Feeding Hyspiglena - [Corn snake lovers beware!]

[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.

[Steven@HumboldtHerps]

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.

Wow! I have always been fascinated by the smaller species; you are actually maintaining a ground snake? That's great. I have been told (and have experienced with rough green snakes) that the invertebrate eaters are always a challenge. You've got the ground snake on crickets? Awesome. So now it's time to experiment with other insects or arachnids! Crickets offer poor nutrition, unless ya dust them regularly. I have been experimenting with different tropical roaches (supposedly high in comparable nutrition) for my spiders, but that's a bit out of context. We wuz talkin little snakes! Where are you located? Closer to the desert than I most likely (I'm in the redwoods!). Yeah, the little guys are always at the bottom of the food chain! I only recently began to realize just how many "sock-eating socks" are actually out there... Let's see... My Ring-neck would eat my Sharp-tail, my Night Snake might take the Ring-neck (close match?), certainly my CA King would take the Night...

I must stop now! These are horrible thoughts! (......And I still feel bad for feeding slender salamanders to my smaller snakes!)

Steve

[Loren]

Here you go Steven.

I'll start with a pic of my ground snake's cage. A 40 watt bulb points at one end from outside the cage, giving a temp gradient of about 107 degrees (f) down to ambient temp, all in a 5 gallon tank. Thats a cardboard hide that runs most of the temp gradient. A long piece of melamine with 1/4" or so holes drilled in it- a great shedding aid which the ground snake uses every time.
The deli cup is moist vermiculite- a moist hide which the snake also usues from time to time. And, a babyfood jar water dish. Thats mojave desert sand in the cage.

All pictures were taken tonight. All names as per California Herps .com to cut out any confusion.





Sonora semiannulata - Western Groundsnake. Captive since July of 2007. Eats crickets. His head looks funny in the pic cause he's pressing it against my hand pretty hard. This is the only specimen I know of from Lassen County.


Chionactis occipitalis occipitalis - MojaveShovel-nosed Snake. Captive since June 2008. Eats crickets.


Hypsiglena ochrorhyncha nuchalata - California Night Snake. Captive since 7-3 2005. Eats Pacific treefrogs and fence lizards. Its in shed right now, so its not at its best.


Hypsiglena chlorophaea deserticola - Northern Desert Nightsnake. Captive since June 2008. Eats pinkies.

[reptile3]

Here you go Steven.

I'll start with a pic of my ground snake's cage. A 40 watt bulb points at one end from outside the cage, giving a temp gradient of about 107 degrees (f) down to ambient temp, all in a 5 gallon tank. Thats a cardboard hide that runs most of the temp gradient. A long piece of melamine with 1/4" or so holes drilled in it- a great shedding aid which the ground snake uses every time.
The deli cup is moist vermiculite- a moist hide which the snake also usues from time to time. And, a babyfood jar water dish. Thats mojave desert sand in the cage.

All pictures were taken tonight. All names as per California Herps .com to cut out any confusion.





Sonora semiannulata - Western Groundsnake. Captive since July of 2007. Eats crickets. His head looks funny in the pic cause he's pressing it against my hand pretty hard. This is the only specimen I know of from Lassen County.


Chionactis occipitalis occipitalis - MojaveShovel-nosed Snake. Captive since June 2008. Eats crickets.


Hypsiglena ochrorhyncha nuchalata - California Night Snake. Captive since 7-3 2005. Eats Pacific treefrogs and fence lizards. Its in shed right now, so its not at its best.


Hypsiglena chlorophaea deserticola - Northern Desert Nightsnake. Captive since June 2008. Eats pinkies.

Those are some nice snakes!!!