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Running out of ideas: Hatchlings not eating

S

SnakeLuvrs

New member
We don't know what else to try, about 10 of our hatchlings have not eaten and some are going on 6-7 weeks since they hatched. We have tried:

F/T day olds
Brained F/T day olds
Live day olds
Lizard maker on F/T day olds
Scenting live pinks with tree frogs

Some of them are very small and we tried just feeding a leg of a mouse incase the pinks were two big, still no luck. The herp at the local reptile store force fed a mouse tail to one of our non eaters yesterday, is that recommended for the babies? If anyone has any suggestions it would be appreciated.

Thanks
 
Have you tried tempting the snakes with anoles? I hear that works quite well with the youngsters.
 
Plissken said:
Have you tried tempting the snakes with anoles? I hear that works quite well with the youngsters.
Click to expand...

that's why we tried using the lizard maker to scent the pinkies, should we just try lizards? Alive or dead?
 
I know this sounds odd, but I remember someone posting they had success with washing the live pinks first, and I tried it with Lil. She kept just pooping on the live pinks, until I tried rinsing them first with warm water and patting them dry, and it worked. (I don't have to wash them now)
 
I had 5 non-feeders, and I tried almost everything on them: braining, slitting, live, bathed, and tuna scenting. Finally, this weekend, I tried anole-saliva scenting, with a little bit of anole skin stuck to the pinks' heads too. Two of the the 5 ate the anole scented prey items. The other three are out of time. They'll be euthanized, and will meet my Mexican black kingsnake later in the week.
 
Here are some ideas that worked for me. Have you tried putting them in a small bag or box?

Try a baby gerbil or a baby hamster. <mine LOVED the gerbils>
How about wild mice pinks or pinks from something like the zebra mice.
Desperation? Leave the pinky in there for like a day or two. <better to do with a live> I've had like two snakes finally decide to eat on the second day.
The stunned anole was taken before.

And if you get really desperate, make lots of random threats that you know someone who owns a hungry kingsnake. ;)
 
The anole-skin on the nose is a good option to try. I don't think lizardmaker is quite the same.

Also, try taking them for a nice long bumpy drive, atleast an hour long.
I've also heard that tuna scenting works.
Goodluck.

-Kat
 
Some liked them washed, and some like the pinky's stinky. How are you thawing the f/t pinks? A lot of times if I thaw in a plastic bag so the water never touches the pink and the smell never gets rinsed off, and I have good success with that. I also have good success with anole skin on the nose and hamster pinks. How are these hatchlings housed? I also have great results on housing them alone if they were previously still housed with their clutchmates. Let them have their own "house" for a week and then offer food in their enclosure. Offer it in the evening, hopefully when the snake is still hiding. When you offer it, do not pull the snake out and plop the mouse in front. Discretely place the pink in a corner of the cage that is NOT near the snake and do not peak again until morning.
Those are some of my best tactics... and I have more. Give us an update if none of the above work. ;)
 
carol said:
Some liked them washed, and some like the pinky's stinky. How are you thawing the f/t pinks? A lot of times if I thaw in a plastic bag so the water never touches the pink and the smell never gets rinsed off, and I have good success with that. I also have good success with anole skin on the nose and hamster pinks. How are these hatchlings housed? I also have great results on housing them alone if they were previously still housed with their clutchmates. Let them have their own "house" for a week and then offer food in their enclosure. Offer it in the evening, hopefully when the snake is still hiding. When you offer it, do not pull the snake out and plop the mouse in front. Discretely place the pink in a corner of the cage that is NOT near the snake and do not peak again until morning.
Those are some of my best tactics... and I have more. Give us an update if none of the above work. ;)
Click to expand...


We have tried placing each one in an individual brown paper bag with the live pinky. We thaw our pinkys out in a plastic bag submerged in hot water. The hatchlinlgs are housed in their own individual deli cups with a piece of paper towl as bedding and have all been separated since their first shed. We always feed our babies in the evening and leave the food item in there till the morning. We have not tried washing the pinkys except for when we used the lizard maker, we also have not tried tuna scenting...I assume just wash the pinky and place tuna water on it. We're going to ask out herp if he has any anoles available, if he does should we just place the lizard in the deli cup?.

Thanks for all of your suggestions...at what time frame should we really be concerned about the non eating?
 
sorry if I´m hijacking this thread.. but I have the same problem..ofcuorse!

anyways I´v heard of forcefeeding an animal over a year and the animal started eating on its own..

have anyone here got experience of that? good vs. bad? :shrugs:
 
I think LizardMaker is a waste of $8. It never worked for me. If anything, they avoided it even more.

The best success I've had is with anole saliva on a pink, with maybe a piece of anole shed stuck onto the slobbered spot for good measure. I keep a dozen anoles in the freezer for this purpose. They're always there if I need them.

After trying a live anole once, I wouldn't recommend it. Most of the non-feeding hatchlings are pretty weak and anole's have pretty potent jaw strength compared to a baby corn. The anole is going to fight back at all costs.

Plus, anoles are expensive, at least around here. I see no point in feeding $7 food items to something that probably isn't going to make it anyway. And if one eats it, you have nothing left to use as a scentor.

I've also found anoles to be pretty hard to digest and really not worth the effort nutrionally. Most of mine when getting anole parts down, ended up regurging a day or two later.

Then again, I don't jump through hoops and try everything under the sun to get hatchlings to eat anymore. My goal is to raise animals that feed ravenously on mice, not something that has to be coddled along. If it doesn't have the will to eat after a reasonable amount of time on a few preparations of pinks, then I'm not going to force the matter.

I wouldn't force-feed any animal to make it live. The stress you place on them in the whole procedure is going to outweigh any possible benefit, imho. Some snakes just aren't going to make it no matter what we do. It's our job to realize that and let nature take its course.
 
We got an anole from our reptile store and are going to rub some pinkys on it and see if that works....feeding tonight...
 
I might try an anole if I can't get my non-feeders to eat. The frustrating part is that three of the four took a meal on their own and then haven't eaten since. One of my buyers has returned one for me to work on to see if I can get it feeding and this evening I put it in with a live pinky in a dark box. I heard quite a bit of squeeking so I'm hopeful. I'll let you know if she took it or not. The one snake has never taken a meal voluntarily since hatching. I've force fed one mouse tail and I'm thinking of trying a very tiny pinky soon. I also tried the lizard maker with no go. I've tried braining, slitting bellies or backs, teasing and at Troy Frantz' suggestion, I withheld water for a couple of days and then dipped the pinky in warm water. He says a lot of them if they get thirsty will take the pinky with the water. You might try it. Didn't work for me, but it works for him. It makes me feel better to know there's more than one of us with pesky non-feeders!
 
I had a picky feeder-that i put in a small plastic container (about 5cm x 5cm x 3cm),with a plastic lid,I made 4 holes in each corner of the lid (5mm diameter),after putting a pink & snake inside the container,i put that directly on the heating wire,left it for about 10minutes,and that's been working great,this weekend,he ate all by himself,with no need to be put into the container..
That method seems to be working for a lot of the South African guys.. :shrugs:
 
i have a 7 week old that wasnt eating, I tried absolutly everything but no luck until 2 nights ago i had a small F/T pinky,

1st i sliced into its head to expose brain matter and then i used a pin to put 2 or 3 pin hole in its sides to expose a bit of blood,
Than i left it in a small container in a warm quite but dark place overnight and when i woke up there was no pinky and a nice bulge in my 7 week olds belly ..

This is the only thing thats worked for me , Hope this helps as i know how frustrating the situation can be :)

Good luck with them :)

A. Devil
 
I had one hatchling last year that we volunteered to take that went nearly 3 months without eating from out of the egg. We tried nearly everything that was suggested by the peeps above and finally ended up picking up a live anole and a pinkie mouse and leaving both critters in a small critter keeper for 3 hours before offering the mouse to the snake. It took it and has been eating steadily since, but it's never gained weight like it's half siblings that we'd purchased.

I also found it helped to not touch the pinkie with my hands, I used a papertowel to pick it up and move it to avoid leaving my scent on the mouse or overpowering the anole scent.

Good luck and I hope you can get some of them to eat!

Jenn
 
Update

We tried the anole scenting last night, I thawed out the pinkys, washed them in warm water and dried them...we have 8 snakes that have refused the past 6 weeks, we rubbed each pink on the back of the anole and got the anole to bite one and put them in the containers...INSTANTLY 3 of them started to bite the pinks and eat...we turned the lights out and left them till the morning...upon inspection this morning, 5 of the 8 have eaten! Now we still have some other problem eaters that we will try the anole scenting with and see if that helps them, either way things are looking up.
 
taceas said:
Then again, I don't jump through hoops and try everything under the sun to get hatchlings to eat anymore. My goal is to raise animals that feed ravenously on mice, not something that has to be coddled along. If it doesn't have the will to eat after a reasonable amount of time on a few preparations of pinks, then I'm not going to force the matter.
Click to expand...
I tend to agree with Misty for the most part on this; howver, I will say that I hate to let any animal die. Hell, I spent $500.00 on a German Shepherd/Lab mix with a broken hind leg from a car accident.

But, I will say that it's against my ethics to sell a problem feeder as a breedable animal. I would say that these snakes at best belong in the "pet" category. If their was a way to spay/neuter a snake, I might consier it for these animals. And I see no reason to possibly pass the "non-feeder" genes that may exist into later offspring.
 
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