Priceless Guppies!

[guidofatherof5]

Up until today I haven’t given any updates to our girl Lucky’s babies.
All of them but 3 have been eating like little pigs (worms, pinky parts, salmon). The 3 in question have not eaten since they were born 3 weeks ago. They do the typical “go to the food dish, look around, sniff and leave”. Tonight after the others had eaten I could see these 3 were losing ground in size and weight.
I decided to make a trip to the pet store and purchased some guppies. 10 for $2. Back home I removed the legless pigs from there home so the non-eater would be isolated. The guppies went into a clear shallow bowl with just enough water for swimming. At first, the 3 holdouts could have cared less. You know, look, sniff and leave. Just when I thought it was hopeless, one of the guppies jumped out of the water. Just as it hit the bottom of the enclosure one of the babies sprang at it and nailed it from across the cage:eek: The other 2 sprang towards the action and tried to steal it from the one who had it. I jumped into the mix and tried to get some guppies out of the bowl to offer the others. As I did, most if the guppies jumped out. I had guppies flopping and babies striking. It was a thing of beauty. I backed off and enjoyed the show. My 3 holdouts are back and I will get better sleep tonight. Those guppies were priceless.

[Aundrea]

awwwwwwwwwwwww thats great im so happy for you and for the babies :D I remember first getting Swiper and he would not eat for me for a month :eek: I got him from Kyle. I was so worried and was pm'ing him like crazy LOL I tried everything but he wouldnt eat so I went and got some Minnows and boy it sure didnt take him long to gobble them things up :eek: He has ate a few pinkies for me but now he wont eat them but the minnows. I dont know what to do now UGH I think hes a picky eater LOL

[guidofatherof5]

Aundrea, Cut up a pinky, worms and minnows. Mix them all together so that strong fish smell covers everything. Use less and less minnow with each mix and before you know it that problem will be solved.
You could also try rubbing a pinky with the minnow. My stubborn pinky eaters never refuse one when I rub a little worm slime on it.
Hope it helps.

[Aundrea]

Thanks!! I think ill try that but my other half will have to do that for me LOL. I have a weak tummy :eek: But He dont mind chopping up pinkies and such.

[reptile3]

Guppies from what pet store?

rub worm all over pinkie, they will eat it? I am just trying to get my 3 to eat better. They eat, just not like how you all are saying they should eat.

mmm lots of ideas for tomorrow!!! thanks Steve

glad to hear your 3 non eaters ate!!!:)

[infernalis]

Congrats Steve..

Stephanie and Aundria, please remember Steve's advice is Garters only...

The Dekayi snakes will not eat that.

Worms, slugs and snail are all you will get them to eat for you.

[guidofatherof5]

Audrea,
I though you were talking about a Garter. If you weren't I apologize. Wayne is right about the feed for a Dekay.

[guidofatherof5]

Checked on my 3 new eaters this morning. Looking good. I think I'll make another guppy run on Friday. The little guys have some catching-up to do. It's a good feeling getting these little scrubs over the eating hump.

[reptile3]

The Dekayi snakes will not eat that.

Worms, slugs and snail are all you will get them to eat for you.

I know, they sit & watch the fishes swim!! :rolleyes:

Wayne, when you send the snakes to me... I will need some slugs, & help with trying to reproduce them.

RIGHT now, it's raining BAD! we have a flash flood watch! that is so odd!

[guidofatherof5]

Wish I were there. I'd be out collecting worms. Ground is frozen here. Free food season is over until Spring. Be careful in your flash flood warning.

[reptile3]

Wish I were there. I'd be out collecting worms. Ground is frozen here. Free food season is over until Spring. Be careful in your flash flood warning.

thank you Steve... I just thought about how Wayne said to put old signs & things. I remember back in the day, you turn it over, there was slugs, snails & worms.

We have had the worst summer, fall ever. this rain is what we really needed. If it stops raining hard, I will go back out there & check other places

[Aundrea]

Steve I was talking about my Garter LOL. Wayne thought I was talking about the Dekays. Swiper is my Red Sided Garter. He is becoming very picky and will only eat Minnows. He was doing great for a while eating his minnows AND his pinky. I would put his pinky in the water with the minnows and he would gobble them all up but now he will just eat the minnows and leave the pinky. Hes my trouble maker snake LOL

[guidofatherof5]

You gotta love their little personalities. For the most part, not a bunch of cookie cutter snakes. Even with the large number I'm raising I can see differences all the time.

