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Originally Posted by Lucas339
very nice!! whats with the chick in the back? are they not rodent eaters at first or do you vary diet?
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The second pic is not my animal, only the first pic is mine. I do agree it is good practice to vary the diet with these animals. I'm a dietitian for humans however, so if you are feeding a rodent-based diet to your animals, and they are thriving, I wouldn't be able to comment against it with any authority.
I have a 2010 Suriname male YTC that just wants birds, and in order to get him to eat a mouse, I have to get him into a feeding frenzy with small quail chicks at first, then sneak in a mouse and get him to hit it before he really checks it out, otherwise, he will turn his nose up at it. On the other hand, I have an '09 female Guyana YTC that would rather eat rodents than birds. Only way to get her to eat a chick is to let her get really hungry, which in any Drymarchon takes about a week at most, then put her in her feeding tub with a chick and leave her alone with it for about an hour. So I guess it basically depends on the animal. I do recommend not feeding these guys in their cages. When they get up above 7', they are very strong, and a feeding-response bite can do some real lacerating, so to condition them against it, I feed all of mine in a separate container. They all know the drill well. I can reach into their cages without any fear of being bit at all, pick them up, then place them in the feeding tubs, and the hunt is on. You don't want to reach back into the tub without having fed them to the point they are full. So far, they all do very well with this approach, but it usually takes about a week for new guys to get the idea.
There is a video on youtube of a YTC that likes to eat her shed skin. The owner says she does it everytime. One thing for sure, they are an interesting genus to keep.
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