Reptile & Amphibian Forums

For the first time since mid October, each and every one of my babies ate their dinner without exception!!

How can I say that for sure you might ask....

One of my 10/15 MI-DU babies was born a problem feeder. Not a common occurance but when you deal with lots of babies, you will have one crop up from time to time. This girl, a het Hypo, would not eat for weeks. I finally broke down and tried to "assist feed" her. That's where you insert the head and they take over and swallow. Would not have it, I had to actually force feed her. Insert head and work it in and down until it was far enough down that she would swallow, pretty much just feet and tail in her mouth. Have done that 5 times so far. She does not have any visual deformities. Has good tongue flick action. Just would not strike and eat. Last night I did the usual, gave her a small hopper expecting to come back later and cram it down her throat. BUT, when I came back to her, the cage was empty and her belly had that telltale lump!! 5 months old and just now ate her first meal on her own!! WOOHOO!!!! I'm now thinking I'll get her turned around and eating on her own.

The rest on hand are all like normal baby BRB's, voracious, almost never refusing any meal. I even have one going to Alaska I'm feeding F/T. Took the first one like a champ and has not refused a single F/T meal!!

I needed a little good news this week!!!
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
26.49 BRB
20.21 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

That's good to hear Dave. Is it difficult shipping babies north? I'm in Alberta and I was wondering how hard it would be to get a snake shipped here from the states.

It takes CITES approval and paper work to ship boids across an international border. There does seem to be some exception to this among the European Union nations. Nothing so civilized or common sense like here on the North American continent. I have people from Canada wanting to buy from me fairly often. The CITES paperwork has to be done through US Fish and Wildlife. I believe it would also require you to get the animal shipped to a Canadian approved importer. By the time the paperwork is done and paid for and money paid to the government approved importer it all gets to be more work and money than a moderate cost snake could justify. There are a few people breeding Rainbow Boas in Canada.

thanks, thats good to know. Looks like I'll have to hit up the local reptile show.

Congrats Dave! I definetely know that feeling of excitement and relief when a problem feeder finally eats on their own. I've still got a Thayeri that just won't eat no matter what and I've had to force feed him for weeks to get his weight back up. Hopefully he'll come around soon!
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Aubrey Ross

©
www.SlipstreamSerpents.com

Awesome!! There's nothing quite like the buzz of getting a stubborn feeder to eat finally. Yay!

And here I thought you were growing me another Naughty...
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Julie
www.[url ban]/gfx

LOL, "growing me another Naughty" was definitely going through my mind. In some ways these are worse than the occaisonal birth defect that needs to be culled. At least with those there is a clear course of action - sucky yeah but over and done with - move on.

With problem feeders it's always a mind game, am I doing the right thing keeping this one alive by forcing it to live? Is there a reason it won't eat? If there is eventual improvement then yeah, it was the right call. I can see there would be some that simply never eat on their own and only live because of the efforts of the keeper. Problem is knowing where to draw the line. You can't know ahead of time and by the time you do you've grown attached to it....

Anyways, REALLY glad to hear Naughty is doing at least a little better!!!!
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
26.49 BRB
20.21 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

You know how I like my rejects, defects and short bus kids.

As long as its not causing the snake distress, I see no reason to not feed. Even if its that way for life. Thankfully the vast majority of slow starters will pick it up eventually. Naughty is just broken, but we both knew that long before she ever came here. She's definitely the exception to the rule.
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Julie
www.[url ban]/gfx

But she's such a pretty lil broken one!

And thankfully there are "short bus drivers" like you to take care of the wee ones that need the extra time and effort!!!

I'm glad she made it into your very capable and loving hands!!!!

Got any pics of her??
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
26.49 BRB
20.21 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

I just did a bunch of pix of the '08 babies and I think she's in that set. I have to process them and post them for you. Hopefully I'll get some time over the weekend.
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Julie
www.[url ban]/gfx