A few interesting feeding observations...

[Zephyr]

Well, seeing as I've been getting my snakes ready for brumation, I've been cramming them full of food. Some of the ladies, however, the red-sided and the butlers, were being a tad picky. The butler's only took nightcrawler's every once in a while; she was looking a little thin. The red-sided's a consistent feeder, but indoors she was being a bit of a prick.
So, my friend and I, (person365) broke open his compost heap and grabbed a bunch of worms. Most of them were much smaller than nightcrawlers, but there were a few that were as big as, if not bigger than, crawlers but had a different color and "Shape." She immediately took to these.
This was all after the initial feeding frenzy that occurred at around 4-ish. (Mostly my easterns eating.)
So as I was feeding the butler's, the red-sided showed a little interest in the worms and pinkies I had. She's shown no interest a few hours ago.
Within minutes she had eaten a worm, a chunk of worm or two, and 4 pinkies.
I'm thinking that these may be helpful tips for stubborn/non-feeders:
-Try feeding more towards dusk, when the snakes would naturally be hunting.
-Try to offer a variety of each food item. Instead of tilapia, try salmon, instead of nightcrawlers, try dew worms, etc.
:)

[ssssnakeluvr]

dew worms????? got a pic of them??? hopefully you aren't getting red wigglers.... we have small worms here that are pink and don't have the purple head like the nightcrawlers.....lot smaller...my snakes love them!! I have had a lot of luck using worms with non-feeders. all my adults are off feed for the 2nd week...one more week and off to the garage!!!!

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

my adults are starting to go off feed too and its ANNOYING!! Kyle... if those radix you sent me do not eat saturday when I come home from the show with fresh pinkies and other goodies... they are going into brumation! The female kept sniffing all the food I offered her like she was gonna eat it... then turned up her nose!!!

[ssssnakeluvr]

my adults are starting to go off feed too and its ANNOYING!! Kyle... if those radix you sent me do not eat saturday when I come home from the show with fresh pinkies and other goodies... they are going into brumation! The female kept sniffing all the food I offered her like she was gonna eat it... then turned up her nose!!!
well...you can send her to me!!! :cool:

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

lol.... shes naughty... but i do like her!!! she's got spunk and she's so curious!

[Zephyr]

Dew worms are just what I call the worms I dig up... My friend and I simply name them either garden, dew, nightcrawler, or Canadian nightcrawler.

[Lori P]

All of my garters and ribbons refused food on Wednesday-- every one! That hasn't happened to me before. Tis the season, I guess!

[jitami]

It is annoying... Sly has been a pain for the last two weeks, eventually eating, but not without much effort on my part! Then yesterday one of the babies, Frack, turned down food.. WHAT??? He's always been a little more finicky than his brother, but has never totally skipped a meal. I'm getting to offer him food again in a few minutes. Their tank got pretty chilly(into the mid 60's cool side) overnight despite having a heat lamp on. Right now they have a heat mat and two lamps to warm them up. We're up to 78/74 and climbing a bit. I'm going to have to buy some additional heat for the adults tho... sigh... I'm really trying to keep the adults, who are wild caught, from self brumating.

[ssssnakeluvr]

It is annoying... Sly has been a pain for the last two weeks, eventually eating, but not without much effort on my part! Then yesterday one of the babies, Frack, turned down food.. WHAT??? He's always been a little more finicky than his brother, but has never totally skipped a meal. I'm getting to offer him food again in a few minutes. Their tank got pretty chilly(into the mid 60's cool side) overnight despite having a heat lamp on. Right now they have a heat mat and two lamps to warm them up. We're up to 78/74 and climbing a bit. I'm going to have to buy some additional heat for the adults tho... sigh... I'm really trying to keep the adults, who are wild caught, from self brumating.


that might not be possible...some will go off feed period....if mine od that and they aren't breeders I put them down for a month and bring them back out....stimulates the appetite...

[jitami]

Yeah, I've never been successful with Sly in the past, but he seems no worse for wear come spring. Since he did eventually eat this week I'm going to keep the temps up and see if I can get him to continue eating, if not, I'll remove all heat sources, but not necessarily chill them... I just don't have means to. This has worked for him in the past so we'll have to see. If Ella keeps eating I'll move one of them to another tank and continue to keep her warm.

This little cold spell really has me struggling with temps, tho. The heat pad alone is keeping the babies' 20L at 93/71. Nice gradient, but too warm on the hot side? Of course, the thermometer on that side is down in the substrate so maybe the actual air temp isn't too bad? Right now, yesterday's eater is curled up in the log right over the heat pad(heat pad/glass/paper towel/1" thick wood/snake) and yesterday's non eater is way over in the coolest corner... dunno...

[drache]

somehow it doesn't bother me when they go off food
but then I know that mine are pretty well fed to begin with
but this is my question here:
if they want to brumate, why not let them?
I mean how would you feel, if you just wanted to get some sleep and somebody kept shoving food at you?

[Lori P]

Is it adequate to just leave them alone... let them do their thing in their current set ups... or are you saying we really should cool them? I wasn't planning to, don't quite feel ready to do that... but if it's better for them I should do it. I was hoping I could just let them be where they are.

[drache]

I really have no idea whether they "need" it or not
personally I wouldn't think so and many of mine don't
but if they obviously want to, I let them - less work and expense for me
if they all did, I'd get lonely in winter

[infernalis]

last 2 winters we did not brumate anything, they all kept on eating.

We leave the lights on a lot, that may have something to do with it.

Going to chill the ladies this year though, I don't think Masubius will old enough yet, so I'll have Cheeto do the honors with the red hued girl "Diana" (Goddess of fertility)

The babies from Scott are mostly taking whole pinks now, Masubius looked really "Lumpy" last night:D I figured that if these tiny little milks can "take down" a whole pinky, then garters that are 4-5 months old could too.

The little ribbons from Kyle look the most deformed after eating a pink:eek:

[jitami]

if they want to brumate, why not let them?
I mean how would you feel, if you just wanted to get some sleep and somebody kept shoving food at you?

lol That's a very good point Rhea! And without real chilling Sly does just fine going off feed from now until about March normally.