Well, from my first clutch, 7 eggs, I have 6 strong feeders and one straggler that was starting to get too thin for my liking. After 8 or so weeks of refusing live and f/t mice, and his clutch-mates gaining weight like crazy, I decided it was time to take matters into my own hands (literally)

This is the first time I'd ever attempted this, so I cracked open Pythons of the World, Vol 2, went to the index, and looked up "Assist Feeding"...found it in the book, and spent the 5 minutes reading over their simple instructions.

I was nervous as heck, and they said it should be a fast process to reduce the stress on the snake. Unfortunately, since it was my first time and i was a little nervous, it took me a little longer than a minute to finally open his mouth and clamp down on the mouse.

I was actually expecting him to spit it out and make me struggle again, but to my surprise, he actually coiled around it, and after about 3 minutes, started consuming it.

If I had another set of hands to take pictures of that process, I woulda....but I only got picture of after I set him down to let him finish his meal






Reading the Barkers book helped ease my mind. It talks about how there's always a snake from time to time that just doesn't quite know what to do...doesn't really know how to eat, and you just need to help him along for that first time. I'm hoping now that he has eaten, he will finally realize what i'm dangling in front of his face and will take it without hesitation.

Thanks for looking