Nonfeeder: Force Feeding Question

[thewesterngate]

Hi all, obviously I'm not brand new to BPs..but I'm growing concerned about one of them. I picked up three very young babies at the Myrtle Beach show July 23, they appeared healthy and so far two of the three have been eating very well for me (the ghost pair).

The little pastel female has not fed once. She was only 48 grams when I picked her up (I had no idea they were all this small at the time)..the others were 55 and 61 and both are now past 80 grams. The pastel female is down to 45. That said, normally I wouldn't stress too much about nonfeeders, but she can't afford to lose much more weight. I had a BP go 5 months without eating and came out of it just fine, but this is the first time with such a small snake.

Would you recommend force feeding in this case? If so, rat tails or a small rat pinky? I'm beginning to doubt if she ever fed before she was sold. All three are housed in individual shoe boxes over heat cable..warm side is 88-90 and ambient room temperature is 80 and drops only a little at night. Thanks in advance.

[llovelace]

Have you tried live mouse hoppers?

[thewesterngate]

Oh, sorry! I forgot to mention, I've tried a mouse pinky and rat pinkies (from my breeders) and even a small adult mouse. All live, no-go for these guys.

[llovelace]

Try a live mouse hopper. Pinkies don't move enough, adults will stay away. The hopper is perfect cause it will hop hop around & trigger your snake.

I have a couple hatchlings 7/20, that just took their first meal tonight.

[llovelace]

I forgot to mention, if it doesn't feed, wait at least 5 days before offering again.
If all else fails try asf's. I have 2 female bees that were slow to start eating, until til I threw in a asf.
Only prob with that is that they won't take anything else, so I have to put some weight on them before I do the tough love thing to switch them over to rats.

[RichsBallPythons]

Hopper mouse left in over night. Drop it in around 7pm and check back when you wake up in morning. Babies take their sweet time working up courage to eat.

If this dont work after 2 times. Pre kill it and assist feed, dont force at 45 grams its not insane tiny

[thewesterngate]

I just wanted to update a bit. I weighed the little girl a day or so ago and she had dropped to 38 grams. I haven't had access to mice hoppers, and because she was in such poor shape (unbelievably scrawny) I went ahead and assist fed her a mouse pinky for starters. I mislabeled what I planned to do originally, which was assist feed..completely forgot what actual force feeding entailed. My mistake.

[llovelace]

Hopefully she'll take the next one on her own.