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How soon do you feed newly hatched babies?

Amanda E

Amanda E

Snake Addict!
Just curious as to how soon most of you feed hatchlings?

I'm guessing most of you only offer right after they shed, correct?

My babies just hatched out between 8-30-04 and 9-1-04 and so far only 1 has shed (just tonight), but I'm expecting more to do so any minute now and because they are going to be getting their first meal soon, this question just crossed my mind.

I guess the main thing I was wonderng about was do any of you wait a couple days after a shed to feed or do you offer a meal ASAP?
 
i dont think it matters THAT much whether you feed them directly after the shed or a day or two...i guess its mostly up to you? then again im not 100% sure so you might want to get somebody else's opinion
 
Amanda,

Some will eat right out of the egg and other won't. I usually offer a pink at 1 week regardless as to their shed status.
 
Hi Amanda. I wait until about half of a clutch has shed, then offer them all food. Some will happily eat before shedding. Overall, my first feed is usually a week to ten days after hatching.
 
Don't know - ask the hatchlings! I presume they don't always absorb yolk/shed/eat according to the manuals. I guess each one will have an individual metabolism and do things at different rates.
 
I have had some go 4-5 weeks before taking first meal. Once they get started they don't stop (hopefully).
 
my hatchlings were born Aug 26 and shed a week later, they have not eaten yet. I bought 6 froze pinkies, but the mice turn to mush when thawed. So Im thinking that they were thawed then frozen again. None of my hatchlings have eaten or not even interested in the pinkies. Im going to order live pinkies to see if its that.
 
How did you defrost them? I've never heard of on dissolving....... :shrugs:
 
Well I just wanted to add that I'm going to wait to feed a few of them until tomorrow, but I went ahead and offered 7 of them their first f/t pinkies and all of them ate. Yippy! Much better results than I had expected.
 
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Im looking for a local breeder of mice, looking for live newborn pinkies. Need to feed my hatchlings. Those frozen mice suck, cant get them dry. They fall apart, and when the snakes do bite it, they bite right through it. So if their is any breeders in the Ottawa area drop me a line at "[email protected]".
 
newt said:
Those frozen mice suck, cant get them dry.
Click to expand...

Newt, two issues:

1) Can you explain the process you are using to defrost your mice? In all my years of keeping, I've never had to dry a pinky.... :shrugs:

2) Don't be so impatient. Hatchlings don't necessarily start eating immediately. It isn't unusual for them to go 4,5 or even 8 weeks before eating their first meal. My personal record is 10 weeks.
 
I agree CAV, I've had to wait 10 weeks too - last year I finally gave up at 10 weeks and offered my two non-feeders live hatchling anoles which I had shortly before hatched out. They both ate them and looked at me as if to say - "What took you so long in bringing the food?"

:)
 
The process I do to thaw the pinkies is, place them is a bagy, place the baggy in hot water, then wait. Every time I do it the pinkie comes out looking like mush. I tried to hold the back legs but they just fell off. I tried to leave it in with the snake but still nothing. The skull is the only thing that stays together. I might need to just get new frozen pinkies from another pet store. Never know how they froze their pinkies, they might have thawed them then froze them again. None-the-less Im sure I got a bad batch.
 
I think that you are cooking them

Instead of placing them in hot water, try laying the frozen pinky on a paper towel and letting it defrost slowly at room temperature.
 
Amanda

Amanda,
I waited until all of mine shed and fed them the following Saturday.
I feed all of my snakes on Saturday so I didn't want to split it up and feed on several different days of the week.
Of course, next year I will probably have to split it up over a couple of days.
 
Jimmy Johnson said:
I feed all of my snakes on Saturday so I didn't want to split it up and feed on several different days of the week.
Of course, next year I will probably have to split it up over a couple of days.
Click to expand...
I don't know how you feed them all on one day with as many as you have. I only have 6 adults and there is no way I would attempt to feed all 6 of them of the same day. I would go nuts. I like taking a few minutes out of every day doing something with one or two of them, not a hour for all of them.

That's actually why I decided to feed the hatchlings over 2 days. I didn't want to have to feed all 13 in one day. I've since fed the other 6 snakes and all but 1 ate. I'm very impressed. I've heard of people having a horrible time trying to get their babies to eat, but so far 12 out of 13 have eaten just fine. I just hope that that 13th baby wont be stubborn and will eat when I try it again.
 
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