• 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.

I think I killed her...

Im sorry about your baby, but you did all you could. Some snakes just arent meant to survive. Whether force feeding her helped her or made her worse is not your fault either. You took her to the doctor and headed his advise, he should know whats best, but they don't always give the best advise on reptiles unfortunately. But You did everything you should. I am sorry she didnt make it and I hope you don't beat yourself up over it..
And to Annhilation, I am sorry about your baby too..
 
I was just chkin' in on you...so sorry for your loss! Please don't be hard on yourself. You did what the Vet said to do. God Bless!


Sincerely,
 
jaxom1957 said:
No, no, no! That wasn't what I was suggesting practicing. How to hold a snake to control its head, how to open its mouth with a toothpick, that's what I meant to suggest practicing. No food involved, just handling the snake. I am so sorry if anyone thought I meant unnecessarily force feeding a hatchling! God, NO!
Click to expand...
Ohhhhhhh! *smacks forehead*
 
Pity

jaxom1957 said:
Excellent! If there is shedding, there is growth :) This evening, I find myself the new caretaker of eight homeless hypo waifs needing feeding lessons. I was expecting a couple or a few...I got a clutch! :rolleyes: My goal is to get them all eating on their own and established and then farm them out to good homes, save for one pair of keepers. I'll have to start a thread for them and let folks know how it goes with real time updates.
Click to expand...
.

Hey J, Why do I have to live so far away in South Africa. I can't even take advantage of those non feeding waifs. Oh well just have to carry on here trying to build up Morphs with nothing. Good luck with the feeding program.

Ciao
 
I'm sorry to hear about your loss. I do not force feed any hatchlings. If they don't feed using all the tricks of scenting, slicing, dicing chopping and puree'ing, they are euthanized. IF they survive and go on to eat after force feeding, then there's a chance that someone who gets them will breed them. Our "forefathers" went to a great deal of trouble to create a good feeding snake that takes little to get eating. Why ruin it with a non-feeder? There's usually something wrong with the snake in the first place if it won't eat.
 
MegF. said:
I'm sorry to hear about your loss. I do not force feed any hatchlings. If they don't feed using all the tricks of scenting, slicing, dicing chopping and puree'ing, they are euthanized. IF they survive and go on to eat after force feeding, then there's a chance that someone who gets them will breed them. Our "forefathers" went to a great deal of trouble to create a good feeding snake that takes little to get eating. Why ruin it with a non-feeder? There's usually something wrong with the snake in the first place if it won't eat.
Click to expand...
I disagree with the last assumption: a poor feeding response may not indicate anything else at all. I've seen nothing that persuades me that a poor feeding hatchling, once it begins eating on its own, matures into a snake any less suitable for breeding.
 
Well, there are those who would agree with you, but I still feel in the wild, it would die...therefore not passing on the gene. Survival of the fittest and all that. Instead we create survival of the unfittest. But to each it's own. I won't take a baby from someone who had to be forcefed to get it to eat. And this includes my chondros ( notorious for being difficult to get feeding)...if I know the history of the animal anyway...
 
I won't force feed anymore as I said in my previous post, but I do think there are too many variables in the wild that we are unable to reproduce in captivity, to say a baby that won't eat for me in captivity wouldn't have eaten if it had hatched as a wild snake. But since I am producing snakes that are also (hopefully) going to stay in captivity I would want any offspring of my corns to be able to produce good feeders.
One thing I don't agree with, is euthanizing if a snake has refused a few meals or if it hasn't eaten in the first month. I believe they hatch with the 'reserves' to be able to go without food for some time, and have had many non eaters go for a month or more and then take a f/t with no problem and the only reason I can think of is that it took them some time to become hungry. I had a clutch hatch in the beginning of July, most of them ate already but some are just now taking their first meals, I guess for a big breeder who needs the space euthanizing the slow starters makes sense, but I have a small enough operation here to take a little time with the stubborn ones and for me almost all of these have gone on to eat without forcing. I've only had 2 or 3 exceptions that I ended up putting down out of a couple hundred babies over the 5 years I've been producing corns.
 
I did not euthanize this hatchling until it had gone for nearly 4 months without taking more than one mouse tail. And that was forced. I swore I would never do it again. It wouldn't take scented with lizard as the other two would, nor would it take live, dead, slitted, washed, washed and scented, brained or any other way. It became so thin that I couldn't let it go any longer.
 
I went through the same thing with a lovely female ghost motley last year. If they become lethargic and thin like that it is cruel to keep them alive, I wasn't referring to you in my post at all, Meg, it's just that I have seen people say they euthanize anything that doesn't eat after a few tries or in the first month. But my month old babies that haven't eaten yet are very active and they don't look thin.
BTW I just got a really small baby to eat a tiny premature pinky and it made my day... but I think a lot of people would have euthanized it on sight. 'Worm' as it (too small to pop without a microscope :eek1: ) is affectionately dubbed may be small but 'he' ate on his own and I think he deserves to live for that.
 
I won't euthanize anything that eats, no matter how small it is. If they eat, they get a chance like all the rest. I suspect even the small ones catch up to the rest eventually. My small lavender is almost the same size as the bubblegums and he was much smaller than they were when I got him. It's just the way they are.
 
Im very sorry for your loss DragonBoy.
This is the first time i have heard of using Jump-Start on a snake. I will have to remember this. I know it says it is a concentrated caloric supplement and appetite stimulant for reptiles and amphibians. I did'nt get a feeding tube with it either just the long white tube on the end. I got it for a beardie when he was off his food for a bit. To let those interested know it is not a prescribed med. You can find it at most pet shops if your interested. It is made by ESU Reptile.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top