I have basically two stategies for newborn rattlesnakes. The first one I leaned many years back with captive bred Blacktail rattlesnakes. My first brood was a bear to get going. One male ate lizards right away. The others just flat refused food for six months and then finally started o lizards. I did one force feeding in between. I knew female rattlesnakes usually guard their offspring thru the first week till they shed, so I left the babies with mom for that period and then removed them as I was afraid that if I fed her with them in the cage she might strike at one of the babies in a feeding responce.

I later learne that Greene and Hardy in their study on molossus were coming to the conclusion that although not in direct contact, baby molossus were often in the vicinity of their parents for up to a whole year, coming in and out of direct contact. They also thought the babies could be learning hunting strategies and imprinting on food items by tongue flicking the parents snakes muzzle after feeding. This happened to coincide with several observations I had made of finding baby cerbs and abyssus with their mothers well into the Spring, six months after birth. With subsequent broods of molossus and other rattlesnakes I started leaving the babies in with the mother for two months, feeding the mother the whole time. One month after birth I would remove the babies to individual containers and offer fuzzy mice. Food has never been refused by the molossus babies. 99% of the other species I have bred accept fuzzies right away also. I then put the babies back with mom after feeding.

With the few babies that don't accept mice after this strategy, I simply put them into a four month hibernation along with the rest of the collection. I started thislong ago with mountain kingsnakes. For me the babies always eat in spring when they come out of hibernation. Baby snakes have almost no metabolism until they eat their first meal which then kicks it in. People are just aggravating the problem when they panic and force feed as they then kickstart the metabolism. Just learning what happens innature and following that has always stood me well.

Rich

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