Advanced hatchling help need

2 years ago I was in the same boat with a female Black Pastel, assisting did not even work so the first meal was forced fed, the second was assisted.

I thought she would come around quickly however it took a long time, I actually assisted her for 6 months than one day out of the blue she just ate on her own, she is now one of my strongest feeder (One have to watch out for)

You could very well be in the same situation, and not it's not easy or fun to do that for that long but since my girl did not give up I did not give up on her and did what I had to do, I knew that at some point she would come around.

Is there a point at which I would have give up? I guess so but it never came to that point.

The only other hatchlings I had to assist I had to twice at the most.

It really sounds like she's making good progress, given she started out so weak and so far behind her siblings. Ditto what most everyone else is saying: based on the fact that she's already swallowing on her own, I think she'll figure it out before long.

Anyway, I'd keep assisting her until she's at least the weight of a normal hatchling, and then institute the normal rules from there.

(Are you feeding her live or f/t? You're presenting her with f/t, and then assisting with an f/t when she doesn't go for it?)

So glad to hear she is still alive. I've been following the other thread and am really rooting for her. She is smokin hot by the way.

Thanks for all the help guys and girls. I will continue to offer overnight, then assist feed the next morning if it still there.

muddoc hit on this, but I am curious to know if everyone else does the same... Do you keep offering fuzzy / hopper mice, or do you move up in size to what they should be eating?? Obviously I am not going to keep bigger then a hopper mouse in overnight, but the 1 hour thing that muddoc does sounds good.

This is your bad Karma for killing Big Gunns beloved Tiger Sharks.:P:D

Actually you're gonna need to do what the experts say and keep assisting her. If she's not already on Aspen....try it. For some reason babies eat a lot better on Aspen. BG has given this advice to many people and most are happy they listened to BG.:gj:

I assist-feed pinky rats, unless the hatchling is clearly too small to take one.

My reasoning is that, if they're going to be this difficult about eating, the best thing to start them on is rats. ^_^
I would increase the size of the prey items as the hatchling grew...but maybe keep them one size smaller than they would normally eat. Two reasons for that--first, you have to be so careful when assisting, you don't want them hurt, so you keep the prey item smaller to minimize the risk. Second, maybe they'll be just that bit hungrier and more likely to feed on their own as a result.