody must have experienced this before, or could someone point me to some documentation on these vipers. Even the wikipedia article on them is pretty empty... it seems like there is no info on these snakes and their eating habits anywhere!
-----
Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center at Elawa Farm
Lake Forest, IL

[ Show Entire Thread ]