Some bad news and a couple of questions...

[casicassie]

Hello everyone!
Last night at 3 am I found Gabby, the new mom, dead on the floor. My guess is that she somehow (cant find the exact way) escaped from her tub. Unfortunately, my dog thought she was an intruder and killed the poor thing. I just dont know what to do with the babies. She had 8 and they are now 3 weeks old. They seem to be eating on their own, but dont seem to know how to use the water bottle.
Beside being food for Apollo I had already decided to keep some. What can I do to keep them all alive?
Thank you!
Cassie

[Cheryl Marchek aka JM]

If they are three weeks old they are weaning age. If you think they can't figure out the water bottle (they probably can~ but if you think they can't) go ahead and give them a little dish of water. Better though~ just give them a block of wood or something to stand on so they can reach the water bottle sipper easy and they'll probably do fine.

[Clear]

I agree with Cheryl Marchek aka JM.

[kc261]

As long as they are the full 21 days, they should be just fine. The only issue would be if your water bottle and/or food hopper are placed such that they can't reach it.

Even if they are slightly younger than that, they might be ok. One time I was given some bonus freebie hoppers when I was buying mice. I was afraid they wouldn't make it, because they were on the smaller end of hoppers, and I didn't have any extra snakes that needed that size of a meal. I decided to play it day by day and see how the little hoppers did, and they did just fine. I even decided to keep one that was a female and she is part of my breeding colony now.

I'd be more concerned about finding out how the mother escaped to prevent additional losses.