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  1. #1
    BPnet Veteran Aedryan Methyus's Avatar
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    Question Blood Hatchlings Not Eating - Please Help

    So, I hatched a clutch of 16 Blood Pythons on August 27th. Of the 16 hatchlings, 7 of them will not start eating good and I am at wits end. All of the other ones are eating great. Some of the ones that aren't eating good have only eaten once or twice by themselves and a couple of them have never even eaten once by themselves at all. I have been assist feeding all 7 of them for a few weeks now and they fight me every step of the way! They are being kept in shoebox tubs on wet paper towels with a hide and a water dish. Hot-side temperature is 84 degrees and there is plenty of ventilation. I have tried keeping them on Sphagnum moss as well with no luck. They won't eat with me dangling the live mouse hoppers over them or when I leave them in there and they won't eat fresh killed or frozen/thawed. Do you guys have any ideas for how I can get these guys eating by themselves? I am also wondering at what point do we let nature take its course if they won't start eating on their own? As much as that would suck, it is taking 2 or 3 hours or more per week of struggling with them to assist feed and a couple of them are so skinny...

  2. #2
    bcr229's Avatar
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    When you do assist feed what size prey are the neonates eating? I don't like assist feeding pinkies (whether mice or rat, depending on neonate size) because they're basically just squishy bags of water, and trying to force one down a snake's throat makes a gross mess. Instead, when I assist feed I start with something like the hind leg cut off of a f/t mouse or rat, followed by a whole prey feeder of appropriate size unless the snake is so tiny that the hind leg is a good sized meal on its own. Otherwise, the hind leg should be sized so it's a decent mouthful for the snake.


    Have the warmed hind leg and whole prey f/t feeder ready to go. Grasp the snake's head with your thumb and forefinger just behind its eyes, but gently around the jaw so that it can still open it's mouth. The snake's neck should be supported by your other fingers.


    Take the hind leg and fold it at the hock joint. Insert the folded end of the hind leg into the snake's mouth. This is easier than using a whole feeder because the long leg bone is perfect for prying the snake's mouth open. Push the hind leg back as far as you can into the snake's mouth/throat.


    The hind leg is very hard for the snake to eject since it will unfold and often gets caught behind the snake's teeth when the snake opens its mouth to spit it out. The snake will likely try to run away while attempting to spit out the hind leg. That's fine, just let it run through your hands. Sometimes the snake will also try to scrape the hind leg out of its mouth by rubbing it on its own body or your fingers. Try not to let it do that.


    When the snake stops running and starts swallowing the hind leg, quickly sneak the nose of the whole prey feeder into the snake's mouth so it follows the hind leg down the hatch. You may have to support or push on the feeder a bit but the snake should grab and swallow the feeder once the leg moves down the snake's throat a bit.

    Using this method it takes me about 10 minutes to assist feed each critter so hopefully that will help.

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  4. #3
    BPnet Veteran Aedryan Methyus's Avatar
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    Re: Blood Hatchlings Not Eating - Please Help

    Quote Originally Posted by bcr229 View Post
    When you do assist feed what size prey are the neonates eating? I don't like assist feeding pinkies (whether mice or rat, depending on neonate size) because they're basically just squishy bags of water, and trying to force one down a snake's throat makes a gross mess. Instead, when I assist feed I start with something like the hind leg cut off of a f/t mouse or rat, followed by a whole prey feeder of appropriate size unless the snake is so tiny that the hind leg is a good sized meal on its own. Otherwise, the hind leg should be sized so it's a decent mouthful for the snake.


    Have the warmed hind leg and whole prey f/t feeder ready to go. Grasp the snake's head with your thumb and forefinger just behind its eyes, but gently around the jaw so that it can still open it's mouth. The snake's neck should be supported by your other fingers.


    Take the hind leg and fold it at the hock joint. Insert the folded end of the hind leg into the snake's mouth. This is easier than using a whole feeder because the long leg bone is perfect for prying the snake's mouth open. Push the hind leg back as far as you can into the snake's mouth/throat.


    The hind leg is very hard for the snake to eject since it will unfold and often gets caught behind the snake's teeth when the snake opens its mouth to spit it out. The snake will likely try to run away while attempting to spit out the hind leg. That's fine, just let it run through your hands. Sometimes the snake will also try to scrape the hind leg out of its mouth by rubbing it on its own body or your fingers. Try not to let it do that.


    When the snake stops running and starts swallowing the hind leg, quickly sneak the nose of the whole prey feeder into the snake's mouth so it follows the hind leg down the hatch. You may have to support or push on the feeder a bit but the snake should grab and swallow the feeder once the leg moves down the snake's throat a bit.

