Just doing some research guys, i have a couple of quesitons for ya'll

1) Ok so you she's laid a decent clutch, 2 of the 6 eggs are starting to hatch - do you help them out a little bit? do you cut the remaining four eggs to help there exit? Ive read that you should do both of these things but ive also read sites against it. what do you do?


2) so youve hatched the little worms, How long do you wait untill trying to feed them? and how many of them generally refuse ? most ? half? impossible to say as its different in every clutch?

3) how long can a hatchling go without eating at all before you consider it to be dangerous and consider force feeding?


4) you get half of them eating but have a couple that are yet to feed and its getting dangerous. I.e theyve been without food for a long time. how do you approach force feeding?


Thank you

posted this in two forums as unsure which one it should go in. Mods please remove from one if necassary

My instinct is "If it isn't strong enough to hatch on its own, do I really want to perpetuate that weakness?"

That said, when you're talking about offspring who are potentially worth thousands... I can see why others might want to manually pip the eggs.

Force feeding is the absolute last resort anyway.

I would try, in order: frozen/thawed rat pup; frozen/thawed mouse; fresh-killed rat pup; fresh-killed multimammate mouse; live rat pup; assist-fed frozen-thawed rat pup. TBH I would probably use a syringe and feed slurry or beaten egg before trying to force feed a whole rodent.

Each of those steps represents five days to a week.

__________________
- Ssthisto





Lizards: 2.1 E. macularius1.2 H. caudicinctus1.0 R. ciliatus0.3 A. fragilis0.0.1 T. gigas ssp1.1 T. merianae1.0 V. niloticus ittibittiusColubrids: 6.8.6 P. guttattus1.0 P. guttatus X E. climacophora1.1 P. o. rossalini1.0 P. o. lindheimeri0.1 E. anomala0.1 C. radiatus0.2 Lamprophis spp1.0 L. g. nigritus0.1 L. g. californiae1.0 H. n. nasicus1.0 P. m. melanoleucusBoids: 1.1 E. c. maurus 0.1 E. conicus10.14.4 P. regius1.1 A. maculosa
Member 1606 ... We HAD a three-bedroom house... Current lodgers: 1.0 E. c. maurus, 0.1 P. regius

Thank you

where would you get hold of the live rat pups etc

what do people mean when they say assisted feed

?

Thanks

Me personally, I breed my own rats, so I have a fairly ready source of live baby rats if I NEED them. Otherwise, you need to know someone who breeds rats and is happy to sell you babies for feeders.

However, I would recommend if you ever find yourself in the sad position of NEEDING to feed live that you get yourself a breeding trio of rats - because a refused feed means you've got a live baby rat that needs its mother to survive. If you're breeding rats, you can almost always put the baby rat back and they'll raise it normally despite it having been away and with a snake. If you don't have a pair of rats and you borrowed the baby from a breeder, you've got a limited time to get the baby back to its mother - or you need the facility to humanely euthanise it.

Assist feed is where you put the food item into the snake's mouth but you do NOT force it down to the snake's stomach - they're free to spit the prey item out if they really don't want it.

__________________
- Ssthisto





Lizards: 2.1 E. macularius1.2 H. caudicinctus1.0 R. ciliatus0.3 A. fragilis0.0.1 T. gigas ssp1.1 T. merianae1.0 V. niloticus ittibittiusColubrids: 6.8.6 P. guttattus1.0 P. guttatus X E. climacophora1.1 P. o. rossalini1.0 P. o. lindheimeri0.1 E. anomala0.1 C. radiatus0.2 Lamprophis spp1.0 L. g. nigritus0.1 L. g. californiae1.0 H. n. nasicus1.0 P. m. melanoleucusBoids: 1.1 E. c. maurus 0.1 E. conicus10.14.4 P. regius1.1 A. maculosa
Member 1606 ... We HAD a three-bedroom house... Current lodgers: 1.0 E. c. maurus, 0.1 P. regius

Thank you for your help

really apprecaite it