Assist feeding or even force feeding a baby is not an easy task, and not for the weak of heart or stomach.
Assist feeding or force feeding an adult is even worse. I got in a big imported female who was gravid. She laid for me within a week, but being wild caught, she wouldn't eat. I tried every two weeks for 6 months straight. She simply did not recognize what I offered as food. I tried rats, mice, gerbils and was debating chicks. She was scary thin, and I didn't know what to do.
With assistance from both my husband and my daughter, we managed to get 1 small rat into her stomach. I waited three weeks and offered her food again. Nothing doing. Eventually I did it again. She still did not seem to recognize anything I offered as food. I have no doubt she would have starved to death without intervention.
I eventually offered her a hamster out of desperation, and she took it. After three hamsters in a row, she went to rats and started packing on weight.
Gale
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