    Using this method it takes me about 10 minutes to assist feed each critter so hopefully that will help.
    Hey there, BCR. It's nice to see you're still around! Thanks for these tips. I will definitely keep these pointers in mind for the future, for smaller stubborn hatchlings. I have been assist feeding with whole fresh killed hopper mice. I secure the snake as you described, while she uses little "sucker stick" type things to help get the snake's mouth open. Once we have the snake's mouth secured open, we begin gently poking the mouse down into it's throat a bit. Once it's started down a little, I will gently hold the snake's mouth closed down on it for a few seconds and sit the snake down in it's tub. At that point the snake will either spit it out or just sit there for awhile and eventually eat it. Otherwise, we rinse and repeat a half a dozen times if necessary, but we are always able to get the whole mouse down sooner or later.

    So, I guess my question at this point is, how many damn times do these animals have to be assist fed before they will "get it" and start eating by themselves? Will they ever? And, if not, does there come a point when we have to either let nature take it's course or euthanize the animals? Honestly, the hatchlings act like they are scared to death of the mice when I just drop them in and leave them. The snakes will basically go into escape mode until I remove the mice. They show no interest whatsoever in fresh killed, either. Soooo... *sigh*

  5. #4
    bcr229's Avatar
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    The longest I ever assist fed one was 8 months (retic I rescued, won't go into her backstory but the guy who bred her sold her before she was eating to a teen who had never had a snake before).

    I like the hind leg method since it almost guarantees the snake will eat something each week, and it's a fairly quick process.

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  7. #5
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    I'm not a fan of assist-feeding normally, but sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do, & that's an interesting technique. Hope it works for ya.
    Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength.
    Eric Hoffer (1902 - 1983)

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  9. #6
    BPnet Veteran Aedryan Methyus's Avatar
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    Re: Blood Hatchlings Not Eating - Please Help

    Quote Originally Posted by Bogertophis View Post
    I'm not a fan of assist-feeding normally, but sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do, & that's an interesting technique. Hope it works for ya.
    So, do you just let nature take its course if they don’t just start eating on their own?

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    bcr229's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Aedryan Methyus View Post
    So, do you just let nature take its course if they don’t just start eating on their own?
    This is the kind of question where the answer is situational and there really isn't a "right" answer.

    Personally, I give the critters under my care, custody, and control every possible chance to live so I would continue to assist feed.

    That said, as a hobbyist I don't have to worry about my business making a profit every year lest I get into trouble with the IRS. So, if I want to use three hours a week of my personal time keeping the babies fed then I can do that. People running a business don't have that luxury; they only have so many hours a week available to put into the business, plus eat, sleep, run errands, do household chores, etc.

    Then there's the conundrum of what to do with that baby once it does start eating. Again, this is my personal opinion only but if a neonate has to be assist fed for months then it shouldn't be contributing to the gene pool in case the initial refusal to feed is due to a congenital issue. So, you would be selling/rehoming that baby at a heavily discounted price as a pet/non-breeder with full disclosure of its issues. Unfortunately there are unscrupulous people who will gladly take your pet-priced critter and flip it for full/retail price once it's out of your hands. You can create non-breeding/first right of refusal to rehome contracts all you want, but you have to be willing and able to follow up and enforce them, and non-breeding is incredibly difficult to enforce since it's rare to spay/neuter reptiles absent some other emergency, such as an egg-bound female. Easier for a hobbyist, not so much for a business.

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  12. #8
    BPnet Veteran Aedryan Methyus's Avatar
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    Re: Blood Hatchlings Not Eating - Please Help

    All very good points! Myself, I got into it with the intentions of it becoming a sideline business/retirement gig in the future. I definitely don’t need 100 pet snakes, that’s for sure! lol Especially as crazy as this world has become... But, yeah, it’s a sad situation all the way around and a decision that I will have to make for myself if things don’t turn around. On one hand, I truly do not have the luxury of extra time in my life and the snakes I keep in my collection have to be feasible and able to become productive at some point and I definitely wouldn’t want to sell animals like this to someone or breed them myself, even if they turn around in case they are genetically defective. So, it’s a catch 22 situation. I guess one way to look at it is, only the strongest survive in the wild, so we can only do what we can for the weak ones in captivity...


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    BPnet Veteran Aedryan Methyus's Avatar
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    Re: Blood Hatchlings Not Eating - Please Help

    So, just a quick update on this situation... As it turns out, this story may have a happy ending! I just recently made friends with a local breeder when we did a big snake trading deal and as it turns out, he knows a big Blood Python guy in New Jersey, who works at a vet. So, long story short, he is buying the remaining healthy Bloods from this clutch and I am giving him the ones that aren’t eating for free and he is going to run testing on them and treat them. I’m totally losing my ass on this clutch, but I couldn’t be happier that these problem babies are going to have a great chance of survival!


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