Assist Feeding Question

[loonunit]

80 grams isn't so small. When was this guy hatched? Did you hatch him? And you know for a fact he hasn't ever eaten?

I wait a full 8 weeks after hatching before I start assisting. If you assist sooner than that, odds are the snake just isn't hungry, and will spit it out. And assist feeding does stress the animal, particularly about its FOOD ITEMS... which may lead to it refusing to take food on its own the following week. Vicious cycle.

Um, but if he has gone the full 8 weeks without eating, then you should practice opening mouths. Do you have an adult on hand that is eating? Take the adult out, and practice opening it's mouth with a Q-tip. Get a firm grip on the back of the head/top of the neck (you may want someone to grab the rest of the snake if you've never done this before, because there's usually some thrashing.) Hold the Q-tip horizontally across the snake's nose, and push up with the middle of the Q-tip. Push up on that little split-lip divot, in the upper lip, the one that looks a little like the split lip of a cat. The upper jaw should open, and you can slide the Q-tip down so that the mouth can't close, and you can take a leisurely look around inside. This how you do mouth checks, to make sure there's no RIs, etc.

Assist feeding is a little more like pushing that upper jaw open with the tip of the Q-tip. (Don't actually stick the tip of a Q-tip inside the snake's mouth, the cotton will catch on the teeth and make a mess.) Except you do it with the nose of the rodent. Try to get it all the way down the throat as far as the shoulders. Otherwise the ball python will be able to spit it out too easily. (He still might spit it out.)

Here's a video of a mouth check. There's some gentle pressure to the back of the mouth hinges that seems to help her get the mouth open a little. Note that this is an EXTREMELY cooperative snake:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQ1C-TKIfvc