What is "Force-Feeding"?

[CDPerez]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sg0mBITtSVo
first video I found man that is a huge mouse pinky!

[kitedemon]

Use Critical Care carnivore similar nutrition easy to deal with just a catheter tube and syringe. Do not miss food in lungs is a killer.

[kitedemon]

Force feeding is taking a f/t rat, a smaller rat than the snake would usually eat and forcing it down the snakes throat.

The video doesn't really look like the description of force feeding forcing? not really.

One of the many email I and others field (past exec of a reptile rescue) was a little ball whom had been force fed as directed by a breeder in Ontario Canada. Why I don't think actively (forcefully) pushing a prey item down a snakes mouth is a good idea.

Graphic







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[MarkS]

so with a pinky pump, you have to some how chop up the pinky so it can be "pumped" correct? a pinky pump wouldve really helped me last year when i had two babies never start eating despite numerous attempts to assist feed.

You put the entire thawed out pinky in the tube and push on the plunger really hard. The pinkies will turn to mush as they're being pushed through the feeding needle at the end of the pump. There is a little knurled nut on the plunger that you have to keep unscrewing as you go. This nut acts as a stopper so that you can't push too far. Otherwise, you could be pushing the plunger when it suddenly spurts the entire contents of the tube into the snakes stomach which could be very bad.

[valhalha30]

Wow.
I hope I don't need to do that ever.
too much risk.

[Rickys_Reptiles]

The video doesn't really look like the description of force feeding forcing? not really.

One of the many email I and others field (past exec of a reptile rescue) was a little ball whom had been force fed as directed by a breeder in Ontario Canada. Why I don't think actively (forcefully) pushing a prey item down a snakes mouth is a good idea.

Graphic

Hosted on Fotki

Wow, thats horrible. Thats why I said in my original post, "If you dont know how to do it properly, you can cause a lot of damage to your snake."

I would never just tell someone to do it who didn't know what they were doing. Any method of force feeding can SERIOUSLY harm a snake. Before anyone ever did it I would advise they be educated in their chosen method by a breeder who knows what they're doing, not someone who's seen it once or twice on a youtube video!