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Breeding/Egg Production & Care Any topics concerning breeding of the cornsnake, brumation, egg laying, or issues concerning problems in any step along the way.

Imprinting Scent on Captive-Bred Eggs?
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Old 10-16-2007, 09:55 PM   #1
tyflier
Imprinting Scent on Captive-Bred Eggs?

So...I was reading an Animal Nutrition magazine at work today, and came across an interesting article. It discussed various ways to "entice" captive bred snakes away from their normal diet and towards a more readily available food source.

Specifically, they referred to captive bred King Cobras. A king cobra's diet would consist almost exclusively of other snakes in the wild. What captive breeders have done, is to "scent" the eggs roughly two weeks prior to pipping. Everyday, they would they would scent the eggs with rat odor(guts), which would heavily scent the incubation chamber of rat. Upon hatching, ALL of the snakes from the scented eggs would immediately take rats as a food source...when they wouldn't even be considered instinctually.

They also referenced several breeders of colubrids including greyband kings, hognoses, and garter snakes, where the breeders scented the eggs with mouse pinkies...and never had a refusal from scented hatchlings.

It sounds like an imprinting mechanism, where the snakes become so familiar with the odor of the intended prey, that they become programmed to accept prey that would otherwise be outside of their instinctual realm of food.

Anyone have opinions on this practice? Anyone tried it? I'm considering implementing it when I start breeding greyband kings...but that is still a couple years off.
 
Old 10-17-2007, 04:46 AM   #2
Flagg
Sounds interesting... but I would worry about mold and bacteria growth. I guess if you kept the scenting materials (guts) nearby but not touching the actual eggs or substrate.
 
Old 10-17-2007, 07:01 AM   #3
Nanci
I can see that working. I wonder if you could use a less drastic measure than guts- say very dirty bedding.

Nanci
 
Old 10-17-2007, 07:23 AM   #4
Susan
Sounds like an interesting project! I had a couple of clutches with a high percentage of problem feeders (anole scented preference) that I might try this on. I have plenty of dirty mouse bedding I could use. I may simply put a small dish containing some in the incubation container of next year's clutches from those females, just to see what happens. All I have to do now is simply remember to do it!

Just send myself an e-mail linking this thread. If I keep it marked as unread, I may actually remember!
 
Old 10-17-2007, 10:52 AM   #5
Flagg
Susan -

Was it your pewter clutches? =)
 
Old 10-17-2007, 12:00 PM   #6
tyflier
OK...I think I misled you guys. The article wasn't talking about putting scented materials in the incubation chamber...they are actually scenting the egg shells.

Apparently, they take a sponge dipped in water that the guts are soaking in, and draw a bead across the tops of the eggs, allowing the scent to permeate into the eggs. A MUCH more powerful imprint than bedding in the incubator, I would think.

I am not exactly sure HOW they go about it. The article said "liquid scenting material"...I am assuming(I know...probably shouldn't do that) it is a water-based "tincture", if you will, that holds a fairly large amount of odiferous substance...like a tub of warm water that has rat guts soaking in it, or something like that...

I don't know that leaving a handful of bedding in the incubator would be powerful enough to cause an imprint that can beat instinct. Any thoughts on how one would actually make a "liquid scenting material" and/or if this could hold some potential danger to the eggs that I am not seeing?
 
Old 10-17-2007, 12:02 PM   #7
mike17l
Never heard of that, but it sounds very promising. I will definitely give it a try on a couple alterna clutches in 08.
 
Old 10-17-2007, 12:04 PM   #8
tyflier
I'm going to bring the article home from work tonight. I will post some of the quotes from the article, so maybe you guys can help me better understand what might be happening...
 
Old 10-17-2007, 12:05 PM   #9
jazzgeek
Chris, this would make for an excellent experiment, thanks for posting this.

Would there be an online article, perhaps? (I'll start Googling right after the "submit reply")

regards,
jazz
 
Old 10-17-2007, 12:13 PM   #10
toyah
Quote:
Originally Posted by tyflier
I'm going to bring the article home from work tonight. I will post some of the quotes from the article, so maybe you guys can help me better understand what might be happening...
That would be fantastic - thanks so much. If this proves to be viable in corn snakes then it could mean the end of a lot of non-feeders or scented feeders, which would be a wonderful thing for the people and snakes involved.

I would love to know the authors?
 

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