Another captive herald story...

[dobby7]

Hi all.

I recieved my heralds last night and I am so excited. They are some of my favourite snakes in the world (Dont ask me why ) and I am really impressed with my two snakes. I just have two questions about them though...

First off, the female laid a clutch of eggs while the previous owner was away and they dehydrated. The eggs still had their white colouration but they were tiny, is this normal? I know that herald eggs are usually small but these were just minute. What could the cause of this be?

The second thing that gets me is the feeding... I know what heralds eat and I am very capable of collecting enough frogs etc. Last night a managed to get my male to eat a scented fuzzy which he took quite readily actually but I woke up to find a half digested fuzzy in the water bowl. I have seen many pics of heralds eating pinkies so Im quite confused here. My theory is that the hair of the fuzzy is what caused the problems because none of their natural prey items have hair... Frogs and geckos will be harder to find in winter so I have bought some swordfish from the petshop to try and feed the heralds as a replacement for them, is this okay??

Any advice will be greatly appreciated

[Aaxel]

Heralds are in general amphipian(spl?) eaters so feeding them frogs and toads etc is exactly what they need and would naturally eat, so the occasional mouse is fine(if they manage to keep it down) though stick to frogs in general.

Would love some pics though

[coral snake]

A friend of mine experimented with fish in his heralds diet. The female loved the guppies! I myself have never done that but I do feed my anaconda goldfish. Just don't keep him on a steady diet of fish in winter try and get a frog or two.have you thought of breeding your own food?

[dobby7]

Breeding frogs is waaay too much effort but I have just purchased some sworfish to breed. The male wont eat fish and the female is gravid so she wont feed yet. I'll offer her a fishy later and see what happens. My female just tried to escape and fell to the floor! Im so nervous that this will affect the eggs!

[coral snake]

Eish. Best of luck mate! If she doesn't eat now, shell definately eat when she laid her eggs:). I don't keep heralds anymore but when one of my other snakes(especially the males) don't eat, I'll leave for a while until they are hungry again whether it by 4 weeks or 8...

Take care of female and best of luck with the feeding!

[Herald_23]

Keep them on a steady diet of amphibians and lizards. If you have trouble finding food in the winter, I suggest you start training onto mice straight away.

You can start off by 'jacketing' the fuzzy i.e wrapping it in toad skin or by cutting open the toad's belly and inserting the mouse inside.
Geckos are also quite readily available, especially tropical house geckos (H. hotamboeia) and not so much training is required in getting them onto these.

Enjoy them! Heralds have awesome personalities.

[dobby7]

My male loves geckos! The female hasn't eaten yet and I think its because of the eggs. Do you guys think that the fall will damage the eggs inside her??

[Herald_23]

The fall could very well have! You should not be feeding her while she is gravid.

Correction: Tropical house gecko- Hemidactylus maboeia

[dobby7]

I just recieved her from someone else and did not know that she is gravid so I tried to feed her. She seems terribly stressed so Im going to leave her be for a while.