Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have several hatchlings that have not eaten. They are over a month old now. (Clutch mates that are eating are growing like crazy.) A couple of them have lost a little weight. Hatched at 65g, now 60g. The babies that have not eaten are the most active, crawling all over their cage.
They are housed at 75-80* cool side, 85-90* warm side, humidity around 70%, plenty of tight hides.
I have offered live mice - pink, fuzzy and hoppers; F/T mice pinks and rat pinks; and crickets. I have tried daytime and night time feeding, leaving the food item with them overnight, putting the feeding container back in their cage, offering food item in total darkness, in the hide, over the heat source, everything that normally works for my Corns. (I will try a brained pink this evening.) These guys just won't eat.

Does scenting a pink with a lizard work for Balls? I have been told that their native diet would be gerbils. I cannot get gerbil pinks. Could I scent a pink with an adult gerbil?
Any and all suggestions for getting these babies eating would be appreciated.
Thank you,
Shari

Please try this it seems to work very well. You can do it during the day or evening, because I have found that very young baby BP's don't seem to care if its nightime or night.

Also at this point it would be nice to get a meal into your babies ASAP.

Place the snake in small brown paper lunch bag with a rat pup, something that has just started getting some fuzzy hair on it, but obviously still has it's eyes closed and is harmless.

I then fold the bag in half to keep the snake is rather close quarters with the fuzzy-rat.

You may want to use a small piece of masking-tape or scotch-tape to keep the bag closed.

In 2002 when I was raising aprox 25 hatchligs I used this technique after receiving the tip from these forums. It works it really works.

I would say if the above method does not work you may look into assist feeding (NOT FORCE FEEDING). But please try this method. I was skeptical after trying EVERTHING else, and it worked fine.

A friend of mine places theirs in a pillow case with the FT and then back into the cage that way, it works for them. Weird what we go through to get them to eat, but some babies just don't get that feeding knack factory working.
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My roomates are 1BP,1BCI2corns,Rotti,3cats,desert scorpions, and snake food AKA the food chain. See my kids at: http://community.webshots.com/user/diggy415

a suggestion I read on here is to get used gerbil bedding and keep the food item in it for awhile to scent it. Sounded like a good idea to me but gerbils are illegal here in CA so I was never able to try it.