Feeding Hyspiglena - [Corn snake lovers beware!]

[Steven@HumboldtHerps]

This may seem a horrible affair to many of you who love corn snakes, but I feel, that in the name of science, the following pictures may provide an alternative feeding choice for those select few who keep the often difficult-to-feed Night Snake. When I obtained this WC San Diego Night (Hypsiglena torquata klauberi) last January, I was harboring quite a bit of guilt due to the fact that I could not find anything that the snake would eat.
I tried pinkies, baby alligator lizards, small salamanders - No luck! Finally in May (4 months!) "Hypsi" took a young Skilton's Skink. That was just a teaser, since I didn't come across any more skinks for quite some time. July brought me my 1st of 2 corn clutches; the triple recessives I was breeding hatched out with a 50% success rate. The other 50% did not die; rather they were all afflicted with numerous vertebral kinks (an occurrence more and more prevalent these days with all the CB mutations).

All of you who overflowing with empathy right now - I understand your emotions. Fortunately, my acceptance of nature's natural way opened the door to solving my Night Snake feeding isssue. "Hypsi" is now feeding regularly on corn neonates. Please note that I incapacitate the corns to prevent prolonged suffering (the first feeding was not nice... very drawn out...).

Anyways, here ya go. Let this be a good reminder for those of you seeking new and unique WC's; there may be a reason why they are not common in captivity (selective prey).











Night Snakes have an incredible ability to stretch circumferentially. If the snake they are eating is too long, they just "fold" it!

Steve

[Loren]

Awesome set of pics Steven. That is a pretty decent sized night snake. Its always amazing what they can eat. And not hardly show it a couple days later.

Nothing wrong with feeding him the corns if you ask me. At least the get used for something good, rather than just dying and being discarded.
My California night snake eats f/t small fence lizards and f/t pacific treefrogs. My desert nightsnake is pounding down live or f/t pinkies great- no scenting. I couldnt hardly believe it the first time it grabbed a pinky out of my hand.
I once tried a small snake with the california, and it didnt take it. Go figure.

I caught and released a california night snake this year that was larger in length and girth than a typical gopher snake hatchling. I think it was about 15".

[tyflier]

That's very interesting. I tried to keep a Desert nightsnake I caught this year, and it wouldn't eat for me. Not lizards, not geckos, not amphibs...nothing. I even tried desert gecko eggs and it wouldn't eat. I l\released it before it got too late in the summer so it would have ample time to bulk up and hide for the winter, but I always wondered if it wouldn't have taken a corn baby...

I feed baby corns to kingsnakes. Not just any baby corns, but those that seem bent on starving and any with debilitating deformities go into the freezer and than to the kings. Just as an aside...

[infernalis]

My deformed and still borns go to the Savannah Monitor.

Chomp eats anything........

[Steven@HumboldtHerps]

I feed baby corns to kingsnakes. Not just any baby corns, but those that seem bent on starving and any with debilitating deformities go into the freezer and than to the kings. Just as an aside...

As in nature, the sick and weak are always first inline to be eaten.

Completely off the topic: I was checking out your corn genetics morphology page covering the definitions of motley and striped. All godd, but I just wanted to add that, even though motley is co-dominant to striped (share loci), its effect is actually dominant over striped. You can have a completely striped corn and have it not contain any gene for striping. A lot of breeders or pet shops don't know this, but the info re: this can be found in Charles Pritzel's Corn Morph Guide. The way to tell the difference is in the width of the stripe. If the stripe is as wide as perhaps say the width of a motley circle, it is homo striped; if the stripe is skinny, < width of a motley circle, it will be homo motley or the shared het motley/striped. Blew my mind! (a het within a co-dominant pairing!)

Steve

[anji1971]

Very interesting pictures, and topic!
When it comes to feeding, I'm not one to have an issue with much of anything. In nature, the cycle of life and death can be quite vicious. I think it's we humans who try to soothe ourselves by making the whole feeding issue as humane as possible.
If an animal needs to eat, it needs to eat. That's just the way it is, and when we keep an animal intentionally, then it's our responsibility to keep it thriving, whether it bothers some people or not.
I do credit you for pointing out that some species aren't found in captivity often for a reason. It's easy to get carried away and want to keep anything you find. Doesn't always mean you should! A good reminder in general.
Very nice nightsnake, BTW.

[Charlet_2007]

that's all our speckled king eats is other snakes.. ive found a breeder that breeds corns as well and am now getting deformed and dead baby snakes off her.. So im tottly in the same boat your in..

[tyflier]

As in nature, the sick and weak are always first inline to be eaten.

Completely off the topic: I was checking out your corn genetics morphology page covering the definitions of motley and striped. All godd, but I just wanted to add that, even though motley is co-dominant to striped (share loci), its effect is actually dominant over striped. You can have a completely striped corn and have it not contain any gene for striping. A lot of breeders or pet shops don't know this, but the info re: this can be found in Charles Pritzel's Corn Morph Guide. The way to tell the difference is in the width of the stripe. If the stripe is as wide as perhaps say the width of a motley circle, it is homo striped; if the stripe is skinny, < width of a motley circle, it will be homo motley or the shared het motley/striped. Blew my mind! (a het within a co-dominant pairing!)

Steve

Yes, I know. I have the '06, '07, and '08 Morph Guides by Chuck. Very good books, IMO. I wanted to keep the morphology as simple as possible, along with the genetics tutorial. No need to confuse people more than they already are, IMO.

[DaveM]

I "recycle" neonate corns to get finicky kings going, always interesting to watch them feed

[Loren]

From tonight- Desert night snake eating a pinky taken directly from my fingers.