Petstore Rescue Attempt

"Handle with care" is what the box says. I was in a local Petco yesterday morning buying a few supplies when I decided to peek in their BP tanks. Horrified, I saw this sweet thing drastically underweight and being housed with 3 other BP's. A baby balls back should be rounded out and fully filled, not concave, allowing me to see its spine and ribcage throughout its back. I returned this morning. I was not going to leave it there to slowly starve to death. I confronted the store manager and he said they were having trouble getting them to eat. He lifted the rock hide and revealed the most skinny, malnourished animals I've ever seen in person. It was heartbreaking. If course, I couldn't save them all, but this little boy or girl has a fighting chance. I can't say the same for the others. He tried to assure me they would take the animals to the back for more "intensive care ", but if they were focused on providing adequate care in the first place, why did it take a customer to point out the serious condition of their animals at all?
I don't believe those other babies will last much longer, but with focused care and plenty of time, this little one may make it... I'm fairly certain he/she is a pastave, but let me know if you have any other guesses.
So my main question is, do any of you have experience bringing back BP's who were very underweight/in poor health? The little baby only weights 46 grams at the moment. It needs to eat, and I've offered it a live fuzzy using the paper bag method (which I've had success with before ), but it hasn't taken it so far. If it comes down to assist feeding, how would I go about that?
Thanks for any and all help in advance!

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Just for clarification only 1 (now 2) out of 14 of my BP's has come from a pet store. I'm all about supporting reputable breeders...my heart just broke for this one baby and I caved,

Hopefully you didn't pay full price for it. Also be prepared for an outbreak of mites.

Fortunately BP babies can bounce back rather handily with proper husbandry.

That guy is in much better shape than the ones I got our Petco in trouble for. The rescue I was given was 28g and the store one looked in worse shape. Only took 3 meals to lose that sagging skin along the last few inches. Good luck, seems like it'll bounce back fine. I also hope you didn't still pay for it.

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Originally Posted by HannahLou

That guy is in much better shape than the ones I got our Petco in trouble for.

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In trouble with who?

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Originally Posted by HannahLou

That guy is in much better shape than the ones I got our Petco in trouble for. The rescue I was given was 28g and the store one looked in worse shape. Only took 3 meals to lose that sagging skin along the last few inches. Good luck, seems like it'll bounce back fine. I also hope you didn't still pay for it.

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Is that guy still alive btw?

Do this to a T http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...-hatchling-101

Update: I got him/her to eat! I had to assist-feed, but it went really well. I think Charlie (what I've decided to call him/her) was just too weak to take the mouse fuzzy on its own, but once I got it in her mouth, she seemed to be like "Oh! That's what you're trying to do!", and swallowed it right down!
I'm hoping that I won't need to assist feed her again and that this meal will give her the energy she needs to do it all by herself next time, but either way, I'm just relieved she's got some food in her. Poor thing looks like she has such a big belly lump, even with just a mouse fuzzy!

For those of you wondering, no I didn't pay full price for her. She was advertised at $100, but since she was so ill, they have a policy of half off. For her sake, I was happy to pay it just to get her out of there asap. Unfortunately, the ones left behind seemed far worse off than she did, and I think she was the only one with a fighting chance at that point. I'm not sure the other would have even had the strength to swallow the food, let alone take it themselves.

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Originally Posted by shelpen

Is that guy still alive btw?

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If you mean the Petco one, I'm not sure if it made it. The manager said she could give me an update but I don't think I'd trust it to be the truth anyways so I said not to bother. They did pull all of their reptiles for a while and when I stopped in for dog food last week they had made a change to cypress like I suggested to help the humidity issue but there were no snakes.
The 28g rescue I was given is doing great. She's instantly struck and eaten the last few meals on her own and is up to about 50g now. I'll update that post.

OP I'm glad to hear it got a meal down. Hopefully it's a similar case as the one I mentioned above. I assist fed her first meal and the second time I went to she just started eating it and the last few meals have been on her own with her striking like a pro (all ft). I think she had never eaten and came from a crappy breeder and just got too weak and needed that initial help to figure things out.

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Originally Posted by HannahLou

If you mean the Petco one, I'm not sure if it made it. The manager said she could give me an update but I don't think I'd trust it to be the truth anyways so I said not to bother.

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I see what you're saying about the update being the actual truth...
Sad. Very sad the little one likely didn't make it...