56 gram hatchling...fed once

[Salamander Rising]

Questions about a Lesser girl pickup from yesterday's expo.

I don't agree with bringing hatchlings to shows who haven't had three meals, let alone the other Lesser girl who was born last week and hadn't even eaten once, yet I've got this girl because she was part of a 'compensation' agrreement for another snake from the same breeder.

My question is, she's only eaten once, is too stressed to accept an offer of a F/T pinkie and I'm worried about how long she can go without eating.

I can't get a live pinkie until Tuesday but feel like I should observe the '7-day-hands-off' rule.

Is it okay for her to not eat for a week at her age/size?

As y'all know, I'm squeamish about live feeding but will do what I have to do for my snakes' sakes.

Should I wait 7 days or get the pinkie Tuesday?

Sorry...no photos...she's holed up inside of a paper towel tube right now and I don't want to bother her unnecessarily.

So here's a photo of Bella's face and butt and the bigger Lesser girl who's currently in blue and wouldn't let me get a shot of her wonderfully bright, crazy-long tail stripe.....







And about Bella;

She's supposed to be a "Hypo" but her undersides are literally traffic cone orange, she has bright orange spots on her belly and no black on her anywhere.
Her 'pepper' is a dark brownish color.

Her tail has bright orange/rust markings with no darker colors outlining them.
Is she 'more than Hypo'?

She was part of a Boa collection bought by my feeder guy yesterday and her litter of babies was there, also.
Half looked 'normal' and the other half were outrageously orange-y/pink like she is.

[her colors don't show in the photo but I didn't want to over-handle her on her first night here]

Thanks everybody!

[JaGv]

i see nothing wrong feeding her tuesday if she's hungry she will take it. i feed the 1st day i take the snake out of the shipping box none have refuced a meal.

[Salamander Rising]

i see nothing wrong feeding her tuesday if she's hungry she will take it. i feed the 1st day i take the snake out of the shipping box none have refuced a meal.

She's only had one meal.
[supposedly]

I'll try Tuesday.

I don't think PetCo sells live feeders or I'd go get her one today or tomorrow.

Otherwise, I have to wait until the herp shop opens again.

[Crazy4Herps]

As long as you stay in the background during feeding and try to keep things as low-stress as possible, I don't think attempting to feed earlier could do any harm (that's not to say it will work, she may need more time to settle in).

Bella is absolutely gorgeous!! I don't do morphs, but she definitely like just a nice hypo to me. While many hypos do have black speckling or outlining, many don't.

Well, anyways, good luck with the new baby!

[akillian24]

Our PetCo does sell live feeders. Petsmart does not, but Petco (at least ours) does.

Good luck!

I waited 4 days after I got our baby ball, and he ate *no problem* whatsoever. I have a feeling he would have likely eaten as early as day three judging by the way he was out hunting at night. I'd maybe watch your lil one and see if he gives you any indicators on being ready to eat.

[FireStorm]

Do you know what she ate the one time she was fed? I would recommend trying a live hopper mouse. That's usually a hard to resist prey item for babies. At her size, IMO, it's better to get her eating what she wants, and switch her to what you want her to eat when she's a bit bigger.

[Inknsteel]

+1 to the hopper mouse suggestion. I picked up a 60 gram pastel last summer and she would only start on hopper mice for me. After her first couple, I started giving her two hoppers per feeding. It didn't take long for her to be on adult mice and she switched to rats without any problem. She's now up over 1000 grams.

I picked up a 55 gram lesser bee male at a show a few weeks ago. I tried him on an ASF hopper and a rat pink and he wasn't interested in either. I went to the store, got him a hopper mouse and he nailed it instantly. He had two feedings of single hoppers and took his first double hopper meal for me this weekend.

Once you get them eating something it will be less stressful trying to switch to rats...

[Salamander Rising]

+1 to the hopper mouse suggestion. I picked up a 60 gram pastel last summer and she would only start on hopper mice for me. After her first couple, I started giving her two hoppers per feeding. It didn't take long for her to be on adult mice and she switched to rats without any problem. She's now up over 1000 grams.

