Syringe Feeding

[Gerrior]

Has anyone ever Syringe feed there snake because it wasn't eating as a baby, one of my 3 still hasn't ate, Im gonna try one more time tomorrow night it's feeding day. If so could someone please describe how to go about this, as it might come to it with this girl. Does anyone also have any suggestions on things to try at feeding time tomorrow, like braining, heating it with blow dryer...ect..ect Thanks in advance. Just to let you know there set-ups are rubbermaid 15 QT with 2 identical tight hides, aspen base, nice size water dish, temps are 82 on cool side and 94 on warm size humidity is at 58.

[The Snake Guru]

I've done it, but it's tricky, you'd better off force feeding a whole prey item, or mouse parts like a leg, ect.ect

What kind of snake are we talking here?

~B~

[Gerrior]

They are Ball pythons, Im aware that they go on feeding breaks if there stressed and what not but i have left this girl alone for a week straight now just to get settled in a bit more and feel secure, but boy does she look skinny the other two balls are eating FT like champs but this one is taking anything she just hides her head when i try and tempt her with one. advice would be appreciated

[Gerrior]

Hey Guru how do i go about force feeding pinkies if it comes to that, sorry i haven't ever had this happen before.

[The Snake Guru]

Well, 1 week may be jumping the gun a little, I have snakes go for up to 5 weeks after I have got them before I even think about force feeding....but of course overall appearance of the snake is really the final judgement call.

As for force feeding it fairly straight forward, though it does take a steady hand somethimes 2 being better. But basically you prop the mouth open (I use a plastic spoon handle) Lubricate the prey item with water, and slowly feed it down thier throat (A long tweezers helps a lot) once the prey is past the throat (You can no longer see it) you must massage the prey into the stomac again gentally and slowly.

I try to stear people away from tube feeding because the liquid rodent can com back up the throat and get into the wind pipe of the snake sufficating it before you even know what happened.....best left to experienced individuals.

One thing you may want to try before the force feeding is Gerbils....this is the natural prey of Ball Pythons and usually breaks even the most stubborn of snakes from thier fast. Live would be best. I had a BP that actually would ONLY eat live Gerbils despite my best efforts to break him of the habit....but you gotta do what you gotta do.

~B~

[Gerrior]

Thanks Guru I hope it doesnt come to that, but tomorrow will tell.

[ffollett]

One thing you may want to try before the force feeding is Gerbils....this is the natural prey of Ball Pythons and usually breaks even the most stubborn of snakes from thier fast. Live would be best. I had a BP that actually would ONLY eat live Gerbils despite my best efforts to break him of the habit....but you gotta do what you gotta do.


We use to breed gerbils because of that problem. They are one of the easist things to breed they just take up a lot of space if you want to produce a number of them. You can only house 1 male and 1 female together for breeding. The only other thing I have found that will take a larger bp off a feed strike is a rabbit kit.

[The Snake Guru]

Hmmmm haven't tried the rabbit kits.....nice to know though! I'll have to keep that one in mind, thanks Fred!

~B~

[ffollett]

No problem. This was a wc adult male bp we ended up with. He didn't eat for about 8 months if I remember right. I didn't want to leave a live rat over night with him so I tried the rabbit kit. It was a large enough prey item but it couldn't hurt him. This was also when we were breeding rabbits so I had them on hand. I have tried to get them since then and it has been a pain to find anyone that will sell me one.

[Gerrior]

Alright guys, well it was feeding night last night and this girl look interested for like 5 seconds then did her normal head under her body, so just incase she was shy i left it in the cage over night, but when i woke up this morning it was still there no taking it. So now I'm very worried as this girl is VERY VERY small and looks to be in need a food really bad. So I just called my local pet store and found a gerbil that I can pick up tonight, but am curious if it might be too large for her to handle as she is very small. What do you guys think, she is just a baby. Could this be a waste of time if the gerbil is too big for her to take whch I have a feeling its going to be, but not to familiar with the size of gerbils. The rest of the BP's are feeding on one size down from full size mice right now. If this wont work what else do you suggest that I do. I need to get some food in this girl, as i am aware that they can go long times without food this girl is not in that bracket as she is losing weight by the day. Do not have a scale to just 100 but I can just tell. Is it almost time to force feed, as a last resort? thanks indvance for all your help.

[The Snake Guru]

Yeah a full grown Gerbil is probably going to be too big for a hatchling BP....if you could your hands on a hopper gerbil or very young one you would probably be ok.....you could also try rubbing a Frozen thawed mouse all over the gerbil in an effort to scent it (sometimes it works).

But what it really comes down to it, you hae a better idea of when to start the force feeding if she is looking that thin, then your instinct is probably right, I would start off with a smaller prey item say a Hopper Mouse, Pinky Rat...the Pinky rat would be a little easier since it seems the ones without hair slide down easier! LOL Force feeding prey should be about half the size of what you would normally want to feed her.

Let us know how it goes.
~B~

[Gerrior]

Guru, seeing as you have done this once or twice in your lifetime could you please help me out. I have never had to open one of my snakes mouth, so not sure as to go about it, some detailed help would be so appreciated as I do not want to harm her in any way. Again thanks for all your help I don't think you understand how much I appreciate it. Also should I wet the prey to make it slide down easier?

[The Snake Guru]

LOL actually I'm continuelessly doing it lately....I've got an Amazon Tree Boa that I've been force feeding for the last couple of months, hasn't eaten for me on her own since I got her.

At anyrate, snakes are very resilant creatures, some poking and prodding isn't going to damage them, if you have access to them speculums work fantastic for propping open the mouth.

If not you'll have to improvise a little, for a hatchling BP I would find youself a plastic spoon (like the ones everyone uses for picinics and then throws away) slide the handle between upper and lower jaw 3/4 back on the mouth, as you reach the back part of mouth the snakes natural reaction is open it's mouth all the way....this is the time when you want to get the head of the prey started into the snake's throat. From there it is just a test of wills....you must be firm, but gentle, the snake will try all sorts of manuvers to get the prey of his mouth but with slow deliberate pressure it will eventually go