Best Christmas present ever !!

[zina10]

Out of all the hatchlings I had, there was/is one "problem" feeder.

The Emperor Pinstripe female. Never took a meal on her own. Tried ALL the tricks. Different feeders, live, f/t, prekilled.
They are raised in small tubs, with plenty of privacy and security. Husbandry SPOT ON.

Also tried PATIENCE and time. Eventually had to assist feed. Which I've done before, successfully, with other hatchlings (rescues, and friends, not mine).

This one? It fought it. It always took more then one try. It wasn't force feeding, but it wasn't a easy assist feed either by far.

In between assist feedings I kept trying the other tricks. Always giving it time in between.

After 4 of those feedings I got the little one up to a decent weight and past the second shed. I did one more assist feed and then I was simply going to wait it out.

This is the third week that I tried the "once weekly" offering of food and for the first time the little one seemed interested, rather then scared. Still shy though, so I left the
frozen/ thawed hopper mouse in the tub and left (tried that before, too).

Just came back and its GONE !!!!!!!!!!! WHEW !!!!!!!!!!!!!

I really started to think about giving up, since those feedings were a struggle that was stressful to us both, and I didn't want to go back to that.

Incidentally, I changed my remaining 4 hatchlings to coco substrate from paper towels 3 days ago. The other 3 took their meals immediately, too. The Pastel Enchi and Super Pastel Enchi
have always been good eaters, but gosh, they went from dead asleep curled up to grabbing their food within half a second !!!

The Super Emperor Pinstripe that did eat well, but was really tricky to get to accept rat fuzzies (rather then mice) took her rat fuzzy within a second as well.

I wonder now, if substrate could have possibly made a difference ???

Either way, I'm so happy

[zina10]

and here she is...after her meal.

Looking proud of herself

[oodaT]

Was the same problem I had with dante, he fought the assist feeds a couple times. He took about 2 months to successful do it all on his own. Good looking girl tho, looks like my atlas

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

[zina10]

Someone ate her second un-assisted meal today !

Another f/t mouse hopper. Had to leave it with her, but it was gone within 10 minutes.

[the_rotten1]

Congratulations! She's a beautiful girl. I'm so glad she's finally eating for you.

[tttaylorrr]

big congrats to the both of you! WHEW!!!

she's beautiful.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Based on what I have seen and what other breeders that I know experience having a substrate allowing for the snake to burrow like coconut chips or aspen does help.

Now does not mean that sometime you won't have that hard to start one because it still happen, but switching things around and find what triggers them is key.

Good job.

[zina10]

Based on what I have seen and what other breeders that I know experience having a substrate allowing for the snake to burrow like coconut chips or aspen does help.

Now does not mean that sometime you won't have that hard to start one because it still happen, but switching things around and find what triggers them is key.

Good job.

Thank you That means a lot to me, esp. coming from you. I know you have vast experience with those snakes and breeding them. This little one had me worried. I always figured, there are SO many tricks to get a difficult one going, that I wasn't truly worried about it. I had assist fed before.

However, this one was something else altogether. I guess in a way it is good to come across a difficult situation, it sure makes one humble and the learning never ends.

I can't say for sure that the substrate made a difference, but I do feel that it did. All 4 had a better response since then. 2 of them were great eaters to begin with, but even they seem "accelerated" now, LOL. The one that ate well but was picky about switching to rats, went for it immediately since the switch. And the little problem child has finally turned the corner.

Its enough to make me consider switching hatchlings to substrate after their first shed, and after their umbilicus is healed and closed.

Perhaps its the darkness of that substrate (compared to white paper towel)? Or the fact that they can "burrow" into it (although its not a deep layer). I'm not sure, but I'm glad it seemed to make a difference.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

However, this one was something else altogether. I guess in a way it is good to come across a difficult situation, it sure makes one humble and the learning never ends

.Breeding animals will teach you a lot and that is the only way to learn because even if there were books with all the answers experiencing it is very different.

It is possibly a combination of various thing or just that she was ready, usually snakes needing to be assisted only do so 3 to 5 times before they get the idea, then again not always I once assisted a female for 6 months and she actually became one of my best feeders afterward.

[zina10]

.Breeding animals will teach you a lot and that is the only way to learn because even if there were books with all the answers experiencing it is very different.

It is possibly a combination of various thing or just that she was ready, usually snakes needing to be assisted only do so 3 to 5 times before they get the idea, then again not always I once assisted a female for 6 months and she actually became one of my best feeders afterward.

Wow, 6 month...

That is dedication!

It is good to know that there is a chance, even after a long time.