Absolute Refusal To Eat

[artist&writer]

The baby hatched 9/17 and still has not eaten anything. The good news is that it hasn't lost very much weight and is still active for the time being. 9/20 = 43g, 10/26 = 40g. I haven't had any problems with it's siblings at all. I have tried mouse fuzzies, rat pinkies with mouse scent, mouse hoppers, and a mouse fuzzy and the snake in a small brown paper bag. The baby uses it's hide and it is on aspen bedding. Any more ideas I can try?

[bcr229]

Double-check the temps in its tub, offer a live mouse fuzzy at dusk, leave it overnight (a fuzzy can't hurt your snake), and stop handling it.

[artist&writer]

The temp is 85 degrees. I only handled it so I could get an accurate weight and to put it in the bag with the fuzzy. It's only the second time I've touched it. I have left prey in overnight as well. The baby acts scared of any rodents I put in with it.

[Yodawagon]

Try scenting with tuna water.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Try adding some crumble loose paper in the tub.

Concentrate on Mice instead of alternating prey, mice are more likely to entice him.

Place a large fuzzy mouse overnight in a brown paper bag with your snake, close the bag and place it in the tub.

Don't mess with scenting anything

[Galaxygirl]

I had a picky girl this last clutch that took over a month to eat her first meal. We used aspen, had TWO little hides in her small 6qt tub, and always had her tub covered with a towel. She ended up taking a mouse fuzzy after we left her alone with it for a couple hours.

[Blue Apple Herps]

You can always try assist feeding. Basically get a f/t hopper and put it in its mouth. I will push the mouse into its mouth and then gently push the snake's jaws together to get its teeth to dig in. This makes it harder for it to spit it out. 90% of the time they'll lay there for a minute or two and start swallowing. the other 10% refuse and I try again a couple of days later. Never had one take more than 3 tries.

Most I only have to do this one time and they're eating on their own after that. Some it takes a bit more.

[artist&writer]

I tried Deborah's method last night with no success. I gave the baby mouse back to the mother in the morning. Does anybody see anything wrong with the hatchling that would lead it to not eat as normal? Is there anything else I can try?

[hfritchy]

My aunt had a clutch of 9 babies and only 4 ate right away. I asked about it and my pal said he only force feeds after 6 weeks or 20% weight loss. Luckily, we only ended up needing to force two. What worked best for us was putting mouse litter in the bin for a couple of days before trying to feed a live hopper mouse. It got them hyped up because of the smell and then they took the food.