My last holdout, a female spider that belongs to my son, ate her first unassisted meal tonight!!!! YES!!! I AM PUMPED!!!! Major Score!!!! We've had her for several months, and she has been grossly underweight. The person my son bought her from told him up front that she had never eaten. We have assist fed, tube fed, and force fed this little girl ever since. Tried to minimize it, to minimize stress. She was losing weight, and I decided a few weeks ago that she was GOING to gain weight. At that time, I was tube feeding her. The day she tried to swallow the tube, I switched to assist/force of prekilled fuzzy mice, and bumped up the frequency. The last few feedings have been hoppers. Last week, I spent an hour and a half trying to get a hopper in her. She shed last night. As per my ritual, I weighed her (109 grams), and put a live hopper in her tub. After feeding all the other snakes, I went to pull the hopper, dispatch it, and gently stuff it in her mouth. One problem. No hopper. Nowhere to be found. I weighed Charlotte. 119 GRAMS!!!! OH MY GOSH, SHE ATE IT!!!!

YIPPEEEEE!!!!

(ok, sorry for all this, I'm just incredibly excited!!!)

Steve