Wow lucky me!

[bmm]

So far I have offered 11 of my hatchling snows thawed pinkies as a first meal. And ALL have taken them! I am suprised! I shouldn't speak too soon as I have another 8 to try tonight but so far I haven't had to do any pinky cutting or anything! Yay! A couple of them need me to wiggle it, but the others ate it from where I layed it down.

Good luck too all who have non-feeders and picky guys!

bmm

[Skye]

I've only offered F/T pinkies to 8 so far - all ate them with no hesitation for a first meal, although one has since regurgitated it as discussed in another thread. They are all from the same clutch. I was delighted as reading the board one expects more problems since that is mostly what one sees discussed.

Only need the same success with the 20 from the other 2 clutches now!

Skye

[PSYCOSNAKEMOM]

I'm sending all my little pima donnas over to your house for dinner. We seem to have nightly battles about leaving the table before you eat. I have tried (with varing success) all the "tricks" I can think of....progress is slow.

Thanks for "bragging" lol :rolleyes: Sam ~~~~:~

[bmm]

I think the sucess of my little guys has to do with the caging.

I am keeping them in tiny tupperware. Its about 7 inches long, 5 wide and 2 high. They are really cozy in there especially since the lids are dark colors, and they arent clear, but like hazy clear colored, you cant see in. And they cant really see out.

Tonight I will be trying my last 8 to have first meals. If they eat I am either really lucky or picked out good caging. lol

bmm

[Skye]

hmmm - mine are in 15 quart tubs in a rack we just built, and not a day too soon. The tubs are about 11x8x5 ish, maybe a touch bigger than that.
I'll update on my others when I try to feed them.
Skye

[PSYCOSNAKEMOM]

I have tried four different type of tupperware containers, some a little bigger, some a little taller, some a little hazyer. I have almost 40 little containers ALL over my house. When I start naming them then I know I'll be in REAL trouble;) Sam ~~~~~:~

[Skye]

yep - I named the first 8 out of the eggs for the novelty factor, and then stopped, and started numbering...
Skye

[Skye]

so - latest update - 4 out of 5 of the next clutch ate, and 14 out of 15 of the third clutch ate

Skye (feeling pretty pleased to have only 2 non-eaters)

[bmm]

I have had 18 out of 19 babies eat F/T for first meal now, and most are on their third meals. One little baby who refused all meals and hasn't even had one. But the other 18 all started out great on f/t.

i hope everyone has good luck!

bmm

[PSYCOSNAKEMOM]

We are hanging in but having to do a lot of the tricks. Last night I bought the stuff that you drip on the pinks to make them smell like anoles. Sam ~~~~~~~:~

[CornCrazy]

I'm definitely NOT having luck this year! I had to have my babies in small groups at first, but now I have them separated out into individual cups. Maybe that will help them to become feeders. I've tried almost every other method of trying to get them to eat...

[bmm]

Seperating them will most certainly help you IMHO. :D

Next year I am definitly using these small individual cages again. I really hope it has helped. I guess if I have such luck each year, I can say its the caging. possibly. lol.

Good luck guys. I myself am hoping my one non-eater will change his mind.

bmm

[CornCrazy]

I hope it does help. I'll try to feed them again in a few days. I'll let you know if I have any luck!

[Skye]

please do, and good luck to you,
Skye

[PSYCOSNAKEMOM]

They seee to have an underlining goal of seeing if they can stress us out. I have been feeding them in the little cups and I have one butter snow that wasn't going for anything and believe me I thought I tried all the tricks. She is very alert and larger than the others, she was definately giving me a run for my money, any how I put her in one of the plastic shoe boxes that I feed the big guys in and within ten minutes she ate up her first pinkie, a month after she was born. I guess she just needed a running jump on the little thing???? Sam ~~~~~~:~

[Taceas]

It's been 9 days since mine have hatched, and they haven't even shed yet. I offered #1 and #2 a f/t pinkie yesterday, just to gauge their reaction..not even interested in it.

I'll wait until they shed I guess and try again, or else I'll have to go buy some live pinks to get them started out. =/

Hopefully they'll start to eat pretty readily. *crosses fingers*

[Taceas]

So far 6 of my 13 hatchlings have taken f/t as their first meal, as have one of the new hypo lavs I received on yesterday. I'll try the others at the end of the week, to see if they've grown any hungrier and if not, I'll go buy some live pinks. =B

[PSYCOSNAKEMOM]

I'd love to see pictures... Sam~~~~~:~

[gardenmum]

I guess I got lucky. The very first clutches I ever hatched and all ate their first meals except the little tiny 6 1/2 incher - the only one that hatched from the first clutch - and I had to 'help' him by starting a mouse tail in his mouth and he swallowed it no problem. Even the two bloods het hypo I got from Rich's 1/2 sale that are right out of eggs and not fed yet ate their first pinkies offered without a hitch. :D
I hope I am not jinxing myself as I have another clutch due to hatch in a couple of weeks. I will have to see if my luck holds out!!!:cool:

[CornCrazy]

Well, my non-feeders are still non-feeders :(

I am leaning toward brumating them as suggested by someone previously. I guess I'll have to keep trying to feed them, though, until it gets cold enough to brumate them.

