Reptile & Amphibian Forums

OK give me some hints on feeding my babies. Most are going through or already finished their second shed. I have gotten half of them to eat still working on the other half. Any helping tips that you or anyone have used will be helpful.

Thanks,
Brandie Wyatt
TW International Inc.

Brandie,

for the finiky feeders, I would try tickling the tail, rubbing the side of the neck about an inch or so behind the head, and sometimes rubbing the SIDE of the mouth, especially if they are striking. Gently pinching the body will sometimes get the aggitated too. Nose bumping has never worked for me, and usually just stresses them out to the point of flight.

Some babies just will not eat pink mice for the first meal. For this I've tried anoles, but they have not worked. What did work for me was a baby spring peeper/leopard frog. I had one baby that just wouldn't eat a pink to save it's life. This little guy went almost 3 months after hatching, without a single meal. The baby frog did the trick. After that, is was smooth sailing with pink mice and no teasing or scenting.

The key is to really irritate them into striking and coiling. In my opinion, getting babies to feed is the most stressful part of chondro keeping. There will be some that you'll have to hold in your hand completely still until they finish eating. Just remember not to move. lol. Another little tidbit is, make sure the perch is high enough that if the baby does coil the pink, it doesn't touch the ground from the perch. This will cause them to release the pink 99.9% of the time until they are older and have gotten several meals under their belt. If they start hiding their head, try another day.

Good luck and keep us posted on the progress.

Brandon Osborne

Not Brandon BUT I do reccomend going to www.chondroweb.com. They are more then willing to help! Also make sure to check out greg maxwells web site as he has a bunch of different ways to get babies started .

John

I did get another one to eat. WoW takes a lot of patients and being still and not breathing LOL.

Brandie Wyatt
TW International Inc.