Feeding the newborns...?

[dragondavy]

I start my babies on live hoppers and most of all of them eat after 7 days, one or two might take 14 days.
After a month the ones that are not eatting I force feed with a knocked out hopper. I don't like to wait to long but each person does there own thing. I like the baby to still be strong to take the stress of force feeding. You might have to do it 1 or 2 times and they come around. Babies love live pray!!

Ask your pet store if they can order you some small live hoppers, most of the time if the pet store is cool they will do it, bad thing is they charge a lot. You can also try and get a group of rodents that can breed and you make your own but thats up to you.

Good luck with the babies!

[Sath09]

I think I'll pass on the rodent breeding... at least for now. I have a friend who is a rodent lover, but she would never breed them just so they can become food for my snakes. Dang her!

How much should I expect to pay for 9 live hoppers special ordered, approximately?

[MarkS]

With the 4 we assisted, they were hatched May 5 and May 20th. We didn't even consider assisting until mid-July and it was obvious those 4 were just not picking up the eating thing and were seriously falling behind their siblings in weight. We went by clutch average weight and those refusing were in the range of 60 grams while their feeding clutchmates were hitting 100 grams or more (they had all been within grams of each other in weight at hatching).

Don't rush to assist though. Do everything else first. It's stressful on the babies and something you don't want to rush into.

Jo, did you ever try the newspaper trick? I don't see it here very often so I don't know if a lot of people know about it, so forgive me if this is something you already tried. After about 2 or 3 refusals of live hoppers I like to stuff the babies shoeboxes full of wadded up balls of newspaper. Put enough in there so that it's completely filled. Then give the snakes a few days to make tunnels through the paper. Release a live hopper or two in there for a day or so. It really seems to help the timid ones a lot. I think it gives them more opportunity to hunt from an ambush position.

Mark

[dragondavy]

I wouldn't say a special order, just ask them if they can get hoppers and they should be able to get them from there supplier. I pay a quarter a hopper and sixty cents a jumbo but pet store charge from 1.50 to 2.50 a mouse.

Good luck!

[bait4snake]

Jo, did you ever try the newspaper trick? I don't see it here very often so I don't know if a lot of people know about it, so forgive me if this is something you already tried. After about 2 or 3 refusals of live hoppers I like to stuff the babies shoeboxes full of wadded up balls of newspaper. Put enough in there so that it's completely filled. Then give the snakes a few days to make tunnels through the paper. Release a live hopper or two in there for a day or so. It really seems to help the timid ones a lot. I think it gives them more opportunity to hunt from an ambush position.

Mark

That just sounds like fun, lol. Like a snake "ant farm"!

[frankykeno]

Jo, did you ever try the newspaper trick? I don't see it here very often so I don't know if a lot of people know about it, so forgive me if this is something you already tried. After about 2 or 3 refusals of live hoppers I like to stuff the babies shoeboxes full of wadded up balls of newspaper. Put enough in there so that it's completely filled. Then give the snakes a few days to make tunnels through the paper. Release a live hopper or two in there for a day or so. It really seems to help the timid ones a lot. I think it gives them more opportunity to hunt from an ambush position.

Mark

Oh yep Mark, I love the newspaper trick. I've used it for a long while now with any nervy or stressed BP, whether it's a baby or a big one - it really does help them settle in.

These babies had everything tried for them but they just didn't start themselves. Now they have all hunted independently (other than the wierdo who will only eat off tongs and is scared of anything live???) so I expect them to do just fine and quickly catch up to their hatchmates.

[Wh00h0069]

In my opinion, it is hard enough to get them started on live as it is, so why try f/t. Some would take them, but I would imagine that most would not. I would try to feed them live first, then once they are eating good, try to switch them over.

Hope this helps.

[Sath09]

SCORE! I called around to the petstores in my area, and one local feed and seed store actually gets shipments of hoppers live on Tuesdays, keeps them through wednesday, and freezes them on Thursday. YAY! My babies might actually do some eatin' this week.