I Fail At Assist Feeding

[MasonC2K]

So I tried to assist feed again today. I am beginning to that I don't have talent for this. I cannot for the life of me get the snakes mouth open. Heck I can barely hold the head still. I've watched tons of videos on how to do but it seems I just suck at it.

[DooLittle]

It is not a fun task. Better luck next time.

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[hypersomniacjoo]

i find it much easier if you have a helper assist you assist feed hahaha for instance, my boyfriend would hold the mouth open and i would manipulate the pinky into the mouth and sometimes down the throat a bit. give it two or three tries and try again the next day if snake won't go. i had surprising luck using a hot drop of chicken broth on the prekilled pinky's face as well.

[TessadasExotics]

Try this and see how it works.

Hold the snake around the neck in-between your thumb and index finger forming a circle with the two. When doing this pinch the two together under the balls chin holding onto the skin under the mouth. Wrap the rest of your 3 fingers around the snake holding firmly. With your free hand holding the pinky touch the pinkies snout to the balls mouth. Pull slightly down with your pinched together fingers, while at the same time gently pushing the pinky into the balls mouth. The mouth of the snake should start to open. Once you have the head of the pinky starting to go down the throat of the ball, remove the finger and thumb from the neck/chin skin and slightly hold the snakes mouth shut. Pull backwards gently on the pinky. Put the snake down and see if it continues to swallow on its own. If not try again this time pushing the pinky further down. Some times you may have to push it all of the way in. Most of the time just the head in the throat should work...
Hope this helps.

[Gomojoe]

Yeah I think it's equivalent to a nurse giving an IV to an infant. It's something that they don't want to do, but you slowly learn the more squimish they are in execution the hard the execution actually is. The part I initially had difficulty with is that if all you do is get them to open their mouth and you try to let go then they spit it out. I've found that getting a good portion of their head in there and holding them just a little longer guarantees they will finish up. Still sucks doing it though, as I imagine the nurse always feels in my example.


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[Riv]

Now I might be the strange one here, butnive assist fed quite a few hatchling in the last year. Between 1-3 hatchlings every 2 weeks for 8 months, and I didnr once force the mouth open. In my opinion thats.the kind of stress that gets them to the point of regurg(which I have never had happen from one of my assists). I hold the snake balled up in one hand, and I make the F/T pinky/fuzzy look as small as possible theb push its nose against the snakes mouth slowly and firmly. The snakes usually realizes the mouse isnt going away, and theres nowhere for it to run, so fight or flight kicks in and they strike and coil. Sometimes its taken multiple tries over the span of weeks, but they always take eventually. I consider opening the mouth and inserting.mouse closer to force feeding than anything. Just my comfort zone I suppose.

-Riveran

[Badgemash]

i find it much easier if you have a helper assist you assist feed hahaha for instance, my boyfriend would hold the mouth open and i would manipulate the pinky into the mouth and sometimes down the throat a bit. give it two or three tries and try again the next day if snake won't go. i had surprising luck using a hot drop of chicken broth on the prekilled pinky's face as well.

I have also had luck with chicken broth. In fact my Burmese would only eat things dipped in chicken broth, which got really annoying when she grew up.

[PghBall]

I have a mojave hatchling that has refused to eat on her own so far. I have had to assist feed her 6 times now and yes it can be a frustrating thing to do. What I found that works for me is to grab her directly behind her head (I use index, middle and thumb) to steady her. I then take a pre-killed pink or fuzzy rat and rub it on her mouth (use a slight downward motion) until she opens her mouth. I then shove the pink in as far as I can and close her mouth on it. I found that if I just put the head in a little bit and close her mouth, as soon as I put her down she wriggles around until she spits it out. Sometimes she still manages to spit it out but persistance pays off. I have had to repeat the above steps 2 and 3 times to get her to finally eat before. I know this is putting stress on the little one, but I have actually noticed an improvement in her color, body mass and weight now. She is even getting that spunky hatchling attitude back again. Good luck to you and I hope you get yours to eat!