1.1 CB Red Tail Green Rats

[NBLADE]

Originally Posted by jarich

Come on now, you cant leave us with a teaser like that! What was your method of acclimatizing them quickly?

I'd tub them in 50 to 64 litre rub tubs, keep them in a dark place, and for the first week only keep them hydrated and have very minimal contact. Then after a week i'll offer them a chick, just left in the hide, i start all WC asian rat snakes and boiga off on chicks first, for smaller animals i use chick heads, or legs / wings, then after a month or 3 consecutive feeds, sometimes takes a little longer than a month with some individuals, i offer mice and rats depending on the size, then once they are feeding regularly, i'll worm them by injecting a mouse or rat with the wormer, then i will move them into larger arboreal vivs with lots of cover, and use bird boxes mounted on the sides as hides. Once they are in their permanent vivs they are then normally paired up, and left to it, with minimal disturbance to settle, after a few weeks i spend more and more time around the front of the viv to get them used to people being there, and they calm down and tolerate me working around the viv, i only get them out for a full clean and don't mess with them too much, i leave them as more of a display animal. I've not lost a single adult wc asian rat snake or wc boiga either for that matter this way, and have had a lot in over the years, i tend to acclimatize them for people and then move them onto them when they are feeding well and treated. As a lot of people ask me to get them established for them.

[jarich]

Ya, that sounds about right. I have a couple animals that I work with who dont really stress by regular handling, but the rest I just leave alone. Seems to help with almost all their stress levels to not be handled regularly. I have a sneaking suspicion thats why BPs are considered 'picky eaters'.

[stephanbakir]

I'll try that with the next batch of Boiga Nigriceps and boiga cynea I'm getting in, haven't had much luck with the Cynea so far. Had one that lasted a good 8 months but they generally don't arrive healthy to begin with.