Feeding Hyspiglena - [Corn snake lovers beware!]

[Steven@HumboldtHerps]

This may seem a horrible affair to many of you who love corn snakes, but I feel, that in the name of science, the following pictures may provide an alternative feeding choice for those select few who keep the often difficult-to-feed Night Snake. When I obtained this WC San Diego Night (Hypsiglena torquata klauberi) last January, I was harboring quite a bit of guilt due to the fact that I could not find anything that the snake would eat.
I tried pinkies, baby alligator lizards, small salamanders - No luck! Finally in May (4 months!) "Hypsi" took a young Skilton's Skink. That was just a teaser, since I didn't come across any more skinks for quite some time. July brought me my 1st of 2 corn clutches; the triple recessives I was breeding hatched out with a 50% success rate. The other 50% did not die; rather they were all afflicted with numerous vertebral kinks (an occurrence more and more prevalent these days with all the CB mutations).

All of you who overflowing with empathy right now - I understand your emotions. Fortunately, my acceptance of nature's natural way opened the door to solving my Night Snake feeding isssue. "Hypsi" is now feeding regularly on corn neonates. Please note that I incapacitate the corns to prevent prolonged suffering (the first feeding was not nice... very drawn out...).

Anyways, here ya go. Let this be a good reminder for those of you seeking new and unique WC's; there may be a reason why they are not common in captivity (selective prey).











Night Snakes have an incredible ability to stretch circumferentially. If the snake they are eating is too long, they just "fold" it!

Steve

[Loren]

Awesome set of pics Steven. That is a pretty decent sized night snake. Its always amazing what they can eat. And not hardly show it a couple days later.

Nothing wrong with feeding him the corns if you ask me. At least the get used for something good, rather than just dying and being discarded.
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.
I once tried a small snake with the california, and it didnt take it. Go figure.

I caught and released a california night snake this year that was larger in length and girth than a typical gopher snake hatchling. I think it was about 15".

[tyflier]

That's very interesting. I tried to keep a Desert nightsnake I caught this year, and it wouldn't eat for me. Not lizards, not geckos, not amphibs...nothing. I even tried desert gecko eggs and it wouldn't eat. I l\released it before it got too late in the summer so it would have ample time to bulk up and hide for the winter, but I always wondered if it wouldn't have taken a corn baby...

I feed baby corns to kingsnakes. Not just any baby corns, but those that seem bent on starving and any with debilitating deformities go into the freezer and than to the kings. Just as an aside...

[infernalis]

My deformed and still borns go to the Savannah Monitor.

Chomp eats anything........

[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.

[Steven@HumboldtHerps]

I feed baby corns to kingsnakes. Not just any baby corns, but those that seem bent on starving and any with debilitating deformities go into the freezer and than to the kings. Just as an aside...

As in nature, the sick and weak are always first inline to be eaten.

Completely off the topic: I was checking out your corn genetics morphology page covering the definitions of motley and striped. All godd, but I just wanted to add that, even though motley is co-dominant to striped (share loci), its effect is actually dominant over striped. You can have a completely striped corn and have it not contain any gene for striping. A lot of breeders or pet shops don't know this, but the info re: this can be found in Charles Pritzel's Corn Morph Guide. The way to tell the difference is in the width of the stripe. If the stripe is as wide as perhaps say the width of a motley circle, it is homo striped; if the stripe is skinny, < width of a motley circle, it will be homo motley or the shared het motley/striped. Blew my mind! (a het within a co-dominant pairing!)

Steve