What to do with stubborn feeders?

[Ball Clan]

While most of my babies are eating now, I still have 3 babies from my July 28-31 hatch that still have not started feeding. No interest in pinky rats or mice. Assist feeding is a no go because they fight me so hard I would injure them if I were to try any harder. They pull back, twist, corkscrew, and push the rat back out of their throat. Basically work themselves into such a panic that there's no chance they're gonna swallow.

They are pushing six weeks now with no food yet, and one of them is starting to look bad; the other two seem fairly healthy still. But I am running out of ideas.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Assist feeding is a no go because they fight me so hard I would injure them if I were to try any harder. They pull back, twist, corkscrew, and push the rat back out of their throat.

That's normal, a snake is just not gonna let you assist him without a fight, if you can't assist alone then you need another set of hands.

Get someone to help you and hold the body while you hold the head and assist.

You can do it

[Ball Clan]

Yeah I expect a fight. They're just so small I'm afraid I'm going to injure them.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Yeah I expect a fight. They're just so small I'm afraid I'm going to injure them.

We all have the first time we had to do it for the first time, which is why getting someone to help might be the best thing for you until you get a hang on how to do it when alone.

[John1982]

On those super stingy ones that resist the assist I just bump down the prey size - way down. The smaller you go, the harder it is for them to spit it out. Usually after a week or two of these mouthful meals they start to get the hang of it and will take something larger.

[Alicia]

Assist feeding isn't fun Going down in prey size could work. I never used anything larger than a small mouse fuzzy soaked in barely warm water. Another trick is to try to hook the snake's teeth into the prey by very, very gently pressing the jaws closed around it. I can't over-emphasize use of the word 'gentle.' But it totally worked for me.

[Dube79]

It is scary, but they need to eat, you can do it!! Have you tried a hopper mouse? The fur helps IMO.

Good luck
Josh

[bcr229]

I'm currently assist-feeding two BRB neonates that didn't absorb all of their yolk sacks. You think a ball python is bad, these two are tiny, they couldn't take anything larger than the smallest pinky mice, and a f/t pinky isn't going to be pushed anywhere because they squish, fall apart, and make a mess.

The first time took an hour and a lot of futile attempts for each because 1) I'd never assist-fed before, and 2) BRB babies are nippy so when I wasn't pushing food down their throats they were busy trying to make me bleed.

I was finally told to try cutting a hind leg off of a f/t adult mouse and feeding that instead. It worked - due to the long leg bones I could push it far enough back into their throats that they couldn't spit it back out. I've also gotten a halfway decent technique worked out at holding them, knowing just how much pressure to apply, and where, and when.

Even though these guys are bigger now, I'm still assist-feeding but start with the mouse hind leg and then chain-feed a mouse pinky, like people do when power-feeding. Unlike power feeders, in their case the leg+pinky is an appropriate sized meal, it's equivalent to a mouse fuzzy.

[rafacacho]

I dont hold the babies with two fingers only. I hold them with the side of my thumb and the index finger in the articulation of the middle phalanx and with all the other fingers holding the neck (body). By doing this I have more control over the babie and you are making less pressure to the neck. It also keeps the babie in a better position IMO. I hope i made myself clear.... I use pinky mice because the pinky rats skin is softer and starts to tear and bleed.

[CORBIN911]

First time I did it i actually got Queezy... IDC about blood or snake eating, just everything mixed + being in 82deg snake room made me feel funny! Best of luck one or 2 assist and he should be on his own.