First successful assist feed

Well, from my first clutch, 7 eggs, I have 6 strong feeders and one straggler that was starting to get too thin for my liking. After 8 or so weeks of refusing live and f/t mice, and his clutch-mates gaining weight like crazy, I decided it was time to take matters into my own hands (literally)

This is the first time I'd ever attempted this, so I cracked open Pythons of the World, Vol 2, went to the index, and looked up "Assist Feeding"...found it in the book, and spent the 5 minutes reading over their simple instructions.

I was nervous as heck, and they said it should be a fast process to reduce the stress on the snake. Unfortunately, since it was my first time and i was a little nervous, it took me a little longer than a minute to finally open his mouth and clamp down on the mouse.

I was actually expecting him to spit it out and make me struggle again, but to my surprise, he actually coiled around it, and after about 3 minutes, started consuming it.

If I had another set of hands to take pictures of that process, I woulda....but I only got picture of after I set him down to let him finish his meal :oops:

http://www.nathanledet.com/assistfeed/1.jpg
http://www.nathanledet.com/assistfeed/2.jpg
http://www.nathanledet.com/assistfeed/3.jpg
http://www.nathanledet.com/assistfeed/4.jpg

Reading the Barkers book helped ease my mind. It talks about how there's always a snake from time to time that just doesn't quite know what to do...doesn't really know how to eat, and you just need to help him along for that first time. I'm hoping now that he has eaten, he will finally realize what i'm dangling in front of his face and will take it without hesitation.

Thanks for looking :gj:

Aww, that's good to hear Nate. :)

:clap: congratulations, Nate! I'da been super nervous, too... :oops:

Congrats on the success and kudos for the nerve to try it. That little one just may turn out to be a most aggressive feeder! :gj:

Good for you! I can only imagine all the stuff going through your mind when you assist feed for the first time. :gj:

Good for you Nate, sometimes you do have to help some of them get started. We learned to assist feed last year on some CH hatchlings and I can tell you those ladies, that once couldn't seem to figure out how to eat, are as big and healthy as could be and have wonderful feeding responses.

This year out of our 18 hatchlings we've had to assist a few of them but again, once they figured out that "thing" was indeed pretty yummy to eat, they never looked back. Some do need a few assists to get that concept going but eventually they all get it.

It's nerve wracking at first though and still something I hate to have to resort to and don't until it's obvious that hatchling is not going to get started on it's own and is falling far behind it's clutchmates.

good job!

Congrats Nate! With that kind of response to assist feeding, hopefully he'll catch the mouse himself next time.

Congrats nate.

It IS nerve-racking.

One thing I find helps, I dip the prey's head in the water dish and then just nudge the snake's mouth with it. That extra bit of lubrication seems to help.

Looks like you got a nice strong coil from him once he got the prey in, thats good to see.

Here's hoping he'll pick up the slack from now on. :)

Bruce

Well done sir.
I hate having to assist feed, my first few Candoia needed it, unfortunately they were the first snakes I got when I got back into snakes since I was young. It was harrowing.

I hope all this little one needed was a kick start.