[jitami]

Nice job Steve :) I broke down and bought minnows for my kids yesterday, too. They're still happily swimming around, both in the adult and baby tank :) The adult tank I kinda figured that would be the case, but wanted to at least offer them something... I've offered them pinks in the last month too, but they're just not having it. They'll be ok, tho. I don't think the babies see theirs. I'll have to move them to a clear or white container :)

[infernalis]

Steve I was talking about my Garter LOL. Wayne thought I was talking about the Dekays. Swiper is my Red Sided Garter. He is becoming very picky and will only eat Minnows. He was doing great for a while eating his minnows AND his pinky. I would put his pinky in the water with the minnows and he would gobble them all up but now he will just eat the minnows and leave the pinky. Hes my trouble maker snake LOL


Audrea,
I though you were talking about a Garter. If you weren't I apologize. Wayne is right about the feed for a Dekay.

Actually, I think if I remember correctly, they both keep the Dekayi snakes and garters housed together.

I do, Its great how well they get along:D

[brain]

So the three hold outs needed some activity … space … or just a different food source?

[Snake lover 3-25]

i'd try all three for the best chance:D

[brain]

Thanks Shan

I don’t have any of these species yet but I get the impression they can be very picky about what they eat.

Now the last two summers here on the island I have caught and feed the local garters then released them back. And all which I have kept have eaten the offered feeder goldfish (Wal-Mart plug hereJ). Also going to the local bait shop fed them night crawlers. I did try grass hoppers but that was a bust.

I here noting, from all of you also, if offered I guess in the right conditions slugs would be accepted which abound out here.

Ok another point for my “What have I learned” sheet.

[guidofatherof5]

Garters and bugs are not a good mix. I don't think calling a Garter a picky eater is a good rule of thumb. Mine are little legless pigs and enjoy eating all the foods(worms,pinkies,guppies,slugs) presented to them. On occasion I will get a picky one but for the most part they like to eat!:)

[infernalis]

And Goldfish are bad for Garters.

[brain]

Garters and bugs are not a good mix. I don't think calling a Garter a picky eater is a good rule of thumb. Mine are little legless pigs and enjoy eating all the foods(worms,pinkies,guppies,slugs) presented to them. On occasion I will get a picky one but for the most part they like to eat!:)


Ok noted TY

[Snake lover 3-25]

yes goldfish and bugs are bad.... try guppies or fish fillet.... you'd be surprised to see how many wild garters go crazy over the fillet:D

[brain]

In stead of chasing the worms around in the rain … LOL wouldn't it be easer to just raise the worms in a closet?

But, then there is the raising part ... just another critter to look out for … I’ll just chase them or go to the bait shop?

I was told also that “cockroaches are verbieten” in this house …. Got to go with the boss on that one J

[guidofatherof5]

Make sure you only buy the nightcrawler at the bait shop. No red-ring red worms(Say that 5 times FAST) The red-ring are toxic.

[guidofatherof5]

I think my 3 hold-outs are officially off the list:) Christmas is early at the Gilfillan house. Tonight all three had a belly full of guppies. All hand fed. Since the eating fire is lit, I hope they will make the switch over to worms and then pinky parts, soon.

[jitami]

Nice to hear it Steve!

[mtolypetsupply]

Happy to say, I finally found a store that sells feeder guppies! 10/$1! Didn't get any today, as we need to get a tank to put them in, but "Thank you" to the Garter Gods for bringing me to that store!

[jitami]

Lucky! {said in my best napolean dynamite voice} :)

[reptile3]

Actually, I think if I remember correctly, they both keep the Dekayi snakes and garters housed together.

I do, Its great how well they get along:D

both me & Aundrea, have a red sided garter with 2 dekayi snakes. They are like best friends!!

When I get my other garters they will be housed in the other tank below them. My milksnake will be in his own home.

[guidofatherof5]

Hand fed every baby. Everyone is sleeping like a rock. No activity in any enclosures. Kind of like us after a big Thanksgiving meal.

[mtolypetsupply]

Hand fed every baby. Everyone is sleeping like a rock. No activity in any enclosures. Kind of like us after a big Thanksgiving meal.


Nice to hear that today was a day for good eating!!!!! Warm fuzzies to you and your babies!!!!

[mtolypetsupply]

Lucky! {said in my best napolean dynamite voice} :)

I'd ship you some, but I have NO idea how to package fish to go the distance!!!! How warm is it in N. Calif???? It was 29deg today here, tell me in the 70's and I'll bring 'em out in person! LOL

[infernalis]

Hand fed every baby. Everyone is sleeping like a rock. No activity in any enclosures. Kind of like us after a big Thanksgiving meal.

