T. eques cuitzeoensis behaviour

[chris-uk]

I've been making some progress with the Cuitzeos at feeding time.

Lacrimosa is a voracious feeder, always has been. She just needs to get a whiff of food and she's out looking for it. I've decided that I want to use food (one of her base instincts) to build up more trust between us. So I want her to be quite clear that it is ME that provides her food, and not the metal tongs. She reacts to the tongs, so I figure I need to use them in a way that the realises that I am attached to them. Previously I'd start pulling away if she worked her way up the tongs sniffing, now I let her sniff up the tongs all the way to my fingers, she seems to know that they aren't food.
I've also started getting her to come up to the bottom of the open doors to receive some of her food. At the moment I'm still having to tong feed her a piece to get her feeding response going, then draw her over to the doors with another piece. Last night she stayed with he head resting on the bottom lip of door for three successive pieces of fish/pinky. I'm hoping with time she'll start coming to the front when she smells food.

The final success last night is that I want them to associate my hands with good things (i.e. food) and decided on a slightly risky strategy. I put my hand in the viv and hled the food on the other side of my hand, so that the easiest way to reach the food was to use my hand as support... there was the risk of a bite here, given Lacrimosa's enthusiastic feeding response, but I did get both her and Vlad to rest on my hand to feed - the food was about 10cm from my hand, so far enough that they shouldn't confuse the scent. I had a hairy moment when I had Vlad resting on my hand and Lacky started "nosing" my little finger, I know this is one of the things Vlad does when he's preparing to eat a piece of food (but Lacky has usually struck at it from several inches away) so I braced myself for a bite that never came.

On the whole Vlad is a more nervous feeder, he prefers feeding near his hide. However, this is a good thing as he had stopped eating before we put him back in with Lacky, so seeing him feeding at all is a good thing. He's miles behind the learning curve that Lacky is on, but I'm sure he'll come around.

Their next feeding should be interesting, I'll be continuing the same sort of reward-based feeding.

[guidofatherof5]

Sounds like a good plan. Keep us posted.

[EasternGirl]

Very risky indeed...if it were Cee Cee, I would have been walking away missing a couple of fingers! And Cee Cee would have a full belly and would be licking her chops...

[chris-uk]

Very risky indeed...if it were Cee Cee, I would have been walking away missing a couple of fingers! And Cee Cee would have a full belly and would be licking her chops...

Even Lacrimosa isn't big enough to do a lot of damage. The one little bite I got from her a couple of weeks ago was enough to draw two specks (not even enough to call "pin-pricks") of blood. Of course, "next time" when she's in feeding mode she may have a chew before she realises I'm not food.

[aquamentus_11]

just finally took a look at some pics of these. they look awesome.

p.s. lacrimosa is the coolest name i've ever heard

[EasternGirl]

Chris and Char do have some very cool names for their snakes. Of course, I really like Binky because I had a dog named Binky when I was little. Lacrimosa may have to be the name of one of my vampire larp character's in the future...it sounds like an evil vampire queen to me. I think Cee Cee could really do some serious damage with a bite if she wanted to...she's no small snake.

[chris-uk]

Chris and Char do have some very cool names for their snakes. Of course, I really like Binky because I had a dog named Binky when I was little. Lacrimosa may have to be the name of one of my vampire larp character's in the future...it sounds like an evil vampire queen to me. I think Cee Cee could really do some serious damage with a bite if she wanted to...she's no small snake.

She's a bit of a nasty vampire...
"Lacrimosa de Magpyr, AKA Lacci is one of the least personable characters in the entire Discworld canon. We first see her (in Carpe Jugulum) just after she's rolled rock onto pictsies. Delightful. She is castigated more than once for torturing cats, wishing to kill almost everybody and every creature she comes across, and just for being too thin and too pale. " http://wiki.lspace.org/wiki/Lacrimosa_de_Magpyr

[PINJOHN]

She's a bit of a nasty vampire...
"Lacrimosa de Magpyr, AKA Lacci is one of the least personable characters in the entire Discworld canon. We first see her (in Carpe Jugulum) just after she's rolled rock onto pictsies. Delightful. She is castigated more than once for torturing cats, wishing to kill almost everybody and every creature she comes across, and just for being too thin and too pale. " http://wiki.lspace.org/wiki/Lacrimosa_de_Magpyr

just your average mother in law then

[chris-uk]

Just a brief update -
I did a full tank clean on Sunday, had everything out for cleaning, removed all substrate, repositioned a few things, and added a shelf in the corner over the warm side. The biggest change was switching the position of their warm log hide and a rock that was on the warm side.
They had a a lengthy explore before settling in some hidey holes.

Monday night, Lacci refused to tong feed for the first time. Vlad was OK and took some from the tongs before deciding he'd had enough. I ended up leaving the food in on a tray, it was gone an hour later.

It's almost as if Lacci was sulking because her house had changed. There was some familiar stuff in there, but the majority of the familiar smells must have gone.

[BUSHSNAKE]

you have 2010s dont you? cuitzeoensis is a shy species but they do grow out of it, i have 6 2010s. Only a couple will eat of tongs but my bigger 2009s i can hand feed.