Assist Feeding??

[stevepoppers]

Right. Sorry, my question was more of a hypothetical. The fact that he apparently lets them starve to death somewhat disturbed me. And that I keep seeing people say they would never assist feed a snake that has eaten on it's own before. I think, "You'd have to at some point, wouldn't you?"

[Kaorte]

Right. Sorry, my question was more of a hypothetical. The fact that he apparently lets them starve to death somewhat disturbed me. And that I keep seeing people say they would never assist feed a snake that has eaten on it's own before. I think, "You'd have to at some point, wouldn't you?"

I see your point. But it would have to be pretty extreme for an adult snake to require assist feeding. They can sometimes go over a year without eating and then start back up again.

On the other hand, if a snake is starving itself to death there is probably another issue other then "its breeding season".

[stevepoppers]

probably another issue

That's what I thought too, but I think that might be a whole 'nother discussion...

[muddoc]

To the OP. I would think that the assisting you have already done may have caused more harm than good. By that I mean that you may have stressed the snake out more, and it will remain off feed for a while. The snake was stressed from changing locations, and still needs to adapt to it's new environment. No matter how close you try to get things the previous owner, there are very small things that we cannot duplicate, such as minor temp swings in the ambient air, barometric pressure changes, lighting, smells, etc.

These snakes can go off feed for a long time. By that I mean that I have had one off feed for 55 weeks before eating again, and I have heard of occurances that lasted up to 24 months. I have some 5 year old females that are only 700 grams. They just don't eat alot. I also have a few breeder males that only eat 3-5 times per year. Each snake is different, but I have yet to have one die of starvation, especially when one food is introduced to them.

As another poster stated, try offering them every 14-21 days, so as not to stress them out by the presence of an unwated guest (if they are not hungry, then the live rodent is a nuissance). Leave it in for no longer than 1 hour and remove it. As also previously stated, make sureit is a small meal. My last advice would be to try and change up the offering time. If you normally feed in the evening, try mid day and morning feedings.

I hope some of that helped.

I would not try a gerbil unless you have a steady supply of them and can afford them.

As stated above, I have animals that were fed a different prey item than normal to get them eating again. They became imprinted on that food, and will now eat nothing but ASF's, even though they fed on rats for three years before their first ASF. Be careful with that, and if you tried a Gerbil, unless you want to have an expensive feed bill, you might want to think of setting up a small gerbil breeding colony.

Well, wouldn't you want to assist feed, rather than let it die if it were going to?

I personally would never try this. As was stated earlier in the thread, if the animal does not want to feed, and the animal died, more than likely there was something else wrong. There is a chance that if something else is wrong, what you will end up doing is assist feeding that animal until you tire of doing that, and it will probably die then. This is the reason it is paramount to watch your animals closely, especially during breeding season, for health, and treat issues accordingly.

Just my .02,

[ericzerka24]

She's doing just fine and it has been 2 days. I've never seen a thread that someone killed their snake by assist feeding it. People make such a big deal out of it and I've never heard any negative outcome from it.

[don15681]

She's doing just fine and it has been 2 days. I've never seen a thread that someone killed their snake by assist feeding it. People make such a big deal out of it and I've never heard any negative outcome from it.

it's not about killing your snake or not. it's about assist feeding a snake that truely needs assist feed and leaving a snake thats off feed alone. I assist feed hatchlings that won't eat. I give them time to feed on their own also. If all of a clutch eats but one hatchling, I don't start jamming food into his mouth cause he should be eating like the others. I wait 30 days after shed (depending on the hatchlings weight) before assist feeding. if I have an adult ball not eating I look at my charts at the snakes weight. not much weight lost, I wait, losing weight for no reason that I can see after looking over the snake, a trip to the vets. I had female morphs that are slow at putting the weight on, it sucks, but jamming food into their mouths isn't the answer.

[muddoc]

She's doing just fine and it has been 2 days. I've never seen a thread that someone killed their snake by assist feeding it. People make such a big deal out of it and I've never heard any negative outcome from it.

While you may have never seen a thread about, many things happen in this hobby that are not on the internet. With that said, I have never killed a snake by assisting, but it is possible. I have seen someone loose control of some hemostats and poke them right through the neck of the snake from the inside. The snake healed, but there were some serious risks of infection there.

I don't believe abyone is trying to insult you, or tell you that you did wrong. I think there are many things that can be done with snakes that stray from the norm, but having all of the issues and consequences for actions up front, help for making more informed decisions.

[stevepoppers]

I'm certainly not the voice of experience around here, but that sounds like force feeding to me. Do you mean they stabbed the snake through the neck with hemostats in the process of opening the snakes jaws and placing a dead rodent's head in it's mouth? Or was it in the process of jamming a dead rodent down it's throat?

[muddoc]

They were putting the rodent into the mouth, and lost the grip on the rodent, and next thing you know: hemostats sticking out the wrong end. It can be dangerous, and should be a very careful process.

[stevepoppers]

Well, wow.