Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This evening I decided to try force feeding my 7 week old Brooksi non-feeding hatchlings. I have four at my house that have refused every effort to eat on their own. I read on another forum of someone that cut off tails of the frozen mice and opened the little mouths of the babies, inserted the tail, shut the hatchling's mouth and watched them swallow. It wasn't quite that easy. I saw quickly that I had to hold them while they swallowed or else they would move their little heads around in their boxes and knock out the tail. But I got the hang of it and was able to see all four of them ingest a nice size tail. I have a pinkie pump but that is so messy and this actually seemed less stressful for both me and the baby. I'll continue to offer pinks when feeding but if they continue to refuse at least they won't starve.

If you have to hold them until they get it down is fine. I use about one and a half inch of mouse tail, wet the tail with water and *gently* force feed in (about an inch of tail) , then gently put them down and let them finish on their own. Baby snakes will try to regurgitate the meal as long as your holding them because their upset. They usually calm down when you put them down and finish the meal on their own. You might have to do this once a week for 4 to 10 weeks, whatever it takes, until they start taking pinks on their own. Also try braining small f/t pinks, take a straight pin and insert threw the nose cavity to the brain, then squeeze the head and you will get some fluid through the nose, smear it on the face, and then offer. This works real well, even try it first, if it don’t work, try it at a later date.

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rbichler