Mud Snake Feeding - long, but with rare pics

[BWSmith]

Now this is something you don't see every day. I got both of my Mud Snakes to take scented f/t rat pinks tonight. The normal swallowed them too fast for pics, but there are a couple of the anery (if you get through my narrative).

But first, let me preclude this. Mud Snakes are specialized feeders. They feed almost exclusively on Amphiuma and Sirens (both are basically eel looking Salamanders). Sirens of appropriate size run $10-$20 and Amphiuma run $30-$40 (and Amphiuma will bite the snot out of you). Generally, I try to stick to natural prey items as the snake is designed for that prey. Amphibians are lower fat, lower calories, lower everything than mammals (e.g. rats). So their bodies may not adjust too well and health problems such as fatty liver and heart may occur. This has been demonstrated in Eastern Hognose Snakes (Heterodon platyrhinos).

That being said, these are very difficult snakes to keep in captivity. The only reason I have two is because, let's face it, feeding two freaky feeders is not much worse than one. Since they are so difficult and prey items are so scarce and so expensive I wanted to try different methods of scenting alternate prey items. Rat pinks are an obvious choice because of their availability.

After several attempts at frogs, frog parts, live goldfish, f/t gobies, tadpoles, lizards, and anything else I could think of, it looked like I was stuck with Sirens. Both have fed on Sirens several times without hesitation. They take them viciously and it is truly a battle royale. But I have come to like the Sirens, as a species not as individuals. And the screaming Sirens during the battle, and it is a battle, is not something I want to hear every week. So I started to experiment and after many tries here is what I came up with that seems to work.

The rat pinks were placed in water to thaw then patted dry with paper towel. Place the Mud Snake in a feed tote with no substrate for a few minutes. This allows it to calm down a bit and gets it tongue flicking around. Place the prey item in a tall, but thin deli cup. Then add two larger Sirens. The height of the deli inhibits the sirens from just popping out the top before the lid is on as they tend to freak out when removed from water. The smaller diameter of the container allows more contact with the prey item. By placing two in, there is not only more surface area of Siren coming in contact with the prey, but as they move they induce the other one to move as well. I left them in there about minutes and moved the rat pinks around a couple times to ensure an even coat of "Siren Slime". Then, i gently placed the Sirens back in their tank. Pick up the the prey with long tweezers and place it in front of the Mud Snake's face about an inch in the direction it is crawling. If you touch their face, they will fling back and change direction. It takes some patience. But you have to keep placing it in the their path until you get a nice tongue flick and they nose it a bit. Then I just gave a little movement. Not dragging it or a "rat dance", just a very slight and slow wiggle to mimic a tired aquatic salamander stuck on land. Once they catch the siren slime they are interested, a little movement and BAM! They are on it. And these things eat FAST! They rival, if no exceed, Pituophis and Drymarchon on how fast they down prey. That probably comes from eating long, slimy critters alive.

That is what I have found so far. The larger normal took 3 rat pinks, the smaller anery took 2 (basically they ate all I offered them). This was an excellent exercise in discovery, but I do not plan to keep them on a diet of just rat pinks. I am hoping that I can use this scenting method on other, more readily available, amphibians and diversify their captive diet but still have rodents to fall back on. ( I have probably lost the Ball Python and Corn Snake people by now )

Anyway, here are a couple pics of the anery eating. Truly rare feeding shots.

	Anerythristic A recessive genetic mutation in which the animal is void of red pigment.

	Corn Snake The Corn Snake or Red Rat Snake (Elaphe guttata) is a species of Rat Snake.

[louise]

that is awesome. congrats

[PythonGuy24]

Wow that's pretty tough for a snake. Can't you get some tadpoles or something or salamanders without scenting them?

[telefrag]

WOW!!!!!!!

that is truly a sight


nice work, thats awesome

[Red-Tailed_mustang]

Thats cool I don't know much about them but from what you've said and what I've read "these are very difficult snakes to keep in captivity" So congrats.

[Ghroller]

Nice Shots...... That was a lot of work, Go BW!

[RioBravoReptiles]

That is neat..
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I had a feeding mud snake years ago. I worked on staff at UT Tyler for a while with a herpetologist there, great guy. Anyway he had a long-term project with garter snakes, dozens of them (what a mess!).. We used to go collect small frogs, tadpoles and fish and worms to feed these things. I picked up a big mudsnake off of I-20 towards Shreveport late in the year, it ate sirens that we caught for a month or so then went down for the winter. In the spring I couldn't find sirens so I tried it on frozen-thawed bull-frog tadpoles and it ate them (uuugggh!). Next I tried washing pre-killed mice and scenting them with the tad-pole mess.. it worked.
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Anyway, neat story.