20 gram hatchling

Any body got any tips on getting some nutrients into a tiny hatchling. Hatched 2 days ago and only weighs 20g . Im stuck into the intervene or leave till shed dilemma. Any one had small hatchlings like this make it to their first shed?

wow 20g's i personally would try to wait till after shed, then may try live fuzzy mice at first.

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Originally Posted by docturgonzo

Any body got any tips on getting some nutrients into a tiny hatchling. Hatched 2 days ago and only weighs 20g . Im stuck into the intervene or leave till shed dilemma. Any one had small hatchlings like this make it to their first shed?

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Wait till after it sheds and try a live pinky mouse. See how it does on that, and then try larger prey.:snake:

My decision if it was mine to make would depend on whether it has fully absorbed it's yolk or not.

A extra small hatchling that absorbed it's yolk it's one thing, but one that did not is another and in that case I would consider intervening sooner than after the first shed.

It never fully absorbed all the yolk sack and in general it's very slow moving and appears weak

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Originally Posted by docturgonzo

It never fully absorbed all the yolk sack and in general it's very slow moving and appears weak

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Than you pretty much answer the question yourself something has to be done before the first shed.

Try assisting first and see how it goes and if it does not work you will need to force feed.

I agree with Deb 100%, I've raised two runts in that range but both absorbed their yolk 100%. They still needed for me to assist them a few time's to get started.

The key with assist feeding is making sure the prey is small if it's to big it will be a long and stressful process.

A peach fuzzy mouse should do the trick. When you put it in it's mouth make sure the head of the mouse is all the way back and partially into the throat of your Bp.
Then you carefully close your Bp's mouth on the mouse and gently pull a little as to make the mouse really get caught into it's teeth. After you do this he won't be able to get this mouse outta his mouth, instincts kick in it will start taking it down.

Let's us know how it goes.