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Old 05-18-2017, 10:52 PM   #12
albertagirl
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tavia View Post
Wish more people talked about the ins and outs of House snakes, LOL!
When I was first deciding to get a pair, I'd liked the looks of them for a few years, I read as much as I could get my hands on, which wasn't a great deal.
But a very consistent picture emerged from everything I read, easy husbandry, ridiculously easy to breed, to the point of being a potential downside, and very good eaters from the egg on. In short, basically the perfect "easy" breeding project to add in with my more complicated species ... Yeah, no other breeder admitted anywhere that babies are actually very often stubborn about getting eating for the first 2 to 4 plus months after hatching.
Wasn't until I'd flailed around with my first 3 clutches wondering what the heck I was doing so wrong, that a few breeders took the time to quietly tell me that what I was experiencing was more or less normal. I've now heard from a great many breeders all saying the same thing. I've had to mentally adjust to just accepting that about half of them will require force feeding for a few months before becoming established and that going nearly right to force feeding isn't some kind of failure on my part.

Just knowing that took them from the hardest species I've actually bred, to a challenge but not hair tearing species. I might not have gotten them had I had accurate info on them in the beginning but I feel like I'd have lost fewer hatchlings to starvation had I been informed.

Wow, and how on earth do you force feed such a TINY hatchling?! Aren't they quite a bit smaller than corns at first? I should maybe rename this thread to "things you didn't know about house snakes"!

I do just want to clarify my final question though, about whether I should continue offering food at the same size and frequency? Or should I start offering her something smaller? Do their stomachs shrink? And is offering weekly too often when she's only eating monthly at best? I don't know if that does more harm than good. Or if it does any harm at all?