Feeding baby egg eaters.

[Rob]

John - I have tube fed small Eggeaters (marcbt - and larger ones )before and would push the tube about 1/3 of the way down the body. The tubes are smooth with the rounded tip so there is no reason why the snake should be hurt during the process. Just be sure to inject very slowly. With egg, the hole in the tube tends to feel like its blocked and its natural to want to push harder, just be very careful when this happens.
As I mentioned above, try get in touch with the finch breeders and do what I did.
Try Pat De Villiers in Camperdown, he has loads of finches.

[alexander]

John, the tube must be further down, or else it comes back out.
BV, how do you get the good natured ones to open their mouths?

[Bushviper]

Most of the tubes have a slight point to them and you can gently nudge the opening where the tongue comes out until the mouth opens. All of mine are good natured and they feed easily. Sometimes you have to pull the side of the lip open with the tip and then slide it to the front before trying to open the mouth. It takes practise especially when your fingers are slippery with egg. Patience is something you have to have or else you might as well forget about it.

[John Rees]

Thanks Rob, BV & Alex. I will try again this weekend and post the results. Will definately try to contact Pat de Villiers, thanks. W.r.t getting their mouths open this has so far taken a combined effort from me and my wife. I first of all give them a 'taste' of the egg - the tongue-tip-test and that seems to settle them in the hand a bit. Then while I hold the snake and the tube & syringe, my wife gently uses her fingure nail to prize the mouth open. So far so good in getting the mouths open but yes it really can test your patience.

The mother was such a ready eater (of eggs) I can't wait to get these two onto eggs before they start becoming reliant on tube feeding. My intention is to try and grow them a bit over winter and then release them in summer. But will only do so if & when they are eating eggs readily.

[Rob]

Its unlikely an Egg eater which has been tubefed will go off eggs when offered again. I wouldnt worry about that.

[Aconite]

Its unlikely an Egg eater which has been tubefed will go off eggs when offered again. I wouldnt worry about that.

I had an egg eater that totally refused all finch eggs offered. The breeder of the snake had a similar problem with most of the other hatchlings. So he has to force feed the lot of them. After 4 months of my snake refusing eggs I returned him to the breeder as I didnt enjoy tube feeding.

I wonder if a high percentage of all egg eaters will simply die in the wild?
As the snake I had was kinked in places, and BV are het for albino. Maybe if there is a genetic flaw they simply die off as a sort of voluntary natural selection? What do you think?

It just seems odd that I have found evidence of many of these captive bred snakes not feeding voluntarily.
What percentage of your cb eggies eat eggs from the start and how many have to be force fed their entire lives?

[John Rees]

Well thanks chaps! I had some success this weekend with the tube feeding. Pushed the little tube down about 1/3rd of the length of snakes and got about 2ml down the stronger more active of the two and about 1ml down the 'runt'. The latter is a bit of a weak looking little thing and the tubing didn't work as well. Hopefully it get's stronger with the bit he got down?

Just as a note, these two came from a batch of 6 eggs laid by a WC female soon after I caught her. She was the first and only eggie I had ever found so I decided to keep her for a while. I had no idea she was gravid at the time otherwise I would not have kept her. She laid the eggs the night after swallowing her first batch of quail eggs. Unfortunately four of her eggs went off one at a time but two hatched on the same day.

I released the female at the same catch site about 3 months afterwards. She never refused eggs which I fed her every 3 weeks or so and she molted twice durig that time. Hopefully the babies will take after her!

Will let you know if they eat eggs, when I get some.

[Axiz]

I wonder if albino snakes are more sensitive to light like albino people?

[herpitologica]

For those that refuse finch eggs try getting hold of an old weaver bird nest and putting the eggs in there.Always worked for me,think it may be the smell of the nest that gets them going sort of like fresh pinkies out of the nest compared to f/t.

[Fooble]

Well thanks chaps! I had some success this weekend with the tube feeding. Pushed the little tube down about 1/3rd of the length of snakes and got about 2ml down the stronger more active of the two and about 1ml down the 'runt'. The latter is a bit of a weak looking little thing and the tubing didn't work as well. Hopefully it get's stronger with the bit he got down?

Just as a note, these two came from a batch of 6 eggs laid by a WC female soon after I caught her. She was the first and only eggie I had ever found so I decided to keep her for a while. I had no idea she was gravid at the time otherwise I would not have kept her. She laid the eggs the night after swallowing her first batch of quail eggs. Unfortunately four of her eggs went off one at a time but two hatched on the same day.

I released the female at the same catch site about 3 months afterwards. She never refused eggs which I fed her every 3 weeks or so and she molted twice durig that time. Hopefully the babies will take after her!

Will let you know if they eat eggs, when I get some.

John did you ever come right with those egg eaters?

[John Rees]

Yup I did actually. Sorry for not updating! I managed to get 12 viable (fresh) finch eggs from this chap in Lynnfield Park. Unfortunately I had both of the babies in a single fairly large tank. So although I split up the eggs putting 3 on each side of the tank, I never knew whether they had both eaten them or not. They wouldn't take them whilst I was watching but by morning both times I fed them, the eggs where eaten. I am very chuffed that the eggs were eaten - just hope they both got their fair share. They have both molted regularly during the last year and always within a day of each other. However, there has only been one molt lately so I am wondering if I have a glutton and a fussy eater in the same tank??!

As I mentioned in my sms to Fooble, I unfortunately did not go back to get more eggs and now the season is passed. So I plan to give them both a good tube feed before settling them in for winter. Hopefully by then they will be able to handle small quail eggs which are easier to come by.

[Groenslang]

Sorry for digging up an old thread, but I figured it be better to keep it all under one topic.

I got a pair of hatchling d. Scabra about a month ago. I tube them with between 1.5 and 2.5ml of egg every 10 days. Do you think it is sufficient or should it be more often or less often?

Thanx
Arno

[Fooble]

Sorry for digging up an old thread, but I figured it be better to keep it all under one topic.

I got a pair of hatchling d. Scabra about a month ago. I tube them with between 1.5 and 2.5ml of egg every 10 days. Do you think it is sufficient or should it be more often or less often?

Thanx
Arno

Arno , do it by "feel" at least that's what i do you can tube just enough when you feel the stomach of the animal swell slightly.
How are the going BTW? The little egg eaters you can feed generously and the will grow quick which makes it easier to source larger eggs.

[Groenslang]

Hey bud!

They are doing great! Got them in a nice big tub with some branches for climbing etc. They have grown a bit, not by miles, but definately have grown. Didn't expect them to strecth so soon!

Ive been feeding till the tummys swell, it ends up being about 2ml give or take. Im more worried about how often I should do it?

The male is a champ with feeding, really easy to work with, the female on the other hand is a handful! Haha! But I love the species! As soon as I know what is happening next semester I wil be building the aviary!

[Fooble]

In reality they would feed on far less in the wild.
So don't think you're under feeding them , however i would suggest feeding them slightly less when we hit full on winter say every 14 days.
As naturally they don't fee din winter at all.

Aren't all females they problem ones