How to feed a krait?

I have a 50cm long Bungarus candidus (black form), caught in Bali. It appears to be very healthy, but has so far refused all offers of food. I have tried live fish, frogs, toads, geckos, skinks, and small mice, all without success. I am now trying to find some small snakes, which might interest it. It lives in a simple vivarium, with plain paper as substrate and cover, a water dish, and also a tile under which it sometimes hides. It is more active by night than by day, and I have tried leaving food with it with lights on and off. The 2 B. fasciatus i once kept fed readily on mice, either live or dead, but this one shows no interest. It does not appear to be nervous or aggressive at all, but will hide its head in bright light, as the B fasciatus did. Any ideas?

Aren't all Kraits ophiophagus snakes?

Hey Ron,

try chickenlegs or a small mice covered with the content of a snake egg. Also fresh snake embryos can work. At least this worked for me in the past with Calliophis bivirgata flaviceps.

@ Guenter: In general Bungarus sp. feed on snakes, but most species are easy to feed with other animals, especially B.candidus from certain areas (Thailand, West Malaysia) eat mice readily, while B. candidus from Indonesia are more difficult to get on mice. Also B. multifasciatus feeds more on fish in nature, than on snakes.
Kraits are not that difficult to keep and to feed on mice as most peope think.

Best regards

Frank

For those of you who are interested, I have had several useful responses to my query about feeding my black Bungarus candidus. The idea of using snake embryos to smear on other food items is interesting! Unfortunately, i don't yet have the luxury of any access to snake eggs, embryos, or collections of other snakes (Bali is a bit of a wasteland, as far as trying to find herpetologists goes).
While i know kraits to often be snake eaters, I have seen them eat other prey. However, all my efforts with fish, frogs, toads, chick legs, mice, skinks and geckos failed. Not any interest at all. So last night in desperation, I wrapped a house gecko in a newly-shed skin of a small Lycodon subcinctus (a snake which i would prefer not to sacrifice at this stage!). The krait took one sniff at it, then immediately bit the head of the gecko and hung on. Shortly afterwards, it unfortunately released the gecko. But at least now I know that, when I do find a suitable small snake , the krait should take it immediately. More as and when I succeed/fail again!
ROn

We kept 2 Bungarus candidus here for a good number of years. I do not know what area they were collected from as they were bought in a market place by a man who tried to smuggle them into the UK. They were confiscated at HM Customs and given to us.
They fed readily on mice from the time they arrived and proved to be fairly simple to keep (both housed in the same vivarium).

I took extra care when handling these snakes for venom extraction purposes as there is no suitable antivenom for this species.

Guest

Guenter Leitenbauer wrote:: Aren't all Kraits ophiophagus snakes?

Arghhhh!!!! - You beat me to it! lol haha...

But, as Guenter asked, are these all snake eaters???

James, Frank already answered this, I guess. Wink

For those of you who were following my requests for info about feeding the black Bungarus candidus, I am happy to say that it has just taken a wolf snake (Lycodon aulicus). As i mentioned before, the krait was refusing all foods, and i was concerned that it was too nervous to settle in captivity, or that its enclosure was missing something. I introduced the wolf snake into the box in daylight, and the krait immediately responded, grabbing the wolf snake mid body in a sideways swipe, before briefly releasing it and then biting it again directly on the head. This happened so quickly, I am uncertain as to how the krait knew where to aim its bite!. The krait held on and after less than a minute, the wolf snake stopped struggling and attempting to constrict the krait. Its tail finally disappeared down the krait's throat 15 minutes later. I am still interested to know whether this krait is exclusively a snake feeder, or whether I can trick it into taking other food, such as mice. I shall report again if I have any success. I manged to take a sequence of photos of the feeding if anyone is interested.

YES!!!
Photos is always interesting.
Micke

Guest

I have a question....Would it be possible to "ween" these Kraits onto rodents in the same way as you would with King Cobras?

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