Hatchling Hasn't Eaten First Meal

[Galaxygirl]

We have a hatchling that we hatched 6/24. She still will not eat her first meal and acts afraid of everything we give her. Live Mouse Hopper, Live Rat Pink, Live Rat Pup, F/T Mouse Hopper, F/T Rat Pup - Wont eat any of it. We left her overnight in a small container with the pup and she still didn't eat. All of her siblings have eaten 2+ meals. 88 hot spot, 80 cold side. She is in a small 6qt tub. She has a hide that she always is in. She's on aspen.. Advice?

[PitOnTheProwl]

One of my female pastels pull this on me this year.
7 weeks and then she finally took a small hopper mouse.
Now she pops every mouse that hits the floor.

How much weight has been lost?

[200xth]

How often are you offering?

Last year, one of my hatchlings was a problem getting started.

I put him in his rack, closed him up, didn't disturb him at all except for a quick water check once or twice a week. Every 7 days I offered food, always a little mouse hopper.

Finally at 7 weeks from hatching he ate a live mouse hopper.

[Galaxygirl]

She's 68g now. She hatched at 85g. Safe to wait a week and try a mouse hopper? We've been offering every 5-7 days. We don't hold her ever, as we're trying to keep her stress free. When is it time to assist? She's starting to look thinner - Can see the tiny notches on her spine when she goes into a ball and she's got some extra skin visible in some positions as well.

[Galaxygirl]

Extra sounds weird, I mean loose skin.

[PitOnTheProwl]

That is some weight loss.

Also are you covering the front of the tub? This has helped with some of mine.

[Albert Clark]

Take out half of the aspen and replace it with 100% cypress mulch without disturbing her too much. Ease her back into her slot very carefully and try feeding her a live hopper in 5 days.

[Dave Green]

This has worked very well for me when it comes to shy babies. If after a few attempts the baby still tucks their head in rather than have an interest in the food I set up their bin slightly different. I have them on paper towel but aspen is fine. I put two hide boxes in the bin, one on the hot side and one on the cool side. Then give the baby a few days to settle in and see which hide box they prefer, it's usually the one on the cool side. I then put a frozen thawed mouse hopper right outside the hide opening but off to the side so the baby can go in and out of the hide without the mouse being in it's way. I leave the mouse in overnight and it's usually gone in the am. If not, try a f/t rat pinkie and repeat...

[Galaxygirl]

I've covered most of her tub with a cloth and gave her two hides. I can check Petco/Petsmart for mulch. Does the offering ONLY every 5-7 days really make a difference? For example we'll offer a prey item to a ball python, and lets say they deny it. Next day we'll try a different prey item and they'll eat it right away. They don't seem to care about the previous day's denial. I've just never really had a ball python that took the same prey item we've been offering just because we waited 7+ days before trying to give it to them again. Usually it's switching to mice or live that get them eating again. Have a big girl that would eat live for us, but refused F/T for TEN months. I'm confident she would have eaten live and making her hungry/leaving her alone didn't do the trick switching her to F/T.

[Galaxygirl]

Also our first clutch of ball pythons would NOT take live or F/T rat pinkies. We tried for three weeks to get their first meal to be live rat pinkies. Not one out 7 would eat them, so we've been hesitant to try pinkies again. Hoppers is what did it for them. This new clutch ate rat pinkies no problem.. These guys are so confusing