• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

Handling the Little Ones

Weebonilass

Weebonilass

New member
Looking for advice here...

I have a late Nov male, Gunn, who is only up to 10grams. He's a good feeder and only turns down food when in blue.. and not always then. He won't allow me to "power feed" him, the one time I tried to feed him on Day 4, it came right back up.

So this guy is tiny, but working on being 7 months old. I've been treating him like a hatchling, but I'm wondering if due to his age if I could start handlling him a little more... or would folks advise me to continue handling him like a hatchling (basically only getting him out to feed)?
 
Don't lots of people handle their hatchlings anyway? I know i did. As long as your guys eating and doing well, then handle away i reckon!:p

All the best

Tom
 
TWGarland said:
Don't lots of people handle their hatchlings anyway? I know i did. As long as your guys eating and doing well, then handle away i reckon!:p

All the best

Tom
Click to expand...

Tom,

Very true, but I've kept stress to a minimum thinking that it might help him grow a little faster, but not even slitting his pinkies seem to get him to pack on a few grams...sigh....
 
I've never heard anything about stress levels having anything to do with growth rates, but i see what your saying, the more stressed, the less they will flourish... but how stressed can he be if he eats at every meal?

I wish you luck anyway, it must be infuriating!

Tom
 
I don't know if it's stress so much as instead of laying around in his hide doing nothing he's out crawling and doing stuff and burning calories. I have two little girls, and it seemed to take forever to get from 7g up to now they are at 15 and 17. After about 12-13, now they are making more rapid progress. I don't handle them much, but it's more because they are little witches that don't care to be handled anyway. I handled sweet Jasper since I got him, and I think he was about 12 grams then.
 
Nanci said:
I don't know if it's stress so much as instead of laying around in his hide doing nothing he's out crawling and doing stuff and burning calories. I have two little girls, and it seemed to take forever to get from 7g up to now they are at 15 and 17. After about 12-13, now they are making more rapid progress. I don't handle them much, but it's more because they are little witches that don't care to be handled anyway. I handled sweet Jasper since I got him, and I think he was about 12 grams then.
Click to expand...


Nanci,

How old is Jasper? I see all these other babies that are two and three times his size and I do get a little frustrated, although I try to remind myself that he was a late/accidental baby. But at almost 7 months, I'd expect him to be a little bigger, none of my others seemed to take so long :)
 
I don't think I know his date of birth- second clutch, though, I assume. I got him the first week of December or so. He weighs 39g now! And he was fed small, conservative meals since January, when he had one regurge. The two slow tinies are a bloodred female and a lav stripe female.
 
Nanci said:
I don't think I know his date of birth- second clutch, though, I assume. I got him the first week of December or so. He weighs 39g now! And he was fed small, conservative meals since January, when he had one regurge. The two slow tinies are a bloodred female and a lav stripe female.
Click to expand...

Ahh, I didn't notice that Jasper was 12grams when you got him... I thought he was one of the tiny ones too. Gunn was 6grams when I got him, so for giving him slit pinkies every 5 -7 days, he sure isn't getting very far, very fast.
 
I'm sticking with 12-14 being the magic number. Little Ruby the Queen of Hatelings started at 9 or 10 grams, and took FOREVER to get past 14, but then, once she was eating the big pinks, and then the double pinks, she just shot up. She's 26 now. Maybe cutting Gun's pinks in half, or putting Nutribac on them, or both, would get him growing faster. But is growing faster better?? I know how you feel, though- they seem so fragile till they hit 20g or so.
 
Nanci said:
I'm sticking with 12-14 being the magic number. Little Ruby the Queen of Hatelings started at 9 or 10 grams, and took FOREVER to get past 14, but then, once she was eating the big pinks, and then the double pinks, she just shot up. She's 26 now. Maybe cutting Gun's pinks in half, or putting Nutribac on them, or both, would get him growing faster. But is growing faster better?? I know how you feel, though- they seem so fragile till they hit 20g or so.
Click to expand...

Someone else suggested the Nutribac for him and I think I might try that. Not sure how slicing the pinks in half would any more advantageous to the four slits they are already getting, but I might try it all the same.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top