Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok I have a Spider hatchling. Hatched out about middle to end of october. I got her around Nov 15th. She has not eaten since. She is in a shoe box aspen bedding 80 ambient about 88 in the rear. Small hide in the middle of the cage. I have tried f/t pinkies, live pinkies, put her in a bag with a live pinkie overnight, thawed the same way. I've put her in a deli cup with a thawed pink over night in the dark for a whole day. Nothing. I've tried force feeding her twice. Nothing she regurgitated both times about 5 minutes after I got it somewhat down her abdomen. She is weighing 66 grams as of 2 days ago. The person I bought her off of wants me to drive 12 hours to deliver to him for him to try to fix her. You guys have any ideas I can try before I take her to the vet. I cant drive 12 hours. I have a vet about an hour away that wants $40 a day plus all special need supplies costs and medical expenses of course. Opinions?? I hate to take her to a vet. I would like to learn on my own but I am not going to let her die. Pros help me out here!

first off its winter time so she is probably just off feed for now. how often did you try feeding her before you forced fed her? how many times a week did you try feeding? if its a lot which to me it sounds like it thats a good reason why shes off feed. when you got her she should have been left alone for two weeks than try a small fuzzy for about 20 min if nothing try again next week. i have one that would do the stupidest things. grab a rat than let go. hold one down after a minute let go. sometimes she would just eat normally but now shes doing great all this has stopped and shes slamming small rats and weighs about 1100 grams. the main thing is to saty calm and be patient. any way you can post a pic? also force feeding is very stressful just try once every 5-7 days. lots of luck!!

Are you trying rat pinks? mouse pinks? Have you tried something larger - like a small mouse or rat pup? It could be that your meal is too small and/or inactive for the snake to recognize it as food. How often are you trying to feed? You aren't handling her at all in between attempts are you? At what point did you start trying to force feed her? Do you mean force feed or assist feed? By regurge do you mean that the whole thing as been swallowed and she pukes it back up of is she just spitting it out after you've put it in her mouth? I find hatchlings thrive well in a warmer more humid environment than standard adult temps. Double check all husbandry - try different feeders and give her plenty of destress time.

good luck.
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Tosha
JET Pythons

Have you tried a small live mouse hopper, as Tosha said, sometimes they need more movement to trigger the feeding response. Also where is she located? If she is in a room where she can see a lot of movement, like a living room, that could be stressing her too.

Good luck,

RB

I have had her since November. She stayed in her hide box for the first 2 weeks atleast!! I tried feeding her a small live mouse fuzzy. Nothing. I tried a mouse pink. F/t Fuzzy Pre killed fuzzy. I attempted to feed about every 10 days. I force fed her last after the advice from the person I bought her from since her weight was getting soo low. I opened the snakes mouth got a pinky down into belly and massaged it down. About 5 minutes later she regurged in her cage.

I think your prey item is too small - a freshly hatched ball can take a small adult mouse for it's first meal. I received a non feeding 32 gram hatchling that I started on hopper mice and switched her over to small rat pups at about 50 grams. Mouse pinks and fuzzies are not a meal for a ball.

IMO the force feeding was the wrong thing to do - and probably stressed her out quite a bit - hopefully there was no internal damage. How long ago was this? If it's been a week or more - try picking up a live hopper to small adult mouse and see if she will take it - remember to feed her at night.

Also try raising your ambient temp a few degrees and bump up her humidity.

Good luck!
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Tosha
JET Pythons

even out of annoyance or fear?

those lousy pinky packs they sell in petshops are good if they are at least striking. once thawed and heated, they are sort of sticky. if a young ball gets a good head strike at one, they will often stick to their mouth on the draw back. then you have a 50/50 chance of it being eaten or dropped out. i find once they eat, regardless of size of prey, your on your way; its like their system needs just the littlest thing to kick in.

good luck. if you find yourself needing to force feed again, try egg yolk through a syringe. its quite simple and it'll be easier on them than trying to force a pink down.

I've force fed a couple animals and have never had any problems with them. I'm sure I can handle a ball python force feed. No to the other question she does not strike. Not out of annoyance or anything. I cant get her to strike. I have tried a pretty large fuzzy!! What I feed all my hatchlings and they do fine. Get bumped up about 4 weeks later to small mice. She sleeps with the mouse if I leave a hopper or what not in there overnight! Ill find her curled up in her hide with the mouse lol. She shows no interest in food what so ever. She doesnt get nosy and sniff it. She doesnt get tense like she is about to strike with interest. I think she loves mice in a bad way!