Your Reptile and Amphibian Resource and Information Site

Back to Bull-Pine-Gopher Snakes Forum   Forums   Home   Members Area  

Bull-Pine-Gopher Snakes Forum

Kennzk   Greatballzofire   JackAsp   Greatballzofire   JackAsp   Greatballzofire   Kennzk   JackAsp   Kennzk   JackAsp   Snakesgalore   Concolor1  
 Member  Message

 #2084480


Kennzk
View Profile

 Gopher??? and advice

We just moved up into the hills and my son found a baby snake. We kept it to see what it was, a rattler or a gopher? We have had it for 3 weeks now and have decided it is a gopher from all the research I have done. I would love to keep him, but he won’t eat. He is so little and all the pet stores I go to say he will eat a pinkie, but the pinkies are 4x bigger then him. I tried fish( I know they don’t eat fish), crickets, and pinkies. I put him in a brown bag with his food for like and hour and nothing. I don’t want him to starve. I have a heating pad under half the tank and a water bowl on the other side. He’s pretty active. Any advice????I would say he is smaller than a pencil. Maybe he was just born when we found him. Thanks, this website has been the best
10/15/09  11:01pm

 #2084493


Greatballzofire
View Profile



   Message To: Kennzk   In reference to Message Id: 2084480


 Gopher??? and advice

He needs a couple of hides, one over the heating pad and one in a cool spot, so he can regulate his temperature without feeling exposed. He will enjoy a few inches of aspen shavings to burrow in, too.

When you feed him, put a live pink on a little jar lid partially under his preferred hide, then leave him be for at least 24 hours. He will be more likely to eat if he feels safe. If you can’t get a live pink, a frozen thawed one will have to do.



10/15/09  11:20pm

 #2084707


JackAsp
View Profile



   Message To: Greatballzofire   In reference to Message Id: 2084493


 Gopher??? and advice

I know, it’s amazing the size of what they can swallow. Mice are built for squeezing thrugh things,though, and pinkies have soft skulls, so if they get crushed a little on the way down that helps too.
Try offering some premade tunnels, like a crushed toilet paper tube. One wamr, one cool. They seem to like it if you bury them with just the openings exposed.Also, do you have a light? Not for heat, just for a day/night cycle. Put a timer on it so it runs for at least 12 hours (you migth be better doing 15-16 if you’re trying to get him into summer feeding mode) during the same hours each day. They’re diurnal, s he day/night cycle is important. Use clear, natural lighting, too, it seems to help.



10/16/09  02:08pm

 #2085042


Greatballzofire
View Profile



   Message To: JackAsp   In reference to Message Id: 2084707


 Gopher??? and advice

Jack
Good point about the light cycle. I start keeping a small light on in the room the snakes live in from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. in late September so they all still keep eating. They are all young and I want them to eat through the winter, as I don’t plan to brumate and then breed them for a couple or so years yet.

Chickens, another diurnal species, will lay eggs all winter if they are given a summer time light cycle. People are susceptible to winter depression if they don’t get enough light, but the depression lifts with light therapy.
10/17/09  09:46am

 #2085081


JackAsp
View Profile



   Message To: Greatballzofire   In reference to Message Id: 2085042


 Gopher??? and advice

Before I switched over to Mega-Rays for my lizards and turtle, I used to buy cleaper bulbs that lost their UVB ater a few months. So, since they were still producing a very clean natural-looking light, and since snakes (with a few exceptions like Opheodrys) don’t need UVB, they’d end up being used as snake or toad lights during the winter. Anything that doesn’t have a strong yellow or purple tint is fine though. I’ve had snakes that even that didn’t bother, hell, there are even plenty that thrive with NO cage light, but it depends on the individual snake. Pits usually like it sunny.
10/17/09  12:38pm

 #2085204


Greatballzofire
View Profile



   Message To: JackAsp   In reference to Message Id: 2085081


 Gopher??? and advice

Quote:

Pits usually like it sunny.


Quote:

Pits usually like it sunny.


My pituophis snake tubs which are portable. When the porch starts to get the morning sun I put my tubs out for a few hours of natural light. This really cheers the pits up. I don’t put the kings out, as they are crepuscular. To give the pits the long enough day cycle I use bulbs in the house during the hours they are indoors. I put my lizards out on the porch, too, in a big wire cage. I have another big wire cage for the snakes but I’ve retired it for the winter season, as it is quite a chore to wrestle all these cages in and out every day! LOL! But the tubs are easy to move, and the snakes do like to come out and enjoy the sun.
10/17/09  08:24pm

 #2087708


Kennzk
View Profile



   Message To: Greatballzofire   In reference to Message Id: 2084493


 Gopher??? and advice

I put a frozen thawed one over night after I heated it and it was still there in the morning. If they go towards it from the heat it puts off doesn’t a frozen one that has been thawed and heated cool too fast? I am so worried about this little guy.
10/22/09  10:37pm

