Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Eating. It has been about 3 weeks since my snakes hatched and one still has not eaten. i have tryed live, halfs, split brain, and still no luck. I think im running out of time so any sugestions??? the oldly colored one passed away, his/her scales were shivered up when it cam out of the egg so i wasnt thinking it was going to last.

Although I was very fortunate to have almost a 100% success rate in baby cal kings eating their first meal, back when I was breeding, I did have a few that didn't, and I know that cal kings can be finicky sometimes to get started to eat. My adult male Osborne line BW didn't eat at all when he was hatched and had to be brumated for a short while and then he ate like a champ after coming out of brumation.

When I had a few cal kings that didn't eat, I tried a suggestion that a fellow breeder recommmended to me, which was rubbing a pinky with a shed corn snake skin. I did that by keeping a shed skin in a plastic Ziploc bag, and when I would need to, I simply put the pinky in the bag and rub them all together for a few minutes. Then, when I would offer the scented pinks to the cal kings, they would nail it immediately. I then would try to follow with an unscented pink, and after one or two times of trying this method, the cal kings would come around and start eating unscented pinks.

This trick worked very well for me.

If that is a recent pic of your non eating babies, they don't look too bad for 3 week old non-eaters, and I have seen a lot worse. One thing to consider is also that perhaps they were using up their yolk until recently. This is if they had a lot as they hatched.

Keep us posted and I wish you luck! Hopefully they will start eating ASAP!

Billy
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Genesis 1:1

thanks. That pic is 3 weeks old It accually looks like he ate!! i put a live pinky in there today and it is gone now and he looks fat

Great to hear!! Congrats!
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Genesis 1:1