Reptile & Amphibian Forums

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

The pic in the above post is not of the babies that I am having an issue with...seems like I accidentally clicked on that pic.

W. Smith

1. There is no length of time really, every snake is different. If you have to force the mouse, don't push any further. Letting the animal "rest" so to speak is not smart either. Force feeding is a very stressful thing for the animal, get it done as quick as possible and leave the animals alone.

2. You really don't get the snakes to relax, the trick is to keep their body straight. They don't want you to force a mouse down their throat. If you can it's best to keep the mouse going down little by little without stopping.

3. Feed smaller then normal food items, they always go down easier. Dip them in water so they have something on them that can act like a lubricant. If your assist feeding you should only need to put the head of the prey item into it's mouth, any further then that and your really force feeding. Maybe try braining a mouse, some may assist feed or even take them on their own that way.

4. Be careful you can really hurt the animals force feeding!
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John Light

Thanks for the reply.

1. Yeah, I figured that time would differ for different snakes. I was meaning, should I expect snakes to take up 10 or 15 minutes to give up on trying to spit it out of their mouth and then decide to swallow it? I know that it is really stressful, and I wanted to minimize the stress as much as possible. So the only thing that I seemed to help was to allow the snake a few minutes to see if he was going to swallow on his own. If he didn't and tried to spit it out, I tried to "walk" the mouse a bit further down.

2. Keeping one of them straight proved to be almost impossible. They coiled back on them selves and folded their bodies over when I was trying to force feed them. Once they flexed their neck muscles, the prey item wasn't budging.

I tried to carefully hold their head with my thumb and index finger and the rest of the body with my ring and little fingers. It almost seems you would need a second pair of hands to help.

3. Thanks of the info. I used water as lubricant to help the prey slide in the snakes mouth. I was using small fuzzy mice. I'll try braining the mice next time to see if that helps. I noticed the only snake to assist feed was the last one, whose mouse was really soft (from being in the water that long). It opened up when I was inserting it...maybe this is why the snake at it with less effort.

W. Smith

If you have kids, and you take them to the doctor when they're sick, the doctor sometimes has to give them a shot. Your kid may kick, scream, fight, whatever, but you know he/she needs that shot in order to get better. So you just do it! It's the same way with these snakes. They have got to eat in order to survive. If they haven't eaten a meal, are looking "puny", and appear to be knocking on death's door, what have you got to lose. That was always my philosophy anyhow. I never have cared how bad they didn't want a meal. If I ever decide it's time they should be eating, they're gonna eat! I've done it so many times now it's like cleaning water bowls to me. Some people are better at it than others. I get asked from a lot of people to get their snakes to eat. It's not that I'm any better at it than they are. I just don't give a crap about doing it. Now you don't want to hurt the snakes. But, these ball pythons are pretty tough animals. You can be fairly rough with the assisted feedings and they'll be fine. Just keep the meals small and make sure that you wet them first. If it puts up a struggle, you should be able to over power it. Lol! If not, maybe you could raise fish. (Just joking) Once you do it a few more times you'll get better and better at it. It's kinds like "poppong" babies. It just takes a little practice.

Now go in your snake room and show those snakes who raised them!!!!

Ha ha. Yeah, don't have kids of my own but I get what your saying. 6'2" and 225lbs...I should be able to out muscle a baby ball python. The first 3 that I fed seemed fine tonight. I'll try feeding the other 3 tonight. I'm surprised that the entire clutch wasn't interested in food. Maybe with some more practice, I'll get better at it.

Thanks,

W. Smith

If they spit it out, make sure after you get it the head in the throat close the balls mouth on the pray and tug a little so that the teeth of the ball lock on to the prey. It makes it a lot harder for them to spit it out. And don't just give up if they keep spiting it out. My lucy spit it out like 7 times once and finally just said screw it on the 8th try and took it. With VERY stubborn ones like mine was, you really need to get those teeth to sink into the prey, but try to be as gentle as possible. I assist fed my guy for 6 months. He pounds now.

Good luck.