Problem feeder

[GarterNovice]

I can only get my ribbon snake to eat live minnows. I would like to get him to eat salmon or trout something like that but he won't touch it. He is just not interested. I have even tried putting a minnow and salmon in at the same time and he ate the live fish but not the salmon.

Also I am having trouble finding good feeder fish. They keep dieing. I had 11 yesterday and now have one. They keep dieing every time I get them. It is getting rather annoying. Any suggestions?

[infernalis]

A few suggestions, the dying fish sound a lot like petco Rosy reds.

They KILLED 3 of my most prized and expensive snakes.

Rosy reds are bad for snakes.http://www.thamnophis.com/forum/general-talk/3456-thiaminase.html

To help with fish fillets, Try cutting it into slender strips about an inch long.

Then grasp the fish in tweezers/hemostats or reptile tongs and gently wave it in front of the snakes face.

This is called "Tease feeding" and many times the "Tease" will trigger the snake to take the food item for you.

If you are not buying Rosy reds or goldfish, then I say put the dead ones in the freezer so they don't spoil, and grab a thawed out fish by it's tail using the tease method above.

Many times snakes will show no interest in a dead food item that just lays there, they need the motion to tell them it's food.

By nature snakes are hunters, they are constantly looking for motion combined with scent to trigger the desire to eat.

Hope that helps.

[Lori P]

Do you have any bait shops near you? They often carry a hardier type of minnow. I don't know where you live, but around here, even a lot of gas stations carry live feeder minnows for the fishermen. I've personally found them to be much heavier, healthier, and long lived than the pet store minnows...

[GarterNovice]

Yeah we were getting them from Pet co. They are Rosy red's. I would like to get him off live eventually but till then. What are the best live fish to feed?

[infernalis]

Yeah we were getting them from Pet co. They are Rosy red's. I would like to get him off live eventually but till then. What are the best live fish to feed?

Guppies, all the way:D

Those Rosy reds wiped out my Cherry red flame "Magma", my Melanistic eastern, and my prized Infernalis.

[Sid]

Patrick, what has worked well for me on my Garters and my one ribbon is to get the small common guppies and chop pinkies into a size approriate for the specimen being fed. Put both together in the water bowl, the guppies moving trigger a feeding responce, but are smaller than the mouse parts and the snake will end up getting the mouse part and will eat it.