sheesh...

[lauwersp]

Well... no one's been eating silversides...

My niece and nephew caught a couple dozen small, energetic minnows and I decided that, with two new snakes in the mix, maybe I should best get them all used to eating SOMETHING before I try to mix it up...

I started with the newest garter, the short fat one... he/she was LESS than happy about being handled despite how quietly he/she came along in the first place. I had decided to use a big cooler to separate them.

Well he/she was so agitated at being picked up that I don't think food was on the brain. I held out a minnow, and all I got back was a strike with the mouth. I don't think it was an attempt to get the food though. After a little more of that I decided to just put him/her back in the tank.

I next put 5-7 minnows in their water. My tank veteran, who LOVES live minnows, and has been COMPLETELY ignoring the silversides, basically beelined for the water dish. The one I had already tried to feed out of the tank seemed interested in what was happening, but by the time he/she got to the water dish, my male was just finishing up the last one.

So.... I decided to remove HIM from the tank, especially as he is the most used to me handling him. No problems... I popped HIM into the cooler and put more minnows in the water dish.

After about 15 minutes, he/she figured it out and those minnows were gone... He/she is STILL sitting in the water dish hours later.

Now... all that was left was the female I had found in lower Michigan a couple weeks ago. She's never eaten with me. She MUST be hungry... she is also the shyest.

She was hanging near the top of the tank, so I decided I'll grab her, put her in the cooler, and put my male back in the tank. so as I began to take the screen off, she bolted right out at the first crack of daylight... sigh... I caught her, but that agitated her greatly as she was runnin...

I put her in the cooler with a separate tub o minnows and put the male back in the tank... I thought I'd leave her to calm down and maybe after that she'd eat some food. An hour later I checked and minnows were still there... She was still jumping at daylight so i closed the lid again and gave her another hour.

An hour later, I opened the cooler, and practically flipped out... Minnows were all there, and it LOOKED like she had two gashes horizontally along her body near her head!!! She was REALLY active jumping at the light, so I closed the lid again so I could think for a minute or two... did the male bite her? Was there something sharp in the cooler? Did I pinch/cut her closing the lid?

I opened the cooler and caught her... she was MOLTING! What a relief... I decided to just put her back in the tank and let her do her thing...

It's kind of cool watching her going through the molting process... she's doing it now... rubbing against things... she still has a LONG way to go, but her colors underneath as brighter...

Should I try again immediately after the molt? What is their behavior generally around molting time?

Poor girl... twice out of the tank, two traumatic experiences for her... I hope I become a better parent to her soon...

[infernalis]

Try again tomorrow. Let the snake settle down a bit.

[lauwersp]

ok.... thanks.

[mb90078]

Next time, I would suggest taking the good eater out of the cage, and see if the one that hasn't eaten yet will eat. Also, it would be a good idea to offer nightcrawlers to see if they stimulate a feeding response.

[lauwersp]

yea... I'm gonna try better segregation... now there are two good eaters... and one that hasn't eaten yet. She did have a nice molt last night.