They fed with gusto

[gigergal]

Hi folks,

I just wanted to tell you that Scooby and Socrates fed with gusto - their first meal with me. I was truly worried as I've never fed snakes before. I thawed the pinks and ran them under a boiling hot tap for a couple of minutes. Scooby ate one pink and Soc downed two. I fed them in seperate tubs (not in their vivs) and then after a few minutes transferred them back to their respective vivs. I'm leaving them well alone now and they've both hidden themselves. I hope I did all this right. It was amazing to watch them strike (although they did eat the pinks tail first but I don't suppose that matters does it?).

I'm so glad this feed went ok but now I'm worrying about regurge. Hope that if I leave them well alone for a few days all will be ok.

gigergal

[Nanci]

Congratulations! Be careful not to cook your pinks if you are really using boiling water. As long as you have correct temps for digestion, and you don't handle for 48 hours after feeding, I don't think you need to worry about regurging. It can _usually_ be traced to a specific cause such as snake too cold, prey too big, or stress. It doesn't matter at all which end they eat first. Snakes normally eat head first because the prey goes down easier that way, but with tiny pinks and fuzzies, it doesn't matter so much, so a lot of snakes either don't care to find the head or can't. The way the snake knows which end is the head is by feeling for the skull- the hard part- and by feeling the direction of hair growth. Kind of difficult to tell on a pink!

Nanci

[diamondlil]

:cheers: Glad it went well!

[stragen]

Sounds like you got everything spot on to me :)
Don't worry about them munching the pinkies backwards, sometimes they just decide they wanna be buttmunchers....LOL
Don't get over stressed about a regurg - If you leave them alone for 48 hours like you said, then there shouldn't be a problem. Make sure the lump has disappeared before you handle them again. :)

[gigergal]

Thanks guys, I appreciate your input. :) I think the viv temps are ok. It's a little over 70f on the cool side and about 80f on their heat pad side. I've just looked through Socs viv and he's curled up in his paper towel tube in the middle of the viv. Not sure where Scooby is, I think he's under the paper towel substrate but I'm not going to check on him - just going to leave them well alone now.

It was GREAT feeding them. Snakes are so darn COOL! :)

gigergal

[Nanci]

I'd go more for 85F directly on the bare glass in the center of the UTH.

Nanci

[Nanci]

Also, don't worry if your guys don't go to the warm side to digest- they just need to have the choice, and then they pick the appropriate temp.

Nanci

[gigergal]

Thanks Nanci

gigergal