FFS!!!! why do i have.....

[Inferno]

the crappiest luck getting hatchlings started?????? last year we had 11 hatchlings and it took me absolutely ages to get them all going, one went for 9 months with me assist/force feeding it. i put it down to crappy first time breeder luck.....

This year i thought we would do a bit better as we only had 6 hatchlings, but no im in the same frickken situation again ant the little swines wont eat again.....

I have no problem getting other peoples hatchlings eating, ive just bought 2 females as assist feeders and got them eating on their own in less than a week, Ives tried live rat pups, f/t rat pups, f/t pink mice and f/t hopper mice.....ive no access to ASFs or live mice.

My temps are 94f at the heat tape and a gradient down to 74f at the coldest(day or night) each is set up in their own tub with paper towel substrate and a water bowl, cardboard tube for hide....

can anyone tell me where im going wrong here????

[waltah!]

Maybe bumping up the cool side temp a bit would help. I usually shoot for 80 or so. Try putting the hatchling in a very small tupperware container (with a couple of holes) and putting they prey in. Cover the container with a towel or shirt or something. Check back in a couple hours (no peeking). That has always worked well for me...of course that's assuming that you did not already try this. Good luck!

[nevohraalnavnoj]

I hear ya, I had a little bit of trouble with two of mine this year. The advice from another breeder that REALLY helped was to just not mess with them. At all! After hatching he sets them up and doesn't look at them or disturb them until he offers their first meal. Once I did this my two stubborn ones started pounding food.

Be sure to try a live mouse hopper or rat pink/fuzzie left in their tub overnight.

Also, bumping that cool side temp up may help.

JonV

[Inferno]

i have them set up in cadbury tubs.....not sure if you have them in the us....from watching the Ralph Davis vids i can see that they are not as big as the tubs he sets his hatchlings up in.... im not a messer they have been left alone from day one....its not too much of a problem now anyways as someone has just been round and bought all but 1 of them, maybe someone else will have more luck with them....

[J.Vandegrift]

I can usually get all of mine going on rat fuzzies, but live mice is what really gets the slow starters going for me. I think a lot of it has to do with the scent of hair on the prey item. You may have better luck trying fuzzy rats. They can take a lot bigger prey items as hatchlings than most people think.