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  1. #3
    BPnet Senior Member Lord Sorril's Avatar
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    Re: Have you ever given up on a hatchling who won't eat?

    Quote Originally Posted by Gemini Pythons View Post
    Assist feeding does not work, and we have now force fed twice.
    My question is, at what point do you give up on a hatchling?
    Answer: Never.
    I will offer food once/week (after first shed).
    After aprox. one month of non-eating (after-first shed) I will then offer once per week. If the food item is not eaten in 15 minutes I will force feed a pre-killed prey item a little smaller than the widest part of the snakes head.

    For long-term non-eaters (3+ months): Once/month I will leave the food item (small live mouse-with rodent blocks) in the enclosure overnight and see if it is taken---Otherwise I will go back to force feeding weekly for another month.

    When I say 'force feeding'-just to be clear, I am not talking tubing (that is different). I am talking assist feeding and then gently applying continuous pressure with dull forceps to gently force the food down to a point that the snake has difficulty expelling it. Out of hundreds of hatchlings/year-I sometimes end up with dozens of non-eaters (they tend to be from the same clutches).

    I have not lost a single ball python hatchling using this feeding method. I also buy non-eating ball python hatchlings at expos on a regular basis. My latest non-eating acquisition was a GHI for $20 last year. Took 4 months of force feeding to get him to eat. He is playing the 'catch up' game now.



    Note: All my problem eaters are only offered live food until they are established.
    *.* TNTC

  2. The Following 5 Users Say Thank You to Lord Sorril For This Useful Post:

    bcr229 (06-16-2019),dr del (06-21-2019),Gemini Pythons (06-16-2019),Godzilla78 (06-16-2019),the_rotten1 (06-17-2019)

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