Feeding Hyspiglena - [Corn snake lovers beware!]

[Seere121]

My California night snake eats f/t small fence lizards and f/t pacific treefrogs. My desert nightsnake is pounding down live or f/t pinkies great- no scenting. I couldnt hardly believe it the first time it grabbed a pinky out of my hand.

Pardon, but where do you get your treefrogs? Do you buy them or capture them yourself. I have a stubborn western hognose and I'm trying to find a few frogs to see if he will eat them.

[Loren]

Pardon, but where do you get your treefrogs? Do you buy them or capture them yourself. I have a stubborn western hognose and I'm trying to find a few frogs to see if he will eat them.

I catch my own treefrogs and fence lizards locally. Most of my feeder animals are caught on my parents dairy, a few miles from my house. I can sex fence lizards quite well even when fairly young, and try to just catch males, so the population isnt hurt.

[jitami]

Interesting stuff Steve... I'm really ok with just about anything being used as a prey item if it's done as humanely as possible... and I know that sometimes that's just not possible either. It does touch a bit of a nerve, but no more so than cute little fuzzy mice with their little pink noses and whiskers...

[crzy_kevo]

thats a very cool pic steven

[GartersRock]

Thanks for the pics! Congrats on finding something your night will feed on regularly!
I will be working with a lot of difficult WC species. I just purchased a beautiful adult male Desert Patchnose from Arizona for $2. LOL They couldn't get him to eat anything for a month after they caught him and didn't want to keep trying so I took him. 1 day later he took a live anole. So hopefully I can get a female feeding.

Working w/difficult species that are seldom if ever available CB is a goal of mine.

I also love rear fanged species and hope to aquire some night snakes. Did the venom do any work on the corn snake?

[Steven@HumboldtHerps]

I also love rear fanged species and hope to aquire some night snakes. Did the venom do any work on the corn snake?

The first time I fed "Hypsi" a corn neonate, it was live. I did notice what looked like the night snake "gumming" the corn, basically working those rear fangs back and forth. I did not have the time to watch the whole affair, but I did become distraught when I returned 15 minutes later to find the corn still "kicking"; it was weakened, but still had the capacity to try coiling around the night snake - not with much luck however, because of its spinal defect (watching severely kinked corns slither is disturbing). I now only feed incapacitated corns.

[Steven@HumboldtHerps]

I also would like to add that I am not certain as to how developed the rear fangs are in night snakes. Many rear fangs aren't even grooved, so there is no hyperdermic delivery, just rear teeth "chewing in" the mildly toxic saliva. I know - snakes don't really chew! I believe this is the case with Ring-necked snakes as well.

[Loren]

I will be working with a lot of difficult WC species. I just purchased a beautiful adult male Desert Patchnose from Arizona for $2. LOL They couldn't get him to eat anything for a month after they caught him and didn't want to keep trying so I took him. 1 day later he took a live anole. So hopefully I can get a female feeding.

Cool!
My Mojave Desert Patchnose takes rat pinks very well. I think it ate the first time I offered it.
I have 2 low profile hides for it, just big enough for him. One on the heat (around 90 degrees f. ) one off the heat. At first, I left it alone as much as possible, and offered food to it right into the hide.

No heat lamps or overhead lighting at this time, just a row of 4" flexwatt set to 95 deg. although my diurnal snakes will hopefully soon have flourecent lighting to give them more of a daytime, at least for a few hours a day.

I have the cal nightsnake on lizards and frogs, shovelnose and ground snake on crickets, and I think all the rest of my snake species/subspecies eat rodents. The rarely seen(in captivity) snakes are very neat, you just have to alot enough time to figure them out. Some desert snakes eat fine at typical snake temps, others seem to require temps more suited for a diurnal desert lizard. My ground snake didnt do well until I gave it a hot end of just over 100 degrees. And never underestimate the value of good tight hide spots. Low profile too.

[GartersRock]

Cool Loren! I get the feeling it won't be long until he will take mice! He took another lizard today.

And you're right. It's all about figuring out what makes them comfortable.
Thanks for the tips!

[ssssnakeluvr]

any babies I have that pass on or are put down due to deformities or other are fed to my leopard gecko..he loves them. I also fed them to my desert kingsnake....but he went in a trade to the rescue.