best ways to acclimate WC?

what is your philosophy for acclimating newly acquired wild caught animals?

i just thought i wold start a topic that may stimulate some fresh discussion, please feel free to shoot out any tricks, or hard learned lessons.

never really had a problem acclimating w/c. I guess on some problem feeders in snakes like alterna and maybe other non or not feeding readily on rodents. On lizards and amphs normally no problem as long as the habitat is in some regards as the same but again not a problem even with as close to sterile or easy cleaning have I had a real serious problem. Actually the same acclimation works for just purchased captive bred/ born/ raised as in w/c where there should be some delay in feeding for a few days pertaining to traveling and the new environment.

It really depends on the species. Usually the best way to acclimate them is by providing them with an enclosure the mimics their natural environment as close as possible. Also being able to give them a familiar food source. The biggest thing to remember is to treat them for possible parasites when you get them, in the wild the parasites they carry don't have an ill effect on them, but once they are in a captive environment the stress weakens them and the parasites start to thrive and will ultimately be the downfall of the animal. Also as little human contact as possible with the animal until they are feeding andused to their new environment.

I have dealt with a few w/c adult and neonate boas, they all are different. Some will come tame, some ready to eat, some aggressive little buggers, or aggressive big buggers(she was a lot of fun), they respond differently.

I do things a bit differently with each new w/c animal I get. I have tried putting them in cages that get regular light schedule and I try mimicing their natural habitat with lots of hides and a coupld of water bowls. I will mist them everyday when they are hiding and try to give them time to qadjust to the new inviroment. I also keep watch on weather in their native homeland and try to keep on schedule for them. Some like large enclosures and some like small enclosures, lots of hide or no hides.

I had two adults that did not respond well, after 7 months one died, he just did not like being captive. The other was moved to different cages and such, after a year and a clean bill of heath(yet she would only eat once every 3-5 months) and being settled into her fourth and final cage, she is now sn eating machine.

I just got a few more w/c in a few weeks ago, this time I darkened the quarenteen room and started them on their first meal the second they they arrived. All four of them ate and kept their food down. So far, one out of the four is giving me a bit of trouble, it is refusing food, so I am triying a new cage and hopefully this will get it going. The other three are eating machines and doing great.

Each of my w/c are treated for parasites and if they do not do well quickly I take them to a vet to get them checked out.

So all in all, each animal is it's own individual and the adventure is finding out just what it wants so it will be happy. I enjoy it.

The three words that top of my list of concerns with most wild-caught herpetoforms are...

HYDRATION, HYDRATION, and HYDRATION!

Once they're hydrated and feeding well for a length of time, then you can worry about the impertinences.

Exactly how I go about acclimating a wc animal really depends of the species. Most of my wc animals are animals I collected myself or received from friends. They were all healthy upon aquisition and most were very young animals. My first priority is to get them comfortable and eating. I treat any external parasites I see immediately, but in terms of the internal parasites, I usually don't medicate unless there is a problem. I make sure that all fecal material is promptly removed, soiled dishes cleaned, etc. and so far eveyone is doing fine. I also practice strict quarentine between cages to avoid passing cooties around. For the most part, my wc's are native animals that I use in educational presentations I do, not animals that I plan on subjecting to the stresses of breeding.

-Alice

which in your experience, is the hardest species to acclimate?

gray banded king, lyre snakes, some of the milk snakes and for some reason my own milks out here of the common milk syspilla, several species of the racers. in lizards it seems again my own region of collared lizard, and some of the skinks. Of course this is the USA listed but of my import days the number one snake that was hard to acclimate compared to others was the ball python of any size and by looking at post some on here and other sites still the imported ball python. Of the venomous since I have of past kept hots it was the puff adder. All of this is only of my experience.

Originally Posted by esoteric-lizard

which in your experience, is the hardest species to acclimate?

Yes the skinks are tough!!!!! if you can get them eating with in the first week or two you have a chance.

Which skinks have you guys found to be problematic? Skink wise, I've only kept westerns and gilbert's; I've encountered difficulties with some small juvenile westerns, but the adults and subadults of these species seem to adapt pretty readily.

In terms of lizards, my most difficult to acclimate was my chuckwalla. Snake wise, I'm having a lot of trouble getting my night snake eating and the jury's still out on my lyre.

With difficult wild caughts, I've found that you have to keep trying new things until you hit on a winning formula in terms of husbandry and feeding. It can be difficult figuring this out, but once you do, the difficulty of caring for an individual specimen diminishes greatly and the tricks that work for one will often work for others.

It's best to start with the healthiest possible animals when dealing with species that may prove problematic. This way, you have the luxury of time as you bumble through the husbandry.

-Alice