The flavor of the month-Tuna

[Stockwell]

There is recently alot of talk about the use of Tuna fish scenting for stubborn Hognose snakes. This week I also read it works for other species including House snakes, and pictured here...Solomon boas.
This is one of 3 of my recent babies that had been refusing pinkies, that jumped on pinkies that had been dipped into the water from a can of Tuna fish which I picked up at Dollarama.. I knew there must be some good use for Tuna LOL

[BoidKeeper]

Wonder if it would work on those little ATBs of mine. Still nothing.
Congrats,
Trevor

[RepTylE]

hmmmmmm. I have a 18 month old IJCP who refuses rats. Think that it might help???
If it works I'll probably have to feed him tuna salad sandwiches for the next 15 years.

[BOAS_N_PYTHONS]

ROY:

Very nice and informative, indeed.

But tuna is good for lots of things, if you love sea food, lol.

Cya...

Tony

[Stockwell]

Yeah, actually I do love seafood Tony, but lots of people don't.
The cool thing is all you use for scenting is the water, so guess what kind of sandwich I'm having for lunch today..
A couple more candoia ate during the night, however it didn't work for some stubborn corns I have on the pump. They will likely need to be hibernated.
I suspect the Tuna thing only works for snakes that might normally eat aquatic prey, namely amphibians. This certainly is the link with it being effective for both Hognose snakes and Candoia. Candoia are known frog eaters and Hogs eat toads.

Trev, ATB's can be a real pain to get going. I had a bunch once and found "slap feeding" was effective with some of them.
In near darkness try slapping them in the face with a pinky hanging from tongs. Somtimes this promotes a strike then constriction, and if you're lucky, ingestion.. Somtimes they will just kill it and drop it.. so you need to try all over again.
Aren't baby snakes fun!!LOL
At least I'm not alone now.. Trev I'm impressed you got Conicus sandboas eating dead with no substrate covering them..., but then they came from a good blood line..

[BoidKeeper]

Trev I'm impressed you got Conicus sandboas eating dead with no substrate covering them..., but then they came from a good blood line..

Yup, did it again last night too! Going to try the female tonight now that I've put her back in the container that she came in.
As for the ATBs...they're going to get slapped alright!
Cheers,
Trevor

[Stockwell]

LOL, I'm going to start a support group for us poor guys breeding the non feeding shoestrings.
Actually I love the Candoia and they are pretty good. I have over half of them eating now, and haven't even used the pinky pump yet. I normally don't expect to have them going until xmas, so I'm ahead of schedule this year...
Now just wait till I get two litters of Haitain boas next year or in 06.. that should be a riot considering it took one of the parents 4 years to "kick the pump" But you know, the tuna thing just might work on Insular Epicrates.. time will tell

[Piers]

boidkeeper, try mice that are runing around but smaller than hoppers for your ATBs. I tryed everything when I had a wack of babies and then a friend told me to use live hoppers. Believe it or not but they all (13 of them) ate within a few trys.
They need the pray to "get" their attention. Don't worry they can handle the very large meal. After they've eaten either take them off their branch or stuff newspaper under the branch so they don't fall. If they are high enough they might rupture themselves.
once they've eaten try smaller pray, and then get them onto dead
Piers

[D J N]

Kool thanks for the tip and the sweet pic.

[BoidKeeper]

Tuna didn't work on the ATBs.

[Linds]

Roy,
LOL what doesn't the Dollarama sell? I just came back from buying some more little ramikans there tonight. Neat trick, I've never heard of people using tuna to scent, I will keep that in mind for the future.

Trevor,
Like Piers said, sometimes a small hopper can get them going. They aren't really rodent nest raiders in the wild, so pinkies and the like aren't appealing at times. I've heard of success stories with really tough starters by making anole broth. You can freeze it in cubes and thaw out one at a time to scent as needed... :flick:

[BoidKeeper]

Fuzzies are the next plan.
Cheers,
Trevor