Hatchling won't eat

Hi,

That may actually work in your favour.

As long as you stress to him to change the water and clean as necessary but to handle the snake for the bare minimum it should be a nice quiet de-stress persiod for your snake to allow him to get totally settled.

I may have missed this but is there another thread giving the details of your enclosure?

Just to check you are bang on with the temperatures and see what you measure them with (and where) etc.

When you get back I would try a very simple feeding attemp at first as I see from the thread you seem to try several methods at once.

I would stick with F/T for this one.

Defrost it slowly in the same room (sitting on top of the tank if you like and it isn't too warm) to let the scent announce to the snake the food is there.

Then really blast the head of the mouse with a hairdrier to get it nice and hot.

Hopefully the snake will have it's head poking out of a hide looking intrested at this point. :please:

If it is then slowly bring the mouse about 4-5 inches or so from the front of the hide ( I don't mean in slowmotion just trying to say don't scare the snake as this can knock them out of feeding mode ) - the idea is the snake has to come closer rather than shoving the prey in its face.

If it does strike and wrap then leave the room or at least back waaaaay off so the snake doesn't feel threatened.

If it doesn't strike then I would lay it on the floor ( I would use a flat rock in the cool end if you have a loose substrate - put it in before you go on your trip and he should be used to it by the time you get back if you don't already have one ;) ) and then cover the front of the tank with a towel or something so he feels more secure and doesn't see anything that startles him.

Then do not go back near him untill the next morning - no peeking as sods law dictates that you will peek at exactly the right second to put him off. :taz:

If it is still there in the morning then chuck it and wait till next week and we can try something else. :gj:

The idea is to try and reduce the stress and messing with the food and re-offering multiple times can stress them out if they are nervous to begin with and actually stop them eating a meal presented in a way they would have eaten it if it was the first one tried. :weirdface

Obviously no handling till you get him eating regularly. :)

It might also be a good idea to ask the place you got him to describe how they prepare and offer food, how he was housed and everything to see if anything jumps out as being different to how you are doing it.


dr del