Of all my hatchlings this year my favorite (prettiest) hasn't fed. She was hatched on 5/28 and shed on 6/6. Her siblings have eaten 6-8 times but she keeps refusing. Adam gave me some great tips, tried them all but still nothing. She is a reduced pattern pastel (from reduced x pastel breeding) and was an obvious keeper from the day she hatched but just wouldn't feed. Her behavior is normal and everthing else about her is great but no feeding respose whatsoever! So tonight after what seemed like the billionth attempt I took the mouse fuzzy (plump & live) out of her tub, gased it with CO2, wet it down and decided to assist feed for the first time. I have done many things to BP's(shots, oral meds) but never had to assist feed before. So I refered to my bibles (VPI book Vol. 2 and Kevin McCurley's book) and gave it a go. I did it in her tub on my snake work table and after getting the head in her mouth close her jaws gently and put her back in the rack and watched (with extreme joy) as she began to swallow the rest of mouse hopper on her own. I haven't shown any pics of her since hatching because I didn't want to disturb or jinx her until she ate on her own. I want to thank Adam for taking the time to give me excellent advice and help on stubborn hatchling feeding. Hopefully next week she will eat on her own but for know I know she has a full tummy and more than likely will be fine. She never got real skinny or sickly looking but I didn't want it to get that far. Here is a hatchling pic (still don't want to jinx or disturb her more than needed).



She's in the lower left hand corner. Now I gotta come up with a name for her.