She Ate!!!!

[hoo-t]

My last holdout, a female spider that belongs to my son, ate her first unassisted meal tonight!!!! YES!!! I AM PUMPED!!!! Major Score!!!! We've had her for several months, and she has been grossly underweight. The person my son bought her from told him up front that she had never eaten. We have assist fed, tube fed, and force fed this little girl ever since. Tried to minimize it, to minimize stress. She was losing weight, and I decided a few weeks ago that she was GOING to gain weight. At that time, I was tube feeding her. The day she tried to swallow the tube, I switched to assist/force of prekilled fuzzy mice, and bumped up the frequency. The last few feedings have been hoppers. Last week, I spent an hour and a half trying to get a hopper in her. She shed last night. As per my ritual, I weighed her (109 grams), and put a live hopper in her tub. After feeding all the other snakes, I went to pull the hopper, dispatch it, and gently stuff it in her mouth. One problem. No hopper. Nowhere to be found. I weighed Charlotte. 119 GRAMS!!!! OH MY GOSH, SHE ATE IT!!!!

YIPPEEEEE!!!!

(ok, sorry for all this, I'm just incredibly excited!!!)

Steve

[recycling goddess]

glad to hear she's eating! i know that sense of relief... i got that every time my corn snake valentino didn't regurge!

[joepythons]

My last holdout, a female spider that belongs to my son, ate her first unassisted meal tonight!!!! YES!!! I AM PUMPED!!!! Major Score!!!! We've had her for several months, and she has been grossly underweight. The person my son bought her from told him up front that she had never eaten. We have assist fed, tube fed, and force fed this little girl ever since. Tried to minimize it, to minimize stress. She was losing weight, and I decided a few weeks ago that she was GOING to gain weight. At that time, I was tube feeding her. The day she tried to swallow the tube, I switched to assist/force of prekilled fuzzy mice, and bumped up the frequency. The last few feedings have been hoppers. Last week, I spent an hour and a half trying to get a hopper in her. She shed last night. As per my ritual, I weighed her (109 grams), and put a live hopper in her tub. After feeding all the other snakes, I went to pull the hopper, dispatch it, and gently stuff it in her mouth. One problem. No hopper. Nowhere to be found. I weighed Charlotte. 119 GRAMS!!!! OH MY GOSH, SHE ATE IT!!!!

YIPPEEEEE!!!!

(ok, sorry for all this, I'm just incredibly excited!!!)

Steve

Steve,thats great to hear .Now you know we all love reading threads about a snakes first meal

[novato]

I love it when that happens. You feel so good and total relief. I guess that tells you how important it is to keep your snakes healthy and thriving.

[lillyorchid]

Congrats!

[mmchoppers]

Awesome!!

[snake_lady83]

I'm so happy for you! I love to hear good news. I know how big of a relief it is when your snake eats for you for the first time. My snake went without eating for a whole month when I first got her. I guess in reality that wasn't that long of a wait (compaired to yours), but it seemed really long to me! I expect pictures as soon as possible!

[hoo-t]

I was going to post pics the night that she ate, but it was late, and I would have had to take a current pic. So, here's the before and after -


The first pic was taken on Oct 4, just before she tried to eat the feeding syringe. She weighed a whopping 74 grams.



The second pic was taken tonight, Oct 26, so just 3 weeks later, and the night after taking her first unassisted meal. In this pic, she weighs 119 grams, a gain of 45 grams!



Thanks for the kind comments!
Steve

[Kizerk]

congrats! lovely spider by the way

i feel a great sigh of relief when all 3 snakes eat

[sweety314]

What a pretty little girl! I hope she keeps eating for you and continues to get stronger! Congrats on sticking with it and doing all you can to get her to chow down for you.