Some New Additions

All my 4 were refusing food again, four days ago....then I cut the legs off of two chicks. That did it! Every snake voraciously attacked the leg, and then the regular items offered next. The blood did it....and tomorrow will be feeding time again, I'll see how that goes.

I was told by the lady I'm buying a 4-year female from, that her girl eats most anything -- including salmon. So I bought a fresh salmon filet a few weeks ago, sliced it into strips, and my youngest boy attacked it with vigor. The other 3 snakes investigated the offering, but didn't try it. I will offer it again, in future, though.

Yeah, indigos are sort of funny about eating. Either they chow down like they are starving, or ignore the food entirely. I think it has something to do with being a non-constrictor that eats a lot of prey alive in the wild. They have to get it down quickly before it can bite back.

Chick legs worked again today, to begin feeding time. They all ate reasonably well, not quite as much as I'd like, but enough that I won't worry....

I believe a good percentage of the wild diet are snakes....... I would bet the snake of choice would be ratsnakes..... In fact I've seen indigos purse ratsnakes in open areas and once in a tree!!!...... Anyhow I think it's uncomfortable for indigos to stretch their jaws too far apart...... I never feed a food item that causes too much expansion....... Now for my personal thoughts....... Feeding is one of a snakes most vulnerable times..... The faster they get that item down the sooner they get back to safety..... Do they have a bio-timer?...... That's goes off and has them make a choice between calories and safety????...... I don't know, but when one gets to be 66 years old...... Humans tend to think about things way too much..... Ever see an indigo track a sitting frog , catch it and swallow it?........ Kids it takes only a FEWminutes....... It's memories like that ....... Just brings a grin to my face and a an appreciation of how fortunate I was to have been there at that time and place........

They'll eat appropriate sized box turtles!!!!....... And I reckon other species also......question..... Has anyone found that baby gopher tortoises are a food item????...... With all the work being done on the gopher tortoise/ indigo relationships.... That may have been documented.....how about tortoise eggs.....I believe the tortoise lays the eggs on the "APRON" of the tunnel??..... I think I read that somewhere....
An old man
Bob

Hi Bob! Did you get my PM?

Interesting thoughts about the "danger timer". My younger snakes have often grabbed an animal sideways, in their feeding frenzy moments, and then just started "chewing", instead of looking for the head, like almost every other species I've owned. The oldest girl "gets it", of course: she'll initially bite the (F/T) animal almost anywhere she likes the smell - but then she immediately starts a "lopsided" chewing action, which works the animal around in her jaws until she's got a favorable angle of attack. She uses her body to hold the animal while she does that.

My other (younger) couperi allow me to help them: I'll regrab the prey animal with long tweezers, to help pull it straight, when necessary. My 5 foot + boy just doesn't care though: he'll grab a 1 week quail sideways, and start eating. I've seen it take 15 minutes, with me sometimes cutting wings off, etc, during the process....he doesn't care. When he's grabbed the animal wrong like this, he'll just keep chewing until he squeezes the guts out, and makes it smaller.

(Yes, I'm fully aware that Indigo jaws don't do the quadrate expansion of other snakes, and I seriously try to avoid feeding them large prey.....but everything becomes much larger when you eat it sideways!)

Bob, have you ever had an issue with cyclosporidia? I was warned to never feed my couperi any reptiles, amphibians, or any bird older than 1 day. I looked up cyclosporidia, and decided that birds could not infect snakes, because the organisms are different species from warm to cold blooded animals.

My warning came from a VERY well known couperi breeder, but in my further study, I saw that the disease is almost completely exclusive to captive populations, where snakes might contract the organism by eating an infected animal or feces.

I'd love to hear from your experience.

Chris