Water snakes and Belly Heat :/

The only problem I would see would be it being a little messy once it got warm, although if the snake took it soon after it was offered I dont think it would be a problem.

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Originally Posted by BallPythonWannaBe

The only problem I would see would be it being a little messy once it got warm, although if the snake took it soon after it was offered I dont think it would be a problem.

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You should also be able to find whole fish in most aquarium/reptile type stores that sell frozen food. I buy "San Francisco Bay Brand, Sally's Silversides" at my local petsmart for about $15 a bag.

I feed pinkies, worms, fish filets (salmon, yellow perch, tilapia, etc), and silversides to my garters. No gelatin involved. It's not particularly expensive, just cut off and defrost what you need from the frozen fish and buy worms every couple weeks. They don't really like the silversides or pinkies too much, but they'll eat them and it's good for them to have whole things vs filets.

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Originally Posted by BallPythonWannaBe

The only problem I would see would be it being a little messy once it got warm, although if the snake took it soon after it was offered I dont think it would be a problem.

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I've had water snakes I've caught eat in the bucket I caught them in right after capture. Leaving food items unattended isn't likely to be a problem with water snakes.

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Originally Posted by BallPythonWannaBe

Also you said you keep Indigos? How are their temperments?

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If you are interested in colubrids with no particular species in mind, of all the snakes I keep, the indigos are hands down my favorite. Eastern indigos in particular are something of a jewel in the reptile world, but required some extra effort to get a hold of typically. Texas indigos are cheaper and easier to come by and offer you probably 90% the same animal.

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Originally Posted by Regius_049

If you are interested in colubrids with no particular species in mind, of all the snakes I keep, the indigos are hands down my favorite. Eastern indigos in particular are something of a jewel in the reptile world, but required some extra effort to get a hold of typically. Texas indigos are cheaper and easier to come by and offer you probably 90% the same animal.

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I might look into them a bit more but they look like they get pretty big

They also have the potential to give you one of the gnarlier bites you can receive from a nonvenomous snake if you get a feeding response latch. These aren't constrictors. They rely on strength of body and jaw to overpower their prey. I currently just keep a female mexican indigo(D. m. rubidus) and am still seeking an unrelated male. She's a little over a year old, in the 4 foot range, and really just starting to come into her own. A complete sweetheart to handle but she comes at food fast and with a single minded purpose that's a bit awe inspiring, haha. She also routinely rips the heads off quail and spills the guts of rodents. Fish and snakes, with their scaley protection, hold up the best but I've also seen a video of a black tail cribo literally twisting/ripping the head off a prey snake(smaller cribo if memory serves) in the wild. I'd hate to be on the receiving end of a big adult male's feeding bite.

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Originally Posted by John1982

They also have the potential to give you one of the gnarlier bites you can receive from a nonvenomous snake if you get a feeding response latch. These aren't constrictors. They rely on strength of body and jaw to overpower their prey. I currently just keep a female mexican indigo(D. m. rubidus) and am still seeking an unrelated male. She's a little over a year old, in the 4 foot range, and really just starting to come into her own. A complete sweetheart to handle but she comes at food fast and with a single minded purpose that's a bit awe inspiring, haha. She also routinely rips the heads off quail and spills the guts of rodents. Fish and snakes, with their scaley protection, hold up the best but I've also seen a video of a black tail cribo literally twisting/ripping the head off a prey snake(smaller cribo if memory serves) in the wild. I'd hate to be on the receiving end of a big adult male's feeding bite.

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Yikes :O

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Originally Posted by Regius_049

If you are interested in colubrids with no particular species in mind, of all the snakes I keep, the indigos are hands down my favorite. Eastern indigos in particular are something of a jewel in the reptile world, but required some extra effort to get a hold of typically. Texas indigos are cheaper and easier to come by and offer you probably 90% the same animal.

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Absolute jewel! I'm kinda of curious if anyone has kept more than one subspecies of Indigo if there is an actual difference in temperament from the others to the Easterns or if the opinion of the Easterns is maybe skewed because of the "Holy crap it's an EASTERN INDIGO" effect.

So I just thought of something. I've been told that Ball Pythons need Belly Heat? I just wanted to see if this is true