Rescue!

[zooplan]

Thank you for the consolation.
She had no interest in the night crawlers, but ate a single small chicken heart, after offering it five times.

[ConcinusMan]

I've been thinking about trying chicken heart or gizzards, or even beef heart. Is this something that would be OK for them if they like it?

[zooplan]

Feeding hearts as an addition to the diet is ok!
You´ll have to add calcium as a supplement (like milled egg shell).
I had given the advice to feed chicken hearts if not enough fish is avaliable to a younger keeper, but he fed only those for months.
It was a disaster. The snakes became like boneless sausages.
They were not able to crawl straight ahead anymore, sometimes their tails were upside down and their bodies felt like jelly.
There was a happy ending after changing to normal diet with extra calcium. Some small hunches remained at thier backbones, but they were acting fit again.

[guidofatherof5]

I've been thinking about trying chicken heart or gizzards, or even beef heart. Is this something that would be OK for them if they like it?

I'd try to find "hormone free, steroid free" meats. My radixes love turkey/chicken liver also. In my area it's hard to find chicken hearts.
They sell gizzards and hearts together but you only get 1 heart in the container. Gizzards are hard to work with and you end up with a very limited amount of usable meat.

[ConcinusMan]

My radixes love turkey/chicken liver also.

I did not know that. Only problem is, they'd have to fight me for it. I too love liver. Beef, turkey, chicken, any kind! I ate the liver and all the other organs from the turkey this year. I can't stand the rest of it.

[guidofatherof5]

That was rather selfish. Poor starving snakes and your eating like a king. Shame on you.

[ConcinusMan]

Yeah, starving snakes indeed. Some of them haven't eaten since yesterday.

[ConcinusMan]

Breakthrough! I've invested much time, money and effort into saving that anery concinnus boy by cost of fecal exams and meds, followed by lots of pinkies nearly every day since he was treated, but up until now he has refused anything but pinkies. (I know, I know, how unfortunate) I think it's important to not get stuck on one food not only for his sake, but my wallets sake too.

I never gave up trying and today, out of the blue, he took two mouthfuls of silversides sections, including bones, skin, guts, and even some roe in there. Enough to produce a noticeable bulge. yippie!

I guess my point is, just because you may have a trouble feeder that refuses certain foods, doesn't mean you should stop trying! You never know when they could come around.

Coincidentally, one baby concinnus born from the small and last litter this year, has never shown interest in anything but pinkies since he was born. He also took some fish yesterday, and again today.

[zooplan]

Zora is feeding like two pigs, cleaned her dish twice yesterday.
I found the chickenheart regurigated in the enclosure of the pos. het. female but today she ate two night crawlers and refused fish.

I´m wondering about a short brumation for Zora around Chrismas now.

[ConcinusMan]

Feeding hearts as an addition to the diet is ok!
You´ll have to add calcium as a supplement (like milled egg shell).
I had given the advice to feed chicken hearts if not enough fish is avaliable to a younger keeper, but he fed only those for months.
It was a disaster. The snakes became like boneless sausages.
They were not able to crawl straight ahead anymore, sometimes their tails were upside down and their bodies felt like jelly.
There was a happy ending after changing to normal diet with extra calcium. Some small hunches remained at thier backbones, but they were acting fit again.

That sounds like a condition that would happen over the course of at least a year of severe calcium deficiency, as in, they weren't getting any at all for a very long time. I of course, meant as a part of a varied diet that has plenty of calcium from whole fish and rodents. Personally, I've raised concinnus from babies to death by old age without using any supplements at all and IMHO it's not necessary unless you're feeding them exclusively on food that is calcium deficient. My snakes apparently got all the calcium they needed from night crawlers and whole fish mainly. The babies I have, have never had a supplement. They're more than twice as big as they were at birth, and in excellent health eating fish (just the flesh and guts) pinky parts and chopped night crawlers.

What do you mean by "short" brumation? less than 100 days is... well, you might as well not do it at all.