I think I had only assist fed a hatchling once in 10 years before I hatched my first pastels last year. I ended up waiting too long though and lost a couple of pastels that where dead the next morning after a small assist feed. The assist it's self went well with fresh killed fuzzy mouse just hooked in the teeth and they swallowed right down.

There was a thread somewhere about poor feeders and a couple people mentioned pastels. I've had some awesome feeding pastels but just wondering if anyone had noticed a trend for a larger percentage of pastel hatchlings to be hard to start than say normals (I know some pastels are great feeders, just wondering about the percentage that aren’t as hatchlings)?

Right now I have a pastel yellow belly right at one month that acts just like my problem pastels last year. He seems very interested whenever I put a hopper in and comes out of his hide and cruises the cage but doesn't seem to know what to do with it. He is from a clutch of huge hatchlings so I think I have some more time to let him start on his own before assist feeding but his chocolate and yellow belly siblings are all great eaters with several meals by now.

[ Hide Replies ]

• Force Feed? - CEballpythons, Mon Jul 19 20:57:41 2010
• RE: Force Feed? - kingofspades, Tue Jul 20 08:49:51 2010
• Pastels hard starters? - RandyRemington, Tue Jul 20 13:54:24 2010
• RE: Pastels hard starters? - kingofspades, Tue Jul 20 17:48:14 2010
• RE: Pastels hard starters? - RandyRemington, Tue Jul 20 19:11:06 2010