2.
are taken without hesitation by young elapids would
appear to be that these items are abundant in their
natural habitat, and of the right size. Most neonate
elapids are small (some less than 150mm.), and it
appears to have been a life history strategy of our
native elapids to be highly fecund (big litters/
clutches) and have small young. This is accompa-
nied by high mortality with few survivors in any
given year.
But although most neonates will readily eat those
food items they’re ‘programmed’ to eat, only some
states allow the capture and feeding of natural prey
items, with lizards and frogs being declared to be
protected wildlife (notably, the non-native Asian
House Gecko, Hemidactylus frenatus, is not).
I remember a time in the early 1970s when I had a
number of Desert Death Adders (Acanthophis
pyrrhus) that were not remotely interested in pinky
mice - they turned into feeding machines when
provided with live skinks.
If you live in one of those states or territories that
allows the feeding of skinks to juvenile snakes (and
you need to ensure that you comply with any
restrictions on numbers and species) you have a bit
of a head start. But once you have your snake
feeding you still have to switch it over to other food
items such as rodents. For this reason, along with
ethical concerns about feeding wild reptiles to
captive snakes, and the risk of transmission of
parasites in the process, many keepers prefer to
start their newborn captives on a substitute diet.
Can I commit to raising small elapids?
The primary decision you are going to have to make
is whether you can commit to raising your clutch/
litter of neonates. Of course, keeping a couple may
be a great way of getting some experience in raising
small snakes, but keeping an entire litter may be a
task beyond you. Even keepers with extensive
experience can be daunted by the prospect of feed-
ing 30 baby snakes; a commitment that can extend
to a couple of hours every evening for weeks or
months on end. If you are not going to persist with
them yourself move them on quickly, because
neonate snakes that have started to lose condition
can go downhill fast, and for the best chance of
survival they need to be fed as early and frequently
as possible. More than likely an advert offering
neonate snakes at the right price will end up with
homes being found pretty quickly, but don’t expect
people to pay a premium for un-feeding neonate
elapids unless they’re particularly rare in captivity or
are something very special. Conversely, when
1.
& 2. A couple of large litters of Tiger Snakes,
comprising 40+ and 24 neonates respectively.
Images by Simon Fearn.