Quote Originally Posted by Kibbleswhites View Post
Hmmmmm. I had a baby needing to be assisted for 3 months and I thought she would never strike on her own. She finally got it though and now she wants a rat every time I feed anything in that room. The good news is that she has never had live and will be a great F/T feeder. Try feeding a different size meal (even one that seems way too small) and see what he can do with that. Also, try just laying a F/T warm rat in front of his hide while he is at rest. This is how I get all my males off a hunger strike. He might just be too excited to actually eat. How exactly are you assisting? Usually when I assist as long as I can get the rat into the mouth and put the snake down they swallow. I know they are getting close to feeding on their own when they actually squeeze the rat after I put it in their mouth. A 2013 snake should not weigh less than 100 grams. Do you have a pic so we can see body condition? If his body condition is good I would say assist sparingly but if he is long and thin, I would assist until he starts eating on his own.
He strikes and constricts so that isn't a problem. He's not on a hunger strike either or not intentionally anyways. I also thought it might be excitement in the beginning but the problem always seems to be at the point where he should be using his jaws/teeth to pull the prey in. He will tilt his head back and let gravity do its job if it's small enough. In terms of assisting, if I can get him to strike and grab the head, I'll use a finger to press the head of the prey item into his throat. Once that far, gravity seems to do well enough that he can get it. He's had everything from day old mice pinks (used for newborn corns normally) up to rat fuzzies. He has better luck with smaller prey which is why he's on mouse fuzzies right now. I understand that he shouldn't be under 100 g. which is why it's concerning. He's not gained much length but when he drops into the 85-90 g. range, his body condition is noticeably too lean which is why that's when he gets bulked back up through consistent assists. Even then, he's given the chance every week to eat on his own because I want to make sure that if he can do it on his own, that's what happens. If he had consistent body condition, I wouldn't be concerned as I've gotten used to hunger strikes over the years with bp's.