Starting to lose hope on hatchling

A general rule of a thumb is that you should not give your snake a pray which is bigger than your snake's widest point of girth by 50%- anything smaller than that should be fine.

I suggest starting with smaller pray when you are feeding him for the first time.

Hatchlings often look tiny compared to the mouse they are about to eat. Unless he is an especially small hatchling, he should do fine with a pinky.

As for just dropping the mouse in the tank, some breeders (including me) use that technique to feed all their hatchlings for the first few months of their life. There are a variety of reasons to feed the snake outside of their tank, but if you are keeping the snake on newspaper or paper towels and it is still relatively small, then it seems perfectly acceptable. As long as the snake has no chance of ingesting substrate, go ahead and try it, but I bet that that method won't get you as good results as some others. But who knows.

Some other ideas for feeding, some of which I mentioned above:
Braining
Cutting
Scenting (with dirty mouse bedding, anole, or a variety of other things)
Washing with water or soap and water
tease feeding

That's what I can think of off the top of my head. That's in case you haven't tried some of those and he doesn't take the live one.

Please tell us how the feeding goes!!

Originally Posted by Kokopelli

A general rule of a thumb is that you should not give your snake a pray which is bigger than your snake's widest point of girth by 50%- anything smaller than that should be fine.

I suggest starting with smaller pray when you are feeding him for the first time.

Prey!!! I can't believe I can't even edit it out.
Ah well, my snakes are prone to praying too... On various Jewish holidays

Paper bag trick:

put your snake in the lunchbag, put the pinky in the lunch bag. Roll the top down so it's closed. Or you can roll the top over and clip it.

It works because some snakes won't eat if they feel threatened or if they are easily distracted. This lowers light levels and puts the wee one alone with the pinky. Since the lunchbags breathe, there's no risk of accidentally forgetting them in a closed container where they might get too warm. I've had great success with this.

My king hatchlings always seem to be able to escape out a 'seam' so put the lunchbag in your hatchlings vivarium and close the lid!!!!

Good Luck!

-Tonya

Rat scenting live mice pinks has worked with two of my worst hold outs. I just asked the guy at the pet store if he'd rub the pinks in live rat hair. Good luck, and you will know if it has been to long since it's eaten. There skin will hang on them, but I would suggest force feeding befor that happens.

I tired a live pinky for the first time yesterday and my snake didn't eat again. Wow this is frustrating. Anyway, I put the pinky in the tank and left it there for a couple of hours. When I came back to see if he ate the pinky was no where to be found. I was very happy about this.

Then in the morning I picked up the rock in the tank just to make sure the pinky did not get under there somehow. Well he did and it made me really mad/upset to realize my snake didn't eat again. Unless he regurged? The pinky looked blackish so I'm just guessing it started to decompose.

Anyone has pics of regurged pinkys so I can see what actually happened?

Originally Posted by Danko

I tired a live pinky for the first time yesterday and my snake didn't eat again. Wow this is frustrating. Anyway, I put the pinky in the tank and left it there for a couple of hours. When I came back to see if he ate the pinky was no where to be found. I was very happy about this.

Then in the morning I picked up the rock in the tank just to make sure the pinky did not get under there somehow. Well he did and it made me really mad/upset to realize my snake didn't eat again. Unless he regurged? The pinky looked blackish so I'm just guessing it started to decompose.

Anyone has pics of regurged pinkys so I can see what actually happened?

Seriously, try the paper bag trick. Small bag, like kids used to use to bring lunch to school in. The idea is to keep the snake and the pinky in very close proximity with nothing around to distract it from the task at hand (eating the durn thing!). The bag also makes the environment dark and secure feeling for your snake. Chances are your snake drug the pinky under the rock (safe and secure location), couldn't get a good grip on the head, and lost interest.

I'll try the paper bag trick next. I'm happy that my snake then at least showed interest in the pinky. If the next feeding doesn't work it will be a month since it hasn't ate, which is worrying me.

Two more questions about the bag- having it shut won't suffocate my snake? How many hours should I leave them alone?

By the way, thanks for all your advice everyone. I can see you all really care about the well being of these snakes.

Originally Posted by Danko

I'll try the paper bag trick next. I'm happy that my snake then at least showed interest in the pinky. If the next feeding doesn't work it will be a month since it hasn't ate, which is worrying me.

Two more questions about the bag- having it shut won't suffocate my snake? How many hours should I leave them alone?

By the way, thanks for all your advice everyone. I can see you all really care about the well being of these snakes.

Where I read about using the bag, they said that paper breaths enough to exchange air. I didn't trust that either, so before I opened it I took a thumbtack and poked 4 or 5 holes (all the way through, so really 8 - 10) about midway.

After I put Vern and Dinner in the bag, I folded the top down a bit, and then taped it shut with scotch tape. I put the whole thing back into the viv near, but not on, the hot side. I did this about 7pm, and didn't open it back up until 6 the next morning.

You're welcome! I don't know if this trick will work. I seriously doubted it would before I tried it. I have no doubt I'll be sending an SOS message myself again soon.

I thought I might chip in my 2 cents, since it's what worked for me.

I got Sparkster to eat frozen pinkies happily if I dipped them in warm chicken broth for a few seconds before I gave it to him. I've also noticed that he won't take it if it isn't warm enough, as in warm enough to seem alive.