I picked up a 55 gram lesser bee male at a show a few weeks ago. I tried him on an ASF hopper and a rat pink and he wasn't interested in either. I went to the store, got him a hopper mouse and he nailed it instantly. He had two feedings of single hoppers and took his first double hopper meal for me this weekend.

Once you get them eating something it will be less stressful trying to switch to rats...

I wound up clear down in Winchester VA hunting for baby mice because the herp shop is closed until tomorrow, PetCo lied and said they had none and earlier today, the breeder told me to feed her "yesterday" because she hadn't eaten since last week!

I was livid!

All I could find was a "crawler" and i felt so sorry for the poor thing.

It kept zooming around her tub, looking for his mommy and mouse-pile.

She eventually ate him.

I hated that.

Hopefully once she gets the hang of eating, she'll switch to F/T. as easily as the Fire hatchling did

There is no way I'm tossing live baby rats in there, ever.

[WarriorPrincess90]

Live baby rats are so cute. I can't blame you.

Next week I would try giving her a live hopper if you can get it. My baby mojo will eat my finger if I don't give him his hopper fast enough. Lol. Such a cute little worm. I want to see pictures of the new lesser when she's settled. I'm really glad to hear she ate for you.

As to that GORGEOUS boa, she looks like a very clean Hypo to me. She kind of looks like my girl's daddy who was a Hypo Jungle. Does anyone else see Jungle? I'm not quite sure how to identify the difference, I just know it looks cleaner.

[Salamander Rising]

Live baby rats are so cute. I can't blame you.

Next week I would try giving her a live hopper if you can get it. My baby mojo will eat my finger if I don't give him his hopper fast enough. Lol. Such a cute little worm. I want to see pictures of the new lesser when she's settled. I'm really glad to hear she ate for you.

As to that GORGEOUS boa, she looks like a very clean Hypo to me. She kind of looks like my girl's daddy who was a Hypo Jungle. Does anyone else see Jungle? I'm not quite sure how to identify the difference, I just know it looks cleaner.

I've had pet rats my whole life.

Mice are cute but rats can be like little dogs.

I really hate the idea of feeding them live.

Beats me about Bella.

Boa morphs are a mystery to me.

Bob is supposed to be a "common" Boa but he's precisely the color of caramel and chocolate.

All the other common Boas I've seen are brown with black markings.

His belly is pinkish-peach and it's hard to tell when he's about to shed because of that, unless I happen to see his eyes when they're somewhat blue because they never go really blue like BPs do.

I dunno.

He is whatever he is and and if he and Bella have babies, I guess I'll find out then if he's something other than 'common'.



As for the "jungle" part of Bella, I have no idea.

I don't even know the difference between jungle and not-jungle.



Tonight I will try to get some pics of the baby.

She had her mouse around 8pm so 9 or so should be time enough for it to have settled in her tummy.

She really is a cute little thing and very brave and adventurous.


Right now I'm trying to keep Bella happy.

She must've been really underfed during her pregnancy.

We came home with bags of stuff and I walked by her condo with a white plastic bag in my hand she hit the Lexan doors like a sledge hammer, mistaking the bag for a white rat.
[because they do look virtually identical, you know]

I gave her another medium rat and she seems much calmer today.

Poor thing only weighs 8 pounds, has loose skin and looks 'flabby'.

She needs weight on her something terrible.

She shouldn't be this skinny, post-delivery.

I just don't understand people.

- - - Updated - - -

+1 to the hopper mouse suggestion. I picked up a 60 gram pastel last summer and she would only start on hopper mice for me. After her first couple, I started giving her two hoppers per feeding. It didn't take long for her to be on adult mice and she switched to rats without any problem. She's now up over 1000 grams.

I picked up a 55 gram lesser bee male at a show a few weeks ago. I tried him on an ASF hopper and a rat pink and he wasn't interested in either. I went to the store, got him a hopper mouse and he nailed it instantly. He had two feedings of single hoppers and took his first double hopper meal for me this weekend.

Once you get them eating something it will be less stressful trying to switch to rats...

I know....I was so grateful to have her eat something.

This is the last time I'll ever deal with this 'breeder' again.

I'm hoping nobody bought the Lesser girl who hadn't eaten anything yet.

What would her new owners be doing, right now?

Probably freaking out, too.