Now there is a massive undertaking Steve, Wonder why YOU didn't pass out after that.:D;)

[guidofatherof5]

Well Wayne,
It's not the feeding part that takes so much time. It's the trying to teach manors as I go along. You know, "Don't take food out of someone elses mouth" "Don't bite someone just because they got some food and you didn't" "No pushing or biting to be next in line" No swallowing your brother or sister because they had worm slime in their face""No sneaking up behind and taking food from the container" on and on it goes.
Life is good! They're here and so am I. So many of my babies have such different personalities and traits. I have some that rush in to get some and rush out with it. Others take it, eat it and never move,expecting more once there done. Then there's my quiet ones who wait until the crowd has cleared.
There is a definite pecking order. It's not always the biggest who tries to dominate. In my TLC enclosure, the leader is the smallest (Laci). It only takes a stair and the others wait their turn. Others will try talk'in smack to her but it doesn't work. She's one that won't be leaving in the spring. She loves to get out and sit with everyone. I didn't think she would make it but she has proved me wrong. She has such a beautiful little face. My kids just love her. I'll get a photo and post it.

"Life is good, everyday"

[infernalis]

Obviously we too have some exciting moments at feeding time. I get tired while feeding and have a rotational shift method, one third of the collection one evening, another third the next and so on.

We have had a few "power feeding" sessions, and they lasted well into the late night early AM hours.

After a few accidents, I just made up my mind to get a stack of mini totes, and feed each snake one at a time. I will get 7-10 (depending on brood size, how many are left, etc..) and place each one in it's own box with food items.

Some can inhale food really quickly, others will take forever to swallow the pinky.

Yeah it is grand, would not want it any other way. I can hate the world at one moment for whatever reason, but I find peace in the reptile room, sometimes so much peace, I fall asleep on the floor staring into cages.

[brain]

Make sure you only buy the nightcrawler at the bait shop. No red-ring red worms(Say that 5 times FAST) The red-ring are toxic.

OK added to my “What I have learned about garter snakes” sheet

[infernalis]

Just got in 200 guppies, The pet store special ordered them.

Thing is I got 200 baby guppies!

Power feeding them like 4 times a day, man these little things suck down the fish flakes.

Really need to beef them up, they are so small at the moment that the juvenile snakes hardly notice them in the water dish!

[Lori P]

" No swallowing your brother or sister because they had worm slime in their face"


ROFLMAO!!!!! That's certainly an important one!!!

[drache]

After a few accidents, I just made up my mind to get a stack of mini totes, and feed each snake one at a time. I will get 7-10 (depending on brood size, how many are left, etc..) and place each one in it's own box with food items.

the container store gives you a discount on the shoe box size sterilite when you buy ten I think

[jitami]

Wayne, hard boiled egg yolk, smashed, mixed in water(quite a bit of water, maybe two cups), then fed a spoonful at a time is supposed to work wonders for baby guppies. I just break apart the egg yolk and put it in a jar with some water, close the lid and shake until you just have tiny particles and pour a tablespoon or so into the aquarium. Store the rest in the fridge and use once or twice a day. I try to feed mine several times a day, too. Usually one or two egg yolk, at least one meal of flakes & hikari first bites, and about every other day they get thawed frozen brine shrimp. The brine shrimp are the adult's favorite by far. I do frequent water changes so don't worry too much about over feeding. I figure I'd rather change water and have fat feeder fish :D Even starting with a brand new tank I haven't lost any yet, so feeling ok with what I've been doing :)

[jitami]

I'd ship you some, but I have NO idea how to package fish to go the distance!!!! How warm is it in N. Calif???? It was 29deg today here, tell me in the 70's and I'll bring 'em out in person! LOL

Stephi, totally missed this! Sorry! You're welcome to come out anytime, but thankfully I was able to find a few guppies. I started out with 4 females and a male and now have a tank full of babies :) The first group was born right after Christmas and are approaching small adult size, but there were only 6 of them, so in no hurry to feed anyone off just yet.

[infernalis]

Thanks for the egg tip. I'll give it a try.

Just have to make some deviled eggs with the leftovers.

[jitami]

Mmmmmm... that sounds good... I happen to have a few hard boiled eggs in the fridge from my last batch of fish food, too :) You'll notice the egg yolk makes a little cloud and gives the tank a snow globe appearance for a bit, but the babies should eat it all in a few minutes... especially 200 of them! :)

[drache]

wish I could send you our egg yolks
Jeff just came up with ridiculously high cholesterol, so he's skipping the yolk
I've been having them, but at my age there's probably a limit to how many egg yolks I should be having on a regular basis, even though I have low cholesterol

[Lori P]

Rhea, give them raw to the cats. You don't have birds, do you? My parrot looooooooves cooked egg yolks.

[drache]

the cats are eating well these days . . .
perhaps I can bring some steamed egg yolk to Chicken, the cockatoo at the rescue, who's the only bird I'm friendly with

[guidofatherof5]

I thought I would pull this thread out for an update and to once again sing the praises of Guppies.
This little radixes has fallen behind its siblings.
Tonight she made up for some of it. This is a full bellied little scrub.
She downed 7 guppies and needed help back to her enclosure.
http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/medium/guppy_belly.jpg

[gregmonsta]

Cute little thing :D ... Fit to burst :rolleyes:

[KITKAT]

Very nice! Good luck with her!

[guidofatherof5]

One of the special thing that guppies bring to the table is the water they come in from the pet store. That is powerful stuff and shouldn't be taken for granted. When I'm trying to switch a guppy only eater over to worms I use the wonderful fishy water to my advantage. In with the guppies I add my small worms and just a dash(bam!) of guppy water. That fish smell overpowers the worm smell and most of time the snake doesn't know the difference between a worm piece and guppies.
Doing this only once has converted many of my radixes over to worms when before they would only eat guppies. My last convert was a little snake I call Funny Face. He has a facial deformity on the right side of his face that involves the upper lip and eye socket. He was a guppy only eater until the other day. Now, he's out eating worms with the rest of his siblings.
It's guppy power only in a liquid form.

[guidofatherof5]

Once again the power of the guppy comes through. I had placed a very small radix in a container with a couple baby nightcrawler and earthworms. 15 hours later nothing had been eaten. I stopped by the local pet shop and picked up 50 guppies. I threw about 6 guppies in and the snake lit up and started biting at every moving thing. In its hurry to catch one of the guppies it grabbed a worm and ate it down.
I don't think the response was to movement as the worms I put in were moving all the time. It had to be the guppies and the smell of guppies that set this snake off. So, its specific food request became a non-specific request once guppies were introduced.

There is power in them there guppies.:D

[guidofatherof5]

Tonight I went to feed a few stubborn Het. albino radixes. These guys have been holding out for guppies. I was out of guppies but did have access to some guppy water. My water snakes had polished off 50 guppies in the blink of an eye but their water still had that fish scent.
I first placed the little radix in the container and added the freshly dug earthworm. The little scrub showed no interest. I then carried the container downstairs to get some guppy soup. I no sooner sprinkled a little water in the container when the little radix grabbed a worm. 3 worms later and the container was empty but the radix was full.
That fishy smell really gets them going.

[bkhuff1s]

I went to my local pet store, and it turns out they get all their guppies from Florida, and apparently a cold winter knocked out ALL of the guppy farms there...

[Hollis_Steed]

I'm only starting to realize how important smell is to these little slitherins! You can almost trick them into eating anything if it smells like their favorite dish!


Tonight I went to feed a few stubborn Het. albino radixes. These guys have been holding out for guppies. I was out of guppies but did have access to some guppy water. My water snakes had polished off 50 guppies in the blink of an eye but their water still had that fish scent.
I first placed the little radix in the container and added the freshly dug earthworm. The little scrub showed no interest. I then carried the container downstairs to get some guppy soup. I no sooner sprinkled a little water in the container when the little radix grabbed a worm. 3 worms later and the container was empty but the radix was full.
That fishy smell really gets them going.

[ConcinusMan]

I'm only starting to realize how important smell is to these little slitherins! You can almost trick them into eating anything if it smells like their favorite dish!

True. Especially if their favorite dish is FISH!

[guidofatherof5]

I'm doing it again and enjoying it more and more. These little radixes and Checkereds think they are in a container full guppies but in fact it's 2 part guppies and 10 part cut-up worms. All it takes is one of those guppies to start flopping around and the odds are in my favor they strike and get worms.
I wonder where all the worms chunks have gone:rolleyes:
http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/medium/worms.jpghttp://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/medium/worms11.jpg

[ConcinusMan]

Somebody get those kids a bib.

[guidofatherof5]

Once again the guppies come through.
I was given a group of non-eaters from a friend. One baby was too far gone and it died overnight.
The others all started eating this morning. Slashing guppies worked their magic again. My only concern is the
"Last Supper" syndrome I've seen in the past.http://www.thamnophis.com/forum/husbandry/6809-last-supper.html (http://www.thamnophis.com/forum/husbandry/6809-last-supper.html)
My fingers are crossed and prayers are going out to these little ones. The next 48 hours will be make or break for them.