I think I am going to offer "lizard tails" to a couple of them today.

[bmm]

I have one non feeder still. Number 18. Refused a pinky head last night.

in a week or two we will force a pinky head into his mouth. If he doesn't swallow that or soon after take another meal on his own, we will allow nature to take its course. Although I will keep offering him food items.

bmm

[CornCrazy]

I have 14 non-feeders :(

As I said before, I decided to place lizard tails in with a couple of them to see what would happen. I have already tried lizard scented pinkies, by the way. I didn't think that the lizard tails would make any difference. BOTH of the non-feeders ate the lizard tails just as fast as they could!!!

OK..so then I cut up the two lizards I had into small pieces. Gross, I know...

Anyway, I placed the pieces in with the other 12 non-feeders. All but 3 of them ate the lizard pieces. I couldn't believe it! I guess I'll have to feed them lizard parts for a few feedings, then I'll try to switch them over to lizard scented pinkies, and hopefully eventually switch them to unscented pinkies. I almost wish I had tried the lizards sooner, but I really hate starting them on lizards since lizards are so expensive.

I really hope it won't take very long to get them switched over to mice...

[CornCrazy]

I tried lizard-scented pinkies with 6 of my non-feeders, and a couple took them right away! The other four are sniffing them and moving them around with their cute little noses, but so far haven't decided to eat them.

I'm going to leave the mice in with them while I am at work and hopefully the rest will decide to eat. I only work a half day, so the mice will just be in with them for a few hours.

I gave lizard parts to the rest of my non-feeders, and they are still eating them (except for the 3 that refused them the first time) :p I'll try lizard-scented pinkies with more of them next time.

[PSYCOSNAKEMOM]

I have been trying to get the last few to eat, I was looking at the lizard scent that I bought and notice that it had expried 10/01 !!!!! I was so ****** off. I had a hard time getting it I had to go to the NEXT state. Right now I'm saying to my Miami Phase that he will NEVER have sex again, because I really believe that those morphs are just too fussy! Sam ~~~~~~:~

[CornCrazy]

I have some of the "lizard-scent in a bottle" and I've NEVER had any success with it. I just keep an anole in the freezer to scent with. I use it for about 3 months then get a new one.

Well, I still only have two taking the lizard scented pinkies. They are accepting them really well, though. I am going to try unscented next.

I'll just keep trying once a week with the others until brumating time, and then put them down for a nap. I hope that will stimulate them to eat.

[bmm]

Corncrazy- Good luck with those two. I still have the one non-feeder (number 18, second last to hatch) and he is being REALLY stubborn.

I may just throw him into brumation myself. Although I am not sure how he will make it until then. I guess we will see!

bmm

[Skye]

so 26 are doing well and eating two pinkies each at each sitting - ravenous beasts

the two non-feeders are still refusing.

tried pinkies, heads, body, broken heads, pinkies scented with fresh live anole (poor guy - he couldn't understand why we suddenly pulled him out of his cage, rubbed him all over with a dead mouse and then put him back), haven't tried live yet - don't know where to get them from.

If they don't eat, I won't be force-feeding them.

Skye

[CornCrazy]

I think my post wasn't clear. Most of my non-feeders are still refusing lizard-scented pinkies. They only want lizards. Lets see...the breakdown is, 3 non-feeders, 2 lizard-scented pinky eaters, and 9 lizard eaters. I did force feed mine a couple of times, but then decided that I would try the "let nature take its course" route. I will brumate these little ones if they don't start eating well, then hope for the best.

[bmm]

Well my one non-feeder, #18, finally ate a live pinky. I did something a little different....instead of leaving him alone overnight with it I bugged the crap out of him to the point he was really angry, then he saw the pinky wiggling and nabbed it.

:D

Marisa

[Chip]

I've seen the same thing (don't try it with adults, they never seem to swallow food when upset). Nice thread, especially enjoyed the part about naming.
My girlfriend has named several of my hatchlings by appearance or behavior. Some pretty clever names, too! Then gets bummed when I sell them. Not that she WANTS for me to have more snakes...:rolleyes: