At what point do I force Feed?????

[firehop]

Hello All,

Well I have a clutch of 5 babies from a Spider Male to normal female. After about 2 weeks I attempted to feed them. One of them hit a pinky rat without hesitation and has continued to eat but the rest refuse to eat. I have tried pinky rats, pinky mice, and little small hopper mice. They were hatched on November 4th (completly out of egg) The have lost very little weight but I am now concerned and would welcome any experianced help. They are all in the exact same tub with underbelly heat and are not and have never been agressive. I thank you for any help you can give.

[ama1997]

Well I had 7 hatch on 9/7/07 Im feeding right now as I type this. I have 1 male that hasent started yet. Ive tried feeding everything nothing has worked ive tried force feeding didnt work. He is alot smaller than the rest, but still not to bad. Some of the others have only eaten 2 or 3 times. I had a hard time getting all of them to eat but one. Here is a great link helped me out alot. http://www.8ballpythons.com/journal/...ingseating.htm

[joepythons]

Hello All,

Well I have a clutch of 5 babies from a Spider Male to normal female. After about 2 weeks I attempted to feed them. One of them hit a pinky rat without hesitation and has continued to eat but the rest refuse to eat. I have tried pinky rats, pinky mice, and little small hopper mice. They were hatched on November 4th (completly out of egg) The have lost very little weight but I am now concerned and would welcome any experianced help. They are all in the exact same tub with underbelly heat and are not and have never been agressive. I thank you for any help you can give.

I would suggest you give them another 4 or 5 days and give them a try.Sometimes they are stubborn and hunger will win eventually .Relax its still to early to worry to much

[Monty]

i've tried frozen/thawed rat pinks, frozen thawed mouse fuzzys, live rat pinks and live mouse fuzzy. my pastel hasnt eaten for 3 weeks now and is gettin very skinny he drinks and does everything normal just not eating and losing alot of weight im thinking about trying a mouse slurry but not sure on how i would try to feed that and also i dont wanna force a mouse down my snakes throat and me wind up getting bit.

anymore info on this subject would be greatly apprecaited

[rabernet]

I'm having DSL troubles this evening and can only get on a very few sites (thank goodness this is one of them). I think it's an AT&T problem - as all circuits are busy.

In any case - go to http://www.8ballpythons.com and check out his articles and look for starting hatchlings article and use that as a guide. If I could get to it, I'd post the link - but I can't.

[rabernet]

Whoops, should have read that ama posted the link already (I can't even edit tonight either - weird!)

[firehop]

I checked out 8balls post and I feel alot better. Thanks everybody for your help and I will relax and take my time with feeding.

[Monty]

yea hasnt helped me any i got the bp like the second day out of the egg the guy told me to wait till it shed and then wait another week to feed well the first time i fed him he ate and that was 4 weeks and i tried pinkies again and nothin so now i have a hopper a lil smaller then his girth but he seems to be scared of anything that moves and isnt interested in anything thats not moving i think he might wind up being a shy feeder i tried putting him and the food in a bag, in a box, in the bathtub, on my bed, in his cage, and in the box i bought the mouse home in my temps are 92 on hot side 80 on cool 60% humidity

[dr del]

Hi,

Have you tried stepping the size back down to a fuzzy?

Are you giving him a week or five days between all these different attempts or just trying them all closer together?

I ask because you mention 7 types of feeding tricks yet he only refused 3 weeks or so ago?


dr del

[rabernet]

So someone sold a 2 day old snake, knowing you had no experience starting hatchlings? Shameful!