Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I recently acquired a pair of juvenile Blackheaded pythons. Can anyone with first-hand experience give some info on how to best get them to feed? The female eats like crazy, but the male hasn't started yet. They are hatched in May so I know there is no hurry, but how long do they generally take before starting? Also, what kind of food items do you guys have the best luck with?

Thanks,
Mats

With my babies, I start working with them at about 6-8 weeks old. I simply place a thawed pink rat in the tub and leave it overnight. 99% of the time they don't eat it on the first attempt, so I discard the pink rat the next day and assist feed a fuzzy mouse. I repeat this process every 14 days or so until they take the initial food left in overnight. Some catch on rather quickly and begin feeding after 2-3 of these sessions and others are stubborn, taking 8-10 or more sessions. Also, try to avoid handling them until they are well established and keep the setup simple; ie newpaper, waterbowl, hotspot. Hope this helps!

Matt Turner
Selective Origins

I agree with Matt's proceedure 100%. I have also found that it helps to offer different food itemss as well-like fresh killed large mouse pinks. I have had a few go for those instead of the rat pinks. I have also left the food item in there for a day and had it eaten as well by a stubborn feeder. I sometimes offer food during the daytime hours as well and also sometimes remove their water for several days prior to a feeding attempt putting in a water wet food item when feeding time comes around. Eventually they decide to eat. Hope this helps. Good luck and keep us posted on your results.

Jim Sargent

Split Rock Reptiles

Thanks for you replies, but can you please elaborate on your assist-feeding techniques? I tried to assist-feed for the first time to day (with the BHP I mean), but had no success. The jaws of these guys have to be the most powerful among snakes. I had a hard time just getting the darn thing to open it's mouth, and to make it swallow the prey was plain hopeless Do you have these problems, or do they usually cooperate with you when you assist-feed??

I use the side of my driver's license to open the mouth. They do have exceptional jaw strength and if they truly don't want any asist feeding, it can be a very stressful procedure for you and the snake. I get the corner of something smooth, rounded and plastic (driver's license) and start near the tongue groove and work in the corner of the license, then slowly and carefully work it back to one side of the jaw. With a slight twisting, the license will act as a lever opening the mouth. Hold this with one hand and insert a pink rat or fuzzy mouse with the other hand. Most of mine would take it on down on thier own once it was about halfway visible. I also would lay them on a large flat surface occassionally, such as the floor, so they didn't have anywhere to rub out the food. Once it is in the mouth, try to remain motionless until they swallow it down.

Hope this helps,
Matt

I managed to assist-feed him one pinkie mouse today, but next time I will try a slightly larger prey. As soon as the pinkie was halfway down his throat, he started to swallow. The tricky part was just to get the mouth opened wide enough to get the pinkie in... I will try your method with the drivers license, maybe that's easier (or I'll wind up having to renew my drivers license, after the dumb snake has chewed it up). Anyway, these snakes are well worth the trouble...