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Health Issues/Feeding Problems Anything related to general or specific health problems. Issues having to do with feeding problems or tips.

A Force Feeding suggestion.
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Old 11-12-2002, 08:29 PM   #1
RedRat
Lightbulb A Force Feeding suggestion.

Every attempt that I have made to force feed a snake with either a smaller than normal food item or the excised head or tail of a rodent has resulted in the snakes death.

Going on some professional advice I was given years ago I concocted the following recipe.

Tube Feeding Diet - #1
1 - 2.5 bottle Gerber Chicken and Chicken Broth Baby Food, 3rd foods
1/4 tsp - Nekton Rep Vitamin Supplement
1 tsp - drops - Tetra Terrafauna Stimulap
2 tsp - beaten raw egg

I used this recipe to force feed a juvenile Mexican Boa for eight months before it began feeding again. I pumped 50 cc's into it that last time I force fed it. When the former owner returned the snake to his collection it was eating small rats.

Tube Feeding Diet - #2
1 - 2.5 bottle Gerber Chicken and Chicken Broth Baby Food, 2nd foods
1/2 tsp - Nekton Rep Vitamin Supplement
1 tsp - drops - Tetra Terrafauna Stimulap
2 tsp - beaten raw egg yolk

Recipe #1 evolved into #2 to make a thicker mix with a higher fat content. This recipe was given to a hatchling corn for a full year before it began feeding. Its last forced meal was 2 cc's. It's now avidly devouring thawed fuzzies.

Tube Feeding Diet - #3
1 - 2.5 bottle Gerber Chicken and Chicken Broth Baby Food, 2nd foods
1 tsp - Nekton Rep Vitamin Supplement
2 tsp - beaten raw egg yolk

Recipe #2 evolved into #3 to make a thicker mix. I am presently using recipe #3 on a holdout hatchling in my collection. 1 cc will create a pinkie sized bulge in this baby.

Force feeding has always been a last resort after several weeks of offering anything and everything that could possibly get a reluctant feeder to eat. When I start tube feeding I always offer a food item weekly to the holdouts and if they don't eat then the Tube Feeding Diet is used.

I freeze the mix between feedings and let it thaw to room temperature before being used.

I used a large syringe and a 2 inch piece of 1/4 inch airline tubing for the Mexican Boa. For Corn's I use a 3 cc syringe and a 1 inch piece of 1/8 inch airline tubing. The airline tubing is cut at an angle, this helps in prying the snakes mouth open. I lightly melt the cut end of the tubing with a lighter to dull the edges so as not to scratch the inside of the snakes mouth or throat.
 
Old 11-12-2002, 09:37 PM   #2
drizzt_19
thanks

for the info. i may have to try that. i have a female snow that hasn't eaten in about a month. i tried force/assist feeding and she either regurges or spits out the food.


thanks
gregg
 
Old 11-13-2002, 10:44 AM   #3
RedRat
I hope my suggestion helps...

I have watched a snake regurgitate a recent meal by forcing it out in a reverse of the rolling motion it used to push the meal down when it ate. One good thing of my Tube Feeding Diet is that being liquid there's really nothing for the snake to push out.

In using this technique there is a possibility of a back flush because the tube has not been inserted deep enough into the snakes throat. This is something you can only learn from experience. With the hatchling I am force feeding presently, I insert the full 1 inch length of the tube until the tip of the syringe is even with the snakes lip. A back flush will also occur if the fluid is pushed into the snake too quickly - GO SLOWLY.

From my experience this technique is less stressful and also less tiring, for both me and the snake, than stuffing a food item down the snakes throat.

Good Luck...
 
Old 11-13-2002, 12:15 PM   #4
Gregg
Thumbs up Thanks for information, RedRat,

I'm going to print it out and save it, if you don't mind. It will come in handy one day, I'm sure.
 
Old 11-13-2002, 01:35 PM   #5
RedRat
Feel free to use it as you choose...

Adapt it to suite your needs as I did. The vitamins for instance, I used what was readily available to me at the time. With the 2nd and 3rd Gerber Baby food, I still don't know what the difference is. I just bought whatever the supermarket had on hand.

I should give credit where credit is due though. The original suggestion came from the Manager of <a href="http://www.snakemuseum.com/">Great Valley Serpentarium</a> in Lodi, California. My California collection went to them a decade ago when I moved from Santa Rosa to Key West.
 
Old 03-29-2003, 01:56 PM   #6
CowBoyWay
Force Feeding Recipes???...

For reference sake,
As I wish to learn,
does anybody else have any "recipes" for force feeding "formula" that they have used in the past succesfully, that they would care to recommend?

Any "bad" recipes "out there" (internet) in general terms, (no attacks please),
that one had problems with/ should probably not use.

The above recipes seem a might heavy as far as the vitamin supplementation is concerned, as"Nekton" brand vitamins (good products, pricey though) are quite concentrated, if I remember correctly.imho.
I would like to see a pro-biotic in there also, but thats me, if it breathes, it gets the appropriate pro-biotics at my house.
 
Old 03-29-2003, 05:11 PM   #7
mariska
force feeding...

i just use catfood(for older kats that is cause its less salt) rince off any juice thats on it...its only fattinging...ad a bit of calcium and repvitamin to it, and make a nice creamy easy for tubing "fooditem" of it...
I do this when the hatchling hasnt eaten for a while (somewhere between 4/6 weeks after the first shed)
and imho its just to get the hatchling to get hungry, they just have to get the nice feeling of having food in their stomach, and after e few of these feedings they usually use to start feeding on their own.
i honestly think this is because they dont connect mice to forcefeeding, i have also tried to push mice down, but then it takes them months to start feeding on their own, tubing is really better imho
mariska
 
Old 05-29-2010, 03:48 AM   #8
Trevz
Very nice suggestions. :-)
 
Old 05-29-2010, 04:49 AM   #9
diamondlil
I just blended batches of defrosted peach fuzzy mice in a food processor and froze the mush in little lumps when I was syringe feeding Lil.
 
Old 05-29-2010, 05:14 AM   #10
bitsy
Remind me not to accept a smoothie from you if I ever visit!
 

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