 #2087775


JackAsp
View Profile



   Message To: Kennzk   In reference to Message Id: 2087708


 Gopher??? and advice

They’re very diurnal, so don’t bother with that overnight trick. Good for some snakes, just not them. The best presentation, short of perhaps the deli cup trick, which soke hatchlings are suckers for, is to have it warm, ready, and in there when his light clicks on. Time it so it’s only been a couple minutes Then when he comes out and starts patrolling, he’ll feel more like he found it than like you’re trying to wave it at him. If you’re worried about cooling, you can dry it off with a hair-dryer. Warm dy mice stay warm longer than wet ones, because there’s no conductive surface cover. Use a low setting and be careful about over-heating the guts or they’ll explode. Even if they do, it’s still edible, just messier. (If that happens, make sure you feed him on a piece of plastic, so substrate isn’t getting stuck to the goop. Not feeding them directly on the shavings is good policy anyway.) if you can keep the blower on it for long enough, on low heat and at a distance, the smell will change noticeably. Some snakes prefer their mice "cooked" on the outside.
If it does cool down to room temperature, that may not even matter to him. Boas and pythons have heat sensing organs that they track their prey with, but gophers just use sight and smell, and once they bite it they’ve pretty much already decided they want to eat it. Being 75 degrees isn’t likely to stop them. My bull is actually my least food-warmth-sensitive snake. My hognoses, despite allegedly preferring cold-blooded prey items, will not touch a room temperature mouse. But if one of theirs doesn’t get eaten and cools down to room temperature, my bull gulps it down like a Scooby snack. Yours may be fussier, so if you want to use the dryer trick to keep it warm and give it that special delicious not-quite-fried-chicken odor then go for it. But in the long run you probably won’t have to bother. General policy with a snake that doesn’t eat is to combine a milion tricks into one, and then figure out later which ones aren’t actually necessary.
10/23/09  02:32am

 #2088078


Kennzk
View Profile



   Message To: JackAsp   In reference to Message Id: 2087775


 Gopher??? and advice

I don’t have a light on his cage, just a heating pad under half of it. The cage is in the kitchen so he gets light all day, not direct though, and then its dark at night. Is this not enough? Do you think he needs a light so that he gets the UV rays? I get so many different opionions when i go to pet stores that I am so confused. How long can he go without eating. He is very active day and night,roaming round his cage, but I noticed that he never sticks out his tongue and isn’t that what they do when they are smelling for food. I keep thinking that I should let him go so he can go get food, but then I wonder if it’s too cold outside already and if I have had him too long. Thanks for all your help!
10/23/09  11:48pm

 #2088094


JackAsp
View Profile



   Message To: Kennzk   In reference to Message Id: 2088078


 Gopher??? and advice

For one thing, I’d put the heating pad under a quarter of the cage, tops. Heat speads to the cool end, so he could be too warm.
If he’s getting his day/night cycle from the window, then the shortening days are telling him to hibernate. But then the warm cage is giving him mixed signals on that, so what you’ve got is a confused snake. In the wild, snakes have stopped eating already. To keep him in summer mode, you want ovr 12 hours (I suggest 15-16) hours of clear, bright, natural-looking light, without a fake yellow or purplish tint. UV is an issue for a few types, such as green snakes, but with gophers the light is a psychological thing, not a calcium thing.
They take months to starve. Whatever stress is stopping them from eating can often be fatal in and of itself,though. In this case, his environment sounds shaky enough that I’d address that first. Longer, brighter days, less heat (my Pit often warms himelf in the morning, but then he’ll generally stick to the cooler sections all day, these aren’t a high-temperature reptile) lots of hiding spots that still allow him to see that it’s daytime (crushed toilet paper tubes and things like that, rather than something solid and dark) and hopefully that’ll hit his reset button. I’m also wondering if there’s some spice or cleaning smell in the klitchen that he doesn’t like.
10/24/09  12:47am

 #2088939


Snakesgalore
View Profile



   Message To: JackAsp   In reference to Message Id: 2088094


 Gopher??? and advice

if your very worried i saw this thing in a reptile shop the oter day and it forces a pinky mouse into a syringe and you can force the snake to eat alsoinstead of a paper bag use a container with a lid that snaps closed (butter container) make a few air holes and place the snake in there and close it place it in a warm area so the snake will stay active and he/she should eat it also snakes can go a very long time with out eating i had a cornsnake that went off the feed for 3 months and then all of a sudden she would eat anything in site well i hope some of these tips help
10/27/09  12:41am

 #2088943


Concolor1
View Profile



   Message To: Snakesgalore   In reference to Message Id: 2088939


 Can You Post a Picture?

On the longshot chance it’s a racer or something else, pinkie mice might not be appropriate . . .

JackAsp is right; it takes months for a snake to starve; keep it warm and well hydrated, and perhaps a tiny anole might do the trick . . . A snake with a bad appetite is a real problem . . . There are other tricks involving chicken broth, lizard scent, etc. that might be worthwhile . . .
10/27/09  01:08am


Back to Bull-Pine-Gopher Snakes Forum   Forums   Home   Members Area