Thanks Troy... for the in-depth insight and probability.



You are very welcome!



She is from a known source and knowing his practices they are not likely to have been brumated before.



Based on this, I'm left to assume that you bought this snake as a sub-adult then? Not that there is anything wrong with that, but there is a consensus amongst some people that buying sub-adults and adults can be risky as those animals might be acclimated to very specific conditions and when they are transferred to a new owner in a different environment, that they can change what once was established and predictable behavior into something unpredictable and troublesome.



To be honest, I'm kind of on the fence about this as I've purchased many an adult and sub-adult animals and for the most part have never had any problem having those animals adapt to our environment which can be very different than where they came from but there have been a very few troublesome animals that took a while longer to establish despite being of proper size for their age and appearing healthy. Those particular animals have been the exception though and not the rule.



If I have a choice, I actually prefer to buy animals from hatchlings up to a year and not much older, that way I can establish them at a young age and have several years of making sure they are comfortable in their environment prior to reaching sexual maturity as I do have many males that I purchased as adults that refuse to breed for me despite being healthy active individuals. However, almost all of the males that I purchased as yearlings have always had a good sexual interest. While it is unclear as to why there is such a difference, I can only go by my observations as to what happens here, others might have vastly different experiences that would contradict my experiences.



Revisiting the discussion of forcefeeding... On December 17 we hatched out a single het Ghost male that weighed 5 grams. While he appeared healthy, he seemed very sluggish and felt weak when held. He was minorly active for the first 2 weeks but showed no interest in eating f/t or live day old pinkies. We made the decision to pump him with .6ml of beef baby food by January 2. My wife, who assists and holds the snakes while I apply the gavage needle told me that the little guy was so limp, he felt almost dead. Well, 3 days later I found a defecation and decided to offer him a day old pinky on January 6, he ate it almost immediately and then proceeded to bury himself in the rabbit pellets to quiety digest his meal. Last night, January 11, he was out and actively searching for food but at that time, I didn't have any live pinkies to offer but had several pregnant mice that I knew would give birth by the 12th or next day. Well, this afternoon, January 12, I found a nice litter of freshly born pinkies and offered one to the snake and he ate it within 5 minutes and disappeared to digest his meal again.



Now, the importance of this story is that there are instances where forcefeeding can be a very important tool to use on snakes that just need that extra little help. Yes, it is true that in the wild that snakes like this probably wouldn't survive or be fit to survive, but these snakes are not in the wild nor are they subject to the same kind of things that nature can provide that we cannot. And that's not to say that these snakes that do need help cannot ultimately be healthy and thrive under artificial conditions. Like I stated before, I have several individuals that I had to forcefeed to get started, some stubborn eaters, others, well who knows, but all of them are now several years old, eating on their own and show no health problems at all, some have even become proven breeders. So the proof is there, at least for some of us that choose to indulge in the practice, that it can be helpful in establishing otherwise healthy snakes that are just having problems adjusting and acclimating.
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Troy Rexroth

Rextiles

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