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Wow, he's sooo beautiful... I'm really curious how big will he be in future.
And out of curiosity what do you have in mind while saying that indigos are different from average snakes when it comes to feeding and cleaning?
All the best for you and Loki!
Males can reach 8.5 feet. I think 7-8 feet is average for a male.
As far as being different, they eat a lot more often and just a lot more in general. They aren't ambush predators like many snakes. They're diurnal and actively hunt their food. So, they have a very high metabolism. They also can't unhinge their jaws like most snakes, which means they generally eat smaller prey items, but more of them. They're opportunistic feeders and will eat, literally, ANYTHING they can overpower. But, in the wild, other snakes are a very large part of their diet, which is likely the reason they can't unhinge their jaws - snakes are easy to swallow. But, they'll eat rodents, fish, frogs, lizards, small turtles, eggs, birds, snakes, and even carrion sometimes. One indigo was found eating meat off of a dead shark head on a beach.
I feed my boy about every 3 days. He gets finicky about food around shedding time, which is once a month right now, but otherwise, he pretty much always eats. The past couple of days, he refused a frog leg, but I don't think he recognizes the smell as food yet. He did eat one in the past though.
So, anyway, with all that food going in, there's plenty coming out the other end. And, it tends to be on the runny and nasty side. They're very active, as I said, which means they're out crawling around a lot after every one of those poops, and they can make quite a mess. I've found that sanichips cut down on this for me, but most people use newspaper. I can only imagine how they must smear the poop around on that. Eeeesh.
Anyway, that's what I meant when I said they were different.
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“...the old ones ... knew in their bones... that death exists, that all life kills to eat, that all lives end, that energy goes on. They knew that humans are participants, not spectators.” -- Stephen Bodio, On the Edge of the Wild
Wow, they are bigger "feeding machines" than Russians... My Russian would eat antyhing too, but only once in a week (I know that she'll be happy to eat more often, but in their case it will be overfeeding). And it's really interesting that they can eat turtles and fish too.
And yeah, I can imagine the mess that they can create... but still what is not done out of love?
And like EL-Ziggy, I feel for you, that's a lot of eaten money, haha!
He's definitely a little on the expensive side to feed, but I love every minute of it.
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“...the old ones ... knew in their bones... that death exists, that all life kills to eat, that all lives end, that energy goes on. They knew that humans are participants, not spectators.” -- Stephen Bodio, On the Edge of the Wild
Huh, neat. It's interesting to see the variances in biology in snakes. Eastern Indigos are beauuutifulll, but definitely a little too much work for me
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I am a bird biologist newish to snake husbandry.
0.1 BRB/CRB Integrade (Chaska), 0.1 BRB (Avatre) 0.2 gray cats (Aria and River), and a bunch of fishies and carnivorous plants.
Finally, after tons of work and lots of time, I moved Loki into his adult enclosure. Everything was finally ready today. I was just waiting for Loki to shed, which he got around to doing this evening. Shortly thereafter, I introduced him to his new home.
Here's a lame video commemorating the event.
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“...the old ones ... knew in their bones... that death exists, that all life kills to eat, that all lives end, that energy goes on. They knew that humans are participants, not spectators.” -- Stephen Bodio, On the Edge of the Wild
And, for my 501st post to this site... a couple more Loki photos. LOL. It's all I bring to the table. Just cell phone photos through the glass. He seems to be enjoying his new home though.
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“...the old ones ... knew in their bones... that death exists, that all life kills to eat, that all lives end, that energy goes on. They knew that humans are participants, not spectators.” -- Stephen Bodio, On the Edge of the Wild
Is it bioactive? Very cool snake, ive always wanted to see one if these in the wild, one of my friends caught a six footer a few months back he's an older guy, but he said when he was a kid they could rise out of the grass and look a man in the face, he now says that since the area we live in is more developed they die before they reach full size lol i personally saw the six footer but im going to take the rest of his story with a grain of salt
Is it bioactive? Very cool snake, ive always wanted to see one if these in the wild, one of my friends caught a six footer a few months back he's an older guy, but he said when he was a kid they could rise out of the grass and look a man in the face, he now says that since the area we live in is more developed they die before they reach full size lol i personally saw the six footer but im going to take the rest of his story with a grain of salt
Yes, it's bioactive. I'd also love to see one in the wild. I was actually supposed to go down this past february and tag along and help with survey in the Conecuh National Forest in southern AL, where they've been reintroduced. But, the weather was bad that weekend, and it's a pretty long drive for me, so I opted out. They did find one of the tagged snakes, but just the one. I may try to go on the next one.
But yeah, looking a man in the face, might be a bit of a stretch. But, I'm sure an 8+ footer in the wild would be pretty impressive, nonetheless.
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“...the old ones ... knew in their bones... that death exists, that all life kills to eat, that all lives end, that energy goes on. They knew that humans are participants, not spectators.” -- Stephen Bodio, On the Edge of the Wild
Hmmmm, i was thinking about it a bit and say a rather short person 4ish feet is walking through a field and happens to disturb a 8.5 footer? Maybe a surprised indigo could rear up 3-4 feet?
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