From live to frozen/thawed question.

[Charis]

My ribbon snake is being very difficult to get switched over to F/T prey. He'd been being fed rosy reds at the pet store. I've tried both F/T silver sides & chunks of trout on a lid in his cage next to his hide. Once he had pulled one of the silversides off the lid, but didn't finish eating it. My question is, what do you think I should try next? He is still extremely flighty & will musk & whip his body around violently when I hold him. So I wasn't sure trying to put him in a small container on top of his food would help any, as he'd get very upset by being moved. I was thinking about the next time putting in a F/T silverside with the live fish in his water bowl. What do you guys think? What would you try next? I really want to get him off live, as the only readily available feeders around here are guppies at one store, but a lot of them have things really wrong with them, like kinked spines, ect. So I'm not sure how good they are to be feeding to anything. The only other ones are the rosy reds at the store I got him from, over all they are way healthier looking than the guppies, but don't want to chance the B1 problem. (I do know what that's called, just didn't want to attempt spelling it) Thanks for any replies!

[guidofatherof5]

You got the right idea, only put a couple f/t silver sides in with the live fish. Ups your chances of him getting one of those instead of the rosy.
You can also put f/t pinkies in with the fish.
Best of luck, keep us informed about your progress.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

What I do, is, take some of the rosies and drop them on the ground in front of them. He should get REALLY excited and grab it instantly because of the flopping. Once he is used to eating this way, I take my tongs, and a piece of silverside, grab it by the end so it's nice and floppy, and I dance it around in front of the snake. Works every time for me! sometimes, it takes a few tries before they will actually eat it, they can taste and feel the difference and it bothers them at first, They will spit it out before they are done. You just have to convince them that it really is food! My red-striped ribbon clutch actually took silverside strips as their second meal, right off the tongs without any flopping! All 16 of them!

[MasSalvaje]

Has the Xenochrophis taken to the tong feeding Shannon?

-Thomas

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

Has the Xenochrophis taken to the tong feeding Shannon?

-Thomas

Nope! He' shy, so I stick it in the hide... he prefers it that way

[drache]

which xenochrophis are you referring to?
is Caramel currently taking pinks, or is he is one of his finicky periods?

[Charis]

Kip, the ribbon snake, did eat one silverside tonight using the waterbowl method. I think it's probably going to take at least another few times with some live mixed in, but hopefully he'll take just F/T eventually. And in meantime, if he continues to take some of the F/T, as least he's getting something besides rosies.

[guidofatherof5]

Great news to hear.

[infernalis]

Good luck.....

[Charis]

Fed Kip yesterday, two small live rosys & two F/T silversides. He ate one of the silversides & left the rest.
The silversides are quite a bit bigger than the rosys he'd been eating, so I didn't expect him to eat everything there, but at least he took one of the silversides. I'll feed him again in few days & see what happens, might even get him to take just F/T this time after next.