I would personally never force feed a young blood, or any blood for that matter. The risk of serious damage is too great, and the stress involved can easily put a young blood off feed permanently.

The heat idea of Kara’s that Cindy is referring to is a good one and works very well in most cases. Bloods rely much more on heat than sight when detecting prey. This strong reliance blood pythons have on temperature recognition of prey is why some reluctant feeders in captivity will not take ambient temp prey, but can many times be induced to feed by heating the prey item to slightly over 100 F which will many times elicit a strike. I have seen a fair number of bloods over the years that will refuse to eat a rat at room temperature, but then immediately strike a crock water bowl that is being placed in the cage that is still warm from just being cleaned.

If all else fails, the best method I have ever used for reluctant newborn bloods is to place them in a 2 to 3 inch thick layer of moist long fiber sphagnum moss and introduce live juvenile mice at night. You can do this under red lighting to see what is happening. Let them settle in a few days before attempting feeding. When they acclimate, they will bury themselves in the sphagnum with just their head sticking out at night. Any mouse that comes near is usually immediately constricted. Keep disturbances low and temps in the mid 80’s with this setup. This is how young bloods feed in their natural environment and it will work in virtually every case. After they feed a few times you can transfer them to newspaper substrate and a hide with little problems. Good luck.

Kelly

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