don't bother with a pinkie press, i haven't used one in many years.

a pink rat pup is a better choice than a pink mouse. it is more substantial. when we have to force feed, we use thawed rat pups, but prekilled will also work. we thaw them in a cup of warm water, so they are already warm, and wet.

we use a hemostat to slide it past the mouth, into the first part of the throat, and use your thumb to pull it down further from there.

often all you need is to stimulate the digestive tract a bit. for non eaters, i will force feed 6 times, every 3-4 days. that gets everything flowing regularly, digestions, defecation. then i try feeding a live rat pup of appropriate size, overnight. 70% will take the live pup. for the other 30%, another round of force feeding. that will bring another 25% around to feeding on a live rat pup.

of course, i have already exhausted other methods of getting them to eat on their own first, which includes a proper setup, hidespots, temps, mice, rats, live, prekilled, thawed, etc.

i don't recommend force feeding for novice keepers, you can almost always get the snake to eat with skilled husbandry, it is a technique strictly for true non feeding snakes. that is an important judgement to make.
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robyn@proexotics.com

Pro Exotics Reptiles

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