Feeding Hyspiglena - [Corn snake lovers beware!]

[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........

[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

[anji1971]

Very interesting pictures, and topic!
When it comes to feeding, I'm not one to have an issue with much of anything. In nature, the cycle of life and death can be quite vicious. I think it's we humans who try to soothe ourselves by making the whole feeding issue as humane as possible.
If an animal needs to eat, it needs to eat. That's just the way it is, and when we keep an animal intentionally, then it's our responsibility to keep it thriving, whether it bothers some people or not.
I do credit you for pointing out that some species aren't found in captivity often for a reason. It's easy to get carried away and want to keep anything you find. Doesn't always mean you should! A good reminder in general.
Very nice nightsnake, BTW.

[Charlet_2007]

that's all our speckled king eats is other snakes.. ive found a breeder that breeds corns as well and am now getting deformed and dead baby snakes off her.. So im tottly in the same boat your in..

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

Any stillborn, deformed, weak or starve-my-self-to-death snakes are used for feed here at my house. My tiger salamander eats them. My cali king will not eat snakes (weird, huh?)

I also will not feed a snake that died due to reason unknown (as in it was not a hatchling snake that starved itself to death or otherwise) Because If the snake died of some disease... parasite... etc... I don't want to take that chance.

[Garter_Gertie]

[quote=aSnakeLovinBabe;I also will not feed a snake that died due to reason unknown (as in it was not a hatchling snake that starved itself to death or otherwise) Because If the snake died of some disease... parasite... etc... I don't want to take that chance.[/quote]

Very wise, Shannon. Good you mentioned that.

[Aundrea]

WOW Very interesting pics. Thanks for posting them. I have never seen pics of a snake eating another snake. I know weird eh? lol.

[tyflier]

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

Yes, I know. I have the '06, '07, and '08 Morph Guides by Chuck. Very good books, IMO. I wanted to keep the morphology as simple as possible, along with the genetics tutorial. No need to confuse people more than they already are, IMO.

[DaveM]

I "recycle" neonate corns to get finicky kings going, always interesting to watch them feed