I have an entire clutch that has refused food for the past 2 months. They are housed in the same rack as my other clutches which are all eating well. Temps are in the mid 90's on the back side and mid 80's toward the front. After reading the posts below about the babies won't eat, I decided to assist feed a few last night. I'm not sure if I have was doing to correctly. So I have a few questions about the process. I was only successful with 1 in assist feeding, the other two that I attempted I had to force feed.

1. How long should it take a baby to swallow a assist/force fed meal once it is half in the throat and half in the mouth? A couple of mine tensed their neck muscles very tight and even with some force, the small fuzzy would not go any further. I was afraid of pushing to hard in fear that I would have harmed the snake. So, I allowed the snake to rest for about 10 minutes then continued the process. It took about 15 to 20 minutes for each snake to get it down.

2. How do you get the snake to relax once it has tensed its neck muscles and refused to let the mouse be forced down its throat?

3. Are there any other tips on how to assist/force feed babies?

Thanks,

W. Smith

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