Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi I have four 4 week old babies that have not started eating yet. They will stike and his at a mouse if I dangle it in front of them or they will strike at them if I put them in a deli cup with a mouse, but they won't eat yet. They are striking in defence rather than hunger and are not hanging on to the prey or coiling around it. Should I be worried that they have not fed yet? Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you. :0)

Try a fuzzy rat.

Yes, throw something a lil smaller. Like a 3-5 gram fuzzy mouse. After about 2 or 3 of those, I would suggest you move to heavier fuzzy rats or light rat pups.

Use hemos or tongs to hold the prey item horizontally. A few of my smaller BP's have some seriously bad aim and anything dangled vertically usually gets bumped around. After 3 or 4 strikes and misses, it's a loss of interest. In my cases at least.

Using hemos or tongs and feeding from a distance also reduces the "intimidation factor" of the prey item. The heat signature from your hand and/or arm and/or face might be distracting.

Make sure the prey item, although thawed out, feels warm.

Hold the prey item right in front of their faces. Like right in front, almost touching.

Best of luck for your babies.

are you housing them seperately in small enclosures?
I had a clutch hatch out 2 weeks ago, and out of 5 hatchlings, 3 ate 2 days after their first shed.
I'm keeping them in a shoebox rack. This way i can put the food item in THEIR enclosure and leave them be. They might be way to stressed if you take them into a diff. container (deli cup) and out of their usual enclosure.
In the wild snakes are at their most vulnerable while feeding, they have to feel that they are in a safe place, before they will feed.
One of mine took a BIG rat fuzzy (almost pup) the others took 2 hopper mice each. But i had big hatchlings, the one that took the huge rat fuzz was 104 gr. at hatching, the others around 100 gr.
HTH
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reps-r-us

Hello –

I thought infectrix’s and reps’ advice sounded good, so I’ll just add a few thoughts.

If you have access to live fuzzy or crawler mice (the size with no teeth that stagger around the cage bumping into the snake but aren’t really intimidating), then that would be the best option. Introduce one into the hatchling’s cage at night; if that doesn’t work, next time confine them together in a small container like a deli cup.

I’ve yet to induce any hatchling ball python to feed for the first time by just leaving thawed food with it. They need the food to be warm and to move, at least initially. That’s why it’s so nice to have live fuzzies to offer the ones who just don’t catch on as quickly. It keeps your big, warm, threatening presence out of the picture so instinct can take over.

If all else fails, there’s always assist feeding. If you’ve never done it before, don’t worry, its no big deal and usually quite easy to do. I’ve never met a baby ball python I couldn’t assist feed if necessary. And it can be a life saver with a really recalcitrant hatchling. I never wait until the situation looks dire anymore with a problem feeder. I just assist feed. Let me know if you need the procedure described.

I have a few questions. How much do the hatchlings weigh? Have any of the clutch started eating, or do those four make up the entire clutch? How much do the mice weigh? Have you only offered dead food? Frozen thawed or freshly killed? Are the snakes set up individually or caged together?

There have been times when I didn’t offer food at all until a clutch was a month old. If that photo of one of your hatchlings was taken recently, I’d say you shouldn’t be worrying yet. The baby looks plenty plump with yolk still.

-Joan