Hatchlings striking, but not costricting

I recently produced a clutch of 4 from an Albino x Black Pewter 100% Het Albino pairing. I am pretty stoked with the odds....I got a Black Pastel, a Black Pewter, an Albino, and an Albino Black Pewter! Not bad.... Well tonight was their first scheduled feeding. I got live mouse hoppers. One struck and constricted right away. Two struck repeatedly but did not constrict. One refused to even strike. All four shed completely by Friday. I separated them into individual tubs with a hide and a water bowl. 90 degrees on the hot side....82 on the cool side. Humidity 60-65%. I have only handled them to clean their tubs when dirty. BTW...this was my first clutch....Any suggestions?????

Striking is a good sign though it seems your babies are just being defensive right now. Give them a week to settle into the new set ups and try again. Always easier to get the bitey ones feeding compared to the little tuckers.

That kind of goes along with my thinking that maybe they just aren't hungry yet. I just wasn't sure how long they could go and still be ok. I know my adults can go months without food, but obviously this is different.

My calico did the same thing for 3 weeks (STRIKING BUT NOT EATING). On week four i got it to eat but puting it in a small display dish with a rat crawler and about 30 min of crawling all over it it decided to eathttp://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14...ac2ffbfe86.jpg hope this helps

My hatchlings have always been hard to start for some reason.

This clutch, I just left them a week with no handling (just cleaning etc) and offered live and they took it.


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Thanks guys....I'm gonna wait about 5 days and offer again. I was just worried because this is my first clutch.

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Originally Posted by Exotic Ectotherms

I just wasn't sure how long they could go and still be ok. I know my adults can go months without food, but obviously this is different.

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Hatchlings can go 6 or 7 weeks before eating. I had one hatch on July 23 this year. No interest in food. The others ate fine, but this one wanted nothing to do with food. Finally ate on Sept 7 (46 days, almost 7 weeks).

If there's a medical condition or problem that's one thing, but an otherwise healthy hatchling can make it to week 6 or 7 before you need to start considering alternatives.

Oh wow....that's a lot longer than I would think. Thanks a lot for the info!

Not sure if this is helpful but just throwing it out there. The first feeding with Shesha I did everything I had read, used the tongs and wiggled the food for him. He did strike once but only managed to knock the rat out of the tongs and startle himself. After that he didn't want to strike but after the rat dropped in a corner he suddenly took interest. It wasn't moving and he didn't strike it, just sniffed and then put his mouth around it and started swallowing it. Since you are feeding live, would it maybe be worth trying getting a pinky rat so that it won't move around as much and seeing if they take interest based on smell alone? I am not sure how much hoppers move but my little guy sure seemed to be freaked out by movement, he seemed to much prefer still prey. I found it odd, but at least he ate.