Assist Feeding Instructions

perhaps this write up would be a good candidate for a sticky?

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Originally Posted by ewaldrep

perhaps this write up would be a good candidate for a sticky?

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^^^ I agree!

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Originally Posted by ewaldrep

perhaps this write up would be a good candidate for a sticky?

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It already is....thats how I found it :)

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Originally Posted by HerpsNHarleys

I have just taken on the challenge of a hatchling (born in Sept) that has yet to eat. I have read everything in this thread and am most thankful for it. My question is, typically you give a reptile a "settling in" period of up to a week, however, this poor little guy is pretty weak so I don't think he will make it. I got the snake Tuesday night, will I do more harm than good by trying to assist feed it tonight? The previous owner did try assist feeding with no success.

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Getting food into him is priority, but start small if you think he wouldn't last a week. He can de-stress later.

Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk 2

Thank you Robin :)

So thanks to all this wonderful information I managed to get Gilligan to take down 2 pinkies last night. I originally tried something bigger but it just wasn't happening. I figured I could go with a couple of pinkies every 3 days then after a week or so try a fuzzy. Am I off on this thinking? At this point I am just trying to keep the little guy alive while getting him interested in larger prey.

i ordered a desert online and its almost been a month since he has ate. i bought a rat and i left it in there with him, its only been a day and it seems like he only strikes at it. hes a little over 600 grams and i dont want to leave the rat in there cause he seems really stressed out. so how can i get him too eat?

I've got 2 BPs. No problems getting my pastel to eat, even though I was told she's a picky eater. My newest baby, Eeek, isn't in the best of shape, I got her as an adoption, knowing full well that she's a hard shedder, was anemic and had some parasites. Aside from the shedding, those are taken care of. The biggest issue is eating. She won't eat.

They'd been having to force feed her f/t fuzzies/pinkies. I'm not sure how old she is or what the original breeder had been feeding her or if they even made sure she would eat. Right now, she's sitting at 105g, she's tiny. (Granted, Bobbitt isn't the biggest snake, but she's at 178g and about... 7-9m old, I think.) I know Eeek is skinny and needs to eat, any suggestions on getting her to eat?

I haven't tried to feed her yet, I'm waiting till it's feeding day for Bobbitt, hoping that after feeding Bobbitt and doing it infront of Eeek, plus the smell from the feeding tank will entice her to eat. Bobbitt gets 2x large mice every 7-8 days. (If she 'says' she's hungry, I'll feed her. Thus far Eeek hasn't shown any signs of being hungry or hunting.) I'm planning on trying her on a live hopper, seeing if maybe it's just the f/t she won't touch. (That's what she'd been getting force fed) Bobbitt will not touch F/t, so I'm thinking it might be the same thing. (I know, huge debate about f/t vs live vs f/k. ) Bobbitt will spit out the f/t and f/k so I'm beyond careful with her.

Suggestions anyone

i have a question for those of u that have had to assist , before force feeding did u try feeding live or stunned live?, i feed my snakes live but i stun the food first , just wondering if u would prefer force feeding over live, i have never had to force feed luckily but i think i would prefer to feed live first if they would take it, also i wanted to know for a snake that has had to be force feed more than once , do you think that the snake may start to associate the smell of prey or feeding time with being force feed causing stress and possibly make the animal dislike food all around ? thanks for the great post as i may need this info one day .

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Originally Posted by ejseoane

i have a question for those of u that have had to assist , before force feeding did u try feeding live or stunned live?, i feed my snakes live but i stun the food first , just wondering if u would prefer force feeding over live, i have never had to force feed luckily but i think i would prefer to feed live first if they would take it, also i wanted to know for a snake that has had to be force feed more than once , do you think that the snake may start to associate the smell of prey or feeding time with being force feed causing stress and possibly make the animal dislike food all around ? thanks for the great post as i may need this info one day .

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Assist feeding is done when an hatching refuses to eat on it´s own, it is only done when everything else have failed.

Breeders do start their hatching on live, very few start them on F/T

It has nothing to do with preferring assisting over live, anyone breeding is experienced enough to know that this is stressful procedure that should be avoided, however if you have an hatchling that refuse to eat on his own 6 weeks after coming out of it' egg you have no choice.

You say you never had to do this and I think that´s great, however how many BP did you hatch?

I had a female I assisted for 5 months before she finally decided to eat on her own and she never had any issue afterward.