So, is Flicker a boy or a girl?

[Flicker]

The lighting is lovely on the last one, plus, he looks more red after he's just shed and more brown as he gets closer to shedding - *shrugs* he's heading towards a brown phase atm... here's another couple piccy's I JUST took - especially for you...







And after handling all your snakes, which were beautiful nice and lovely - but quite squirmy - I realized how completely spoiled I am with Flicker. He might be difficult to catch sometimes, but once I have him he is so easy to hold and mellow to handle. ^_^ Always has been, since he was a wee little scrub.

He's really really small though - you sure you're stripey won't just eat him?

[ConcinusMan]

Yeah I'm sure. Northwesterns and concinnus get along very well. Just don't feed them together. Sometimes concinnus will grab and try to swallow anything that gets the smell of food on it, even if it's a football. Also important to feed them say, in a tub with paper towels or newspaper substrate so they don't end up swallowing something that could block their intestines. Adult northwesterns are generally more mellow and easier to handle than a young concinnus. They are less "squirmy" as you say but your concinnus will mellow out a bit as they get bigger.

[Flicker]

Mmmhmmm... and will Cocinnus also eat slugs?

[ConcinusMan]

I've never had one accept them. Most of them absolutely adore night crawlers though.

Some northwesterns won't eat slugs but most love slugs and night crawlers and won't eat much else. DO NOT feed your garter red wigglers, those blood-red little worms with the weird stripes. They are toxic. Fred Meyer sells 13 fat juicy night crawlers for $1.99. Feed your northwestern often (every 3 days or so) and as much as he wants.

[Flicker]

.... red wigglers. I thought those were something that only the fish stores sold - didn't realize they were found in the wild here. Actually - I had read about them when I first got flicker and researched everything - but I didn't know what they looked like, so I just avoided buying worms and always dug them out of the garden.

Last fall, I found a bunch of worms under some boards that had strange stripes on them. Didn't think any thing of it - and gave them to Flicker. That's about the time, Flicker decided to quit eating worms and would only eat slugs. Snake's smarter than me - when I joined the forum I found a picture of red wigglers, looked just like the suckers I tried to give him last fall *facepalms*

I haven't gotten him to eat a worm since. getting a bit more challenging to find slugs in the heat though... <.< I keep finding gynormous ones - that uhmm... flicker can't eat.

As far as being lucky to find such a beautiful snake - I completely know - it was what intrigued me to catch him in the first place - I thought he was absolutely adorable. I didn't even realize how rare at the time, but yeah, that's why I'd like to breed him - share the love. ^_^ He's a great snake, personality wise and beautiful. His genes are worth being spread.

[ConcinusMan]

Yes, you can find the red wigglers here. Be careful. Anyway, keep trying with regular worms, he'll come around. Try giving him sections of a big one, or a whole small one, after he's had a slug and is in the mood to eat. Sometimes just mixing slugs and worms will get them to eat both. BTW, I know it's gross, but you can cut up the big slugs. Also, he'd probably surprise you with how big a slug he can swallow.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

that is most beautiful ordinoes I have ever seen!

[ConcinusMan]

Isn't it though? he and my red stripe girl are definitely going to get together soon for some 2011 babies. She agreed to swap (a concinnus or two) temporarily for the winter and I'll be brumating him at my house with my red stripe girl. Yes! How cool is that? Also, I know exactly where he was found and I'm going to go poking around next monday morning (or perhaps this WED) and see what I can find.

[Flicker]

I have not tried chopping up larger worms... and I often give him food that's larger than I think he'll eat. Most of the time, he doesn't eat it - but once in a while, he does surprise me with eating something I thought was too big. I've got a slug in there now, that I think is probably just wishful thinking and am about to dispose of.

I've tried chopping the slugs - he wasn't really happy with that and they seemed to really ooze and deflate - so I don't think that's a very good route to go - probably works better with the worms. ^_^

And yeah - I think he's gorgeous too. I've always enjoyed just looking at him and loved how curious he is and that he comes over and looks back.