New arrivals

[Mommy2many]

Chantel, I also think you should keep the little nipper as well. He sounds feisty and that's just what's needed to survive this world. So tiny and already being all big and cobra like! What's not to love? Him a chewin on your finger

More pics, please!!!

[kibakiba]

Haha, I do like him. He's definitely got an attitude.
Here's a picture of the nippy one today, there were two nipping me last night, this little guy seems to be angry with me about something... but it's so cute.


This little guy was a slivery colour at birth and is getting colour on his sides already


And another picture of pumpkin, he was sleeping on my belly and when I moved my hand he fell over on his back and looked at me like "hey! I was having a good dream!"

[kibakiba]

Pumpkin is already almost 4 inches long! He's not as vibrantly coloured as he was at birth, he's just a very slightly orange-y brown. He's definitely dominating the others in terms of size and strength. My one silver baby is getting larger, his belly is almost pure white with a little grey speckle and he's almost the size of Pumpkin. My other silver one is getting a little light minty colour on his sides, and little extra spots is starting to turn a taupe like colour and his spots are more defined. The two others are also developing a brown colour, the little runt hasn't grown at all. He's the shyest of the babies.
They've all tamed down a lot and don't bite anymore but they are still skittish. They still haven't eaten, I offer them worms every day and since they don't take them, Big Mama ends up eating them instead. It's almost been 10 days... How much longer should I wait to be worried? They still look nice and plump, aside from the little runt. He's starting to look oddly thin. It could just be his size though.

I can't wait to see what they'll look like in a month or two. They bring me so much happiness!

[ConcinusMan]

Just keep offering Chantel. It hasn't been "too long" just yet. These guys (northwesterns & sometimes concinnus' too) in most cases absorb quite a nice little yolk reserve in the few days right before they are born. It can sustain them for a while before they are ready to eat. Then one day, they suddenly start eating and you can't stop them. Just make sure they have easy access to water, some will only drink from "dew" collected from misting at first. When they're ready, they'll eat.

Don't worry just yet.

[kibakiba]

My only worry is the little runt since he's so small. The others seem fine enough to last another week. I know how northwesterns are, Thumbelina and Squirt both went almost a month without food and based on their size, they weren't more than a month old. Being my first ever time having a snake give birth in my presence and getting to keep the babies for a couple months before sending them to someone, I want everything to go right. In fact, I had to refuse the fish my mom bought, some salmon type I had never heard of because she bought it for the babies. I would hate for them to eat anything harmful to them.
Figures, I'll ask my mom for coho salmon, or some other specific type of salmon and she'll come home with something completely different that I cant find anything about

[ConcinusMan]

Well what is it? I think most of what you will find where you are is WC WA salmon, farmed salmon, or wild alaskan. The Alaskan is the best choice(lowest levels of contaminants) but also the most expensive. Second cleanest is anything "farmed". Just about anything else, including coho, is equal so it doesn't really matter what kind it is.

If they have any kind of trout (or steelhead) take that over salmon any day.

Chantel, my ordinoides litter last year didn't take food until about day 16 (some held out a bit longer) and they did fine. You might want to try putting them in a small container for about an hour, once a day, with some chopped worms in there. Eventually they'll eat when they're ready.

[kibakiba]

I ate it... Haha I don't really know. I asked her to get either Alaskan or coho but it was neither. Right now we have a bit of sockeye, but I cant seem to find out whether that is safe either. When it comes to fish, if we get the wrong kind, I'll eat it. My mom doesn't like fish and there's no point in wasting it since it costs quite a bit.

It's kind of funny, I have never seen any sort of trout in our fish market area. We have asked if they had any once and the kid didn't know what a trout was. I think my mom scared the kid with the stories of my ravenous snakes, though

I took one of my lipgloss/balm containers (never used) and stuck some worms in there for now. Kept an eye on them for a while. They came up, sniffed it, slithered in it, then freaked out like it was eating them. After about 2 hours Pumpkin looked a tiny bit bigger, but I didn't want to bother them. I could only see part of him.

[ConcinusMan]

Any wild caught salmon or steelhead(a rainbow trout that has been out to sea) you find at your store is going to be from WA unless it says otherwise. Any of those fish shouldn't be used long term or as a main food. Wild WA fish is contaminated with PCB's and to a lesser degree, methyl mercury. It's so bad in CA and other places that the fish are inedible. For an adult human, more than 8oz a month of wild WA salmon is considered unhealthy. Alaskan and farmed salmon is cleaner. Tilapia is cleaner still. Before I knew this, I fed my adult concinnus' on wild coho for a month straight. One developed tremors which subsided after a week or two of no fish. That snake eventually died.

I don't want you to panic though. You can still feed them this stuff, just not a lot over a long term. You can even cook it before you feed it to them and that cuts down on contaminants.

Well here's a suggestion for the babies. Make sure the worm pieces are no bigger than their heads, completely dead, and count them. Perhaps put one piece per snake in there. If any are missing later, you'll know they're eating.

If you get the wrong kind of worms, do you eat those too?

[kibakiba]

I use fish as just a tiny bit of a treat and to mix up their diet every once in a while. The lack of money lately has me feeding them only worms. Snakey hasn't eaten in about 3 weeks because of it. I'll admit this, he's really overweight... Haha. Even without eating for 3 weeks he still looks kind of pudgy. I'm sure he'll be okay. I should be able to buy a box of pinkies or fuzzies in a few days. If not, he'll have to get used to eating worms.
Snap usually wont take anything that doesn't have the texture of fish, unless I "starve" her for a week. Tilapia is safe to feed on a normal basis, right? That's the only other thing she'll eat without the "starving" treatment. She also likes unscented pinkies, but I can't afford pampering her with that right now.

I cut the worm pieces a lot smaller than their heads because I know with Thumbelina and Squirt, it was hard for them to eat what I usually cut up. The pieces they got were completely dead, not even moving. It was mostly the skin and intestines that fell out while I was cutting them


Oh yes, I love eating worms! They are totally delicious and good on salad.

[ConcinusMan]

Well my snakes lately haven't been giving me much of a choice. Everyone except for ms. preggo (Big Bertha) have been refusing to eat anything but worms. They do this every now and then, then one day they'll refuse to eat worms and want something else. My supply of pinkies has been sitting in the freezer untouched for several weeks. Nobody seems to want them right now.