Wiggles, the Children's Python

[Bogertophis]

Nothing better than a scholarly predator! As far as adding a pinkie- are you just trying to use them up? They don't add much in the way of nutrition, & his objection might have to do with the fact that for snakes with longer teeth, pinkies can be awkward to consume (they can actually get stuck on their teeth- I've noticed this with some snakes). He's looking great.

[Homebody]

As far as adding a pinkie- are you just trying to use them up?

No. I was just trying to add a few grams to his meal. I thought a hopper was too small, but that an adult mouse would be too big, so I added a pinkie to the hopper.

[Homebody]

He's getting more comfortable with me. He crawled onto my arm himself.

[Spicey]

Nothing better than a scholarly predator! As far as adding a pinkie- are you just trying to use them up? They don't add much in the way of nutrition, & his objection might have to do with the fact that for snakes with longer teeth, pinkies can be awkward to consume (they can actually get stuck on their teeth- I've noticed this with some snakes). He's looking great.

And they don't have fingers to poke the pinkie from between their teeth . . . .

[Homebody]

And they don't have fingers to poke the pinkie from between their teeth . . . .

He didn't obviously to have any trouble with them, but I guess he may have. I'll pay closer attention if I ever have to feed pinkies in the future. For now, I have a different feeding challenge, reptilinks. My first order should be delivered tomorrow.

[Bogertophis]

He didn't obviously to have any trouble with them, but I guess he may have. I'll pay closer attention if I ever have to feed pinkies in the future. For now, I have a different feeding challenge, reptilinks. My first order should be delivered tomorrow.

I can remember (when I was very new to keeping snakes) seeing a snake have that trouble with a pinkie- one was a BP. Wiggles head is smaller though.

Hey, I've never tried Reptilinks for any of my snakes- I sure hope he likes them, & good luck with that.

[Homebody]

I can remember (when I was very new to keeping snakes) seeing a snake have that trouble with a pinkie- one was a BP. Wiggles head is smaller though.

I know what you mean. I fed Wiggles a mouse tail once just to wet his appetite for a training session. It worked, but he sure struggled to get it down.

[Homebody]

I scented the Reptilink with a hopper mouse. Watching him trying to find the head was hilarious.

[Bogertophis]

Hey, he did GREAT! But shame on you for laughing at his trouble finding the head... He got it done, at least. Maybe he was thinking "What's up with this bald mouse?"

[Homebody]

This is the story of Wiggles's first Reptilink. For those that don't know, Reptilinks are sausages specifically designed as reptile feeders. By blending together different types of feeders, Reptilinks provide a easy way to give your pet a varied diet. I got their most popular Megablend. It combines rabbit, guinea fowl, chicken and bull frog. Because Children's pythons eat a variety of prey in the wild, I want to provide similar variety in captivity.

I hadn't ordered before now because Reptilinks doesn't ship small orders. They require you to buy three items. They say it's not economical for them to ship less. One package of my links contains 40 links. Because I only have one small snake, that would last me a year. Three packages would last three years. I don't have a freezer that will keep them fresh for that long. They sell other things too, including live feeders, but nothing I was interested in. After some months, I managed to persuade my local exotic pet shop to buy the extras. A Black Friday deal from Reptilinks allowed me to sell at a price that interested them. I hope I'll be able to do this annually.

Once I had the links, my next problem was getting Wiggles to eat them. They are sausages. They both look and smell different than the hopper mouse he's used to. I was reasonably confident that I would ultimately succeed. Children's pythons are not picky eaters. I just wasn't sure how long it would take. It turns out not long. He took it on the first try.

Preparing it was really easy. I scented the link with a hopper mouse. I don't plan to keep doing this going forward, but I thought I should to ease the transition. To thaw it, I just held one frozen link (12g) in my hand until it heated up to 90 degrees. It only took a few minutes. It was much faster than thawing out a hopper. No water bowls or water changes required.

He took it from my tongs as usual. There was no hesitation. The only trouble he had was trying to find the head. Now, the sausage's blunt ends are wider than a hoppers nose. Once he gave up trying to find the head, he really struggled to get his mouth around that blunt end, but he ultimately succeeded. Next time, I'll try squeezing one end make it smaller.

Overall, I'm very happy with them. They are a higher quality feeder than I get from local shop, and my wife does mind keeping them in our freezer. While I plan to feed Reptilinks primarily from now on, I may occasionally feed Wiggles a hopper just to keep that option open in case I need it.