the saga continues........

[diamondlil]

In the pic showing her tiny feding lump, you can see how her body bends from side to side along her length, here's another that might show what I mean

 

[Tula_Montage]

I see what you mean... It does just look like weakness... Poor thing. Just keep building up her fat, muscle tone and time will tell. Your doing wonders yet again Janine!

 

[diamondlil]

To be honest, it's so easy if you don't mind grinding up mice!

 

[Tula_Montage]

We got a pinky pump a while back for one of the baroni... Unfortunatley he didnt live long enough for us to test it out.

And no grinding mice doesnt bother me... Non did pulling out the legs of rat pups to het hogweina feeding... Oh and the time she insisted on soooking up the guts of a dismembered rat pup.

 

[diamondlil]

I think you're setting a dangerous precedent there, Janine, but I applaud your big heart and nursing mojo. Skooge is a cutie, too, so I'm rooting for her. Good luck.

Maybe one day you can recoup some costs by distributing "Janine's mouse juice" worldwide to households with reluctant feeders and queasy owners.

-Sean

Oh I missed this post, Sean. Dangerous how? Right from the start I've stated that this one may well end in tears, and told Trimmer there's no guarantee that she'll survive. I'm realistic that Skooge never fed voluntraily from hatching and am still not sure if she has kinks or if her odd movement in her back end is due to loss of muscle.
It's not something I'd recommend as a universal treatment, not all hatchlings are destined to survive. If anything I'd call this supportive treatment, getting some nutrition into skooge before giving her the chance to either feed for herself or not.
In this country live feeding is so frowned upon, and lizards are not available except as pets, so probably reluctant feeders like Skooge die unnecessarily every year. The fact that I've raised quite a few wild fledglings, as well as rejected gebils and zebra finches, meant that syringing food every few days instead of every hour or so is no trouble at all.
The most dangerous precedent I ever set was a few years ago when the local kids used to bring all the fledglings or injured birds they found to me to work my mojo on because my boys told them about my success rate. 12 fledgling bluetits (titmce) were quite an intensive project, but I fledged and released thewhole brood! (I even rearranged my work shifts for the first 2 weeks when they were at their most demanding, then roped my boys into the feeding duties)

 

[SnakeAround]

Janine, how do you manage to put in the tip of the syringe into her throat? She cannot put her mouth around the thicker part of the syringe I assume... even if you manage to put the thinner part in completely, it does get as deep as maybe 0.4 inch I guess.... so the baby must 'transport' the mousse itself to her stomach, right?

 

[diamondlil]

I'll get one of the boys to photograph the process as it takes both hands to do it! Basically I hold her in my left hand, with her head poking out the top and her body hanging down (or actually wriggling about like mad!) I hold the syringe in my right hand, open her mouth and put the tip of the syringe to the back of her throat, past the air tube which opens at the front. Then I squirt 1/2 ml at a time in, put her down so she can swallow it down to her tummy, then repeat. If you think about how much the throat stretches when a hatchling takes a pinky, the syringe is actually a small thing to get into the throat. I have to have her head held firmly so I don't accidentally hurt the inside of her throat.
Pictures will probably help more in explaining the process

 

[SnakeAround]

Would be awesome to see it Janine, thanks i.a.! I do understand that bringing in the thinner part of the syringe must be easy but the thicker part must fit between her opened jaws then, I'd like to see how you manage to do that.

 

[Eremita]

Janine, how do you manage to put in the tip of the syringe into her throat? She cannot put her mouth around the thicker part of the syringe I assume... even if you manage to put the thinner part in completely, it does get as deep as maybe 0.4 inch I guess.... so the baby must 'transport' the mousse itself to her stomach, right?

Hmm, "mousse". That sounds better than "mouse puree", and when you pronounce it it's just like "moose", everyone's fave mouse-euphemism. Maybe not quite accurate enough though: you'd probably have to fold in some whipped egg-whites or something to get that mousse-like texture in your mouse-mousse (sorry, Barbara).

Anyway, Janine, yes, the bird example is just what I feared; word gets around and suddenly you're finding bundles of deli-cups at your front door with scraggly-looking, emaciated corn snakes, and you end up with mondo collection of lovely corn snakes you can't breed because they're all at the wrong end of the viable-genes spectrum. But I guess you have somehow surmounted such hurdles in the past via the direct route of saving every one of them and being ready for more.

This goes beyond your initial posts where the justification was that Lil was your pet so you would do what was necessary to help her. You seem to be some kind of amazing bringer-of-life to young creatures in need. I am impressed and humbled; I'm glad you are a mom so that you can hand down your genes or teaching or whatever it is. And I know how modest you are, but you deserve to be proud of what you do. Skooge is very lucky to have found you - I look forward to seeing her first voluntary feeding.

-Sean

 

[SnakeAround]

Hmm, "mousse". That sounds better than "mouse puree", and when you pronounce it it's just like "moose", everyone's fave mouse-euphemism. Maybe not quite accurate enough though: you'd probably have to fold in some whipped egg-whites or something to get that mousse-like texture in your mouse-mousse (sorry, Barbara).
-Sean

mouse-mousse :rofl: I made up this word when I found not too well digested mice in snake poo, looking like wel... mouse-mouse This looked more 'fluffy' though

 

[diamondlil]

Anyway, Janine, yes, the bird example is just what I feared; word gets around and suddenly you're finding bundles of deli-cups at your front door with scraggly-looking, emaciated corn snakes, and you end up with mondo collection of lovely corn snakes you can't breed because they're all at the wrong end of the viable-genes spectrum. But I guess you have somehow surmounted such hurdles in the past via the direct route of saving every one of them and being ready for more.

This goes beyond your initial posts where the justification was that Lil was your pet so you would do what was necessary to help her. You seem to be some kind of amazing bringer-of-life to young creatures in need. I am impressed and humbled; I'm glad you are a mom so that you can hand down your genes or teaching or whatever it is. And I know how modest you are, but you deserve to be proud of what you do. Skooge is very lucky to have found you - I look forward to seeing her first voluntary feeding.

-Sean

Woah there, I never said I have saved every thing! I certainly am not some kind of st Francis, and have made it quite clear to Trimmer that a hatchling that never fed is going to be at risk of dying no matter what I do. This situation arose after pms texts and 'phone calls, I'm not going to open my doors to every snake with feeding problems in this country!

 

[Eremita]

Heh, well, we'll see about that. I don't want you to be inundated, I was just afraid it would end up happening. I advise against posting your address here, to be safe.

 

[diamondlil]

Trimmer, 7 grams today!

 

[diamondlil]

Whoops! forgot to show you how your baby's looking now

 

[jenkva]

she looks so much better!!
:dancer:

 

[diamondlil]

Yup, she's nicely active now, spending time up on the lip of the tub in normal hatchling manner! No sign of regurge, pooping every 2 days. I'll still wait until she's over 10 grams before offering her a red to see if she'll know what to do, but at this rate I'll have the space in my rack back again in time for a new snaky of my own!

 

[diamondlil]

And just so my favorite snake doesn't feel left out, here's Lil from last week

 

[BeckyG]

Wow, Lil has really grown! Great job on both of them.

 

[dragar]

Wow she really has grown... lol

hey Mr ur a really nice guy in the serpent race... you must have somekind of serpent blood in you lol

just thought i would pop in and say hi :wavey: ​

 

[diamondlil]

Mr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks, but I'm definately a girlie!