ringneck won't eat

i've had him for 3 months. i've tried earth worms, guppies, and crickets. both by hand feeding and just leaving it in the tank. the guy i ordered him from offline said he ate worms. i keep the little guy on reptile bark, but since his cage (it's a small critter carrier) is so small i just set his cage on my corns tank right beside the heat lamp.

i got him at the beginning of november. i've heard they are picky eaters but for a small little guy isn't 3 months a long time? the guy i got him from said to feed him every 3 days cause he is a baby. he hasn't eaten ONCE since i got him. i can't even tell if he's lost any weight cause he's so tiny.

this is when i first got him:
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a30...gray/odie4.jpg

this is a few weeks ago:
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a30/jaimegray/head.jpg

=( I don't know what to tell you. I have no experience with ringnecks, but had interest in them as they are a native Canadian species that I'm legally allowed to obtain (there's not very many). I heard they were pretty much impossible feeders in captivity, accepting only salamanders. In the wild they are opputunistic and eat pretty muh everything you can feed a garter.

No way to contact the person you got him from? He might have some helpful ideas. Try all the feeding tricks in the book you would use on other colubrids. Do you know how old he is? Ringnecks are very very small. If he's already an adult, he can last longer without food.

Read up on a few sources about how to forcefeed if it becomes neccessary. Unfortutatly in a ringneck's case, it might not start him eating on his own, and in that case he's going to have a slow decent downwards.

Hopefully someone else will have some helpful advice for you, and I wish you luck!

First off, that's not a baby. It's a subadult.

This time of year it is not unusual for them to go off feed.

Don't keep it warm. Put it someplace cool, make sure it has water, and leave it be. Come spring time its attitude will change and it will start to feed.

Good luck.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wilomn

First off, that's not a baby. It's a subadult.

This time of year it is not unusual for them to go off feed.

Don't keep it warm. Put it someplace cool, make sure it has water, and leave it be. Come spring time its attitude will change and it will start to feed.

Good luck.

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couldn't put it better...cycle it.
i use to keep them when i was young. we used to find them everywhere. the females are bigger. red worms and salamanders were best to feed them. it was hard to find food for the baby ones so i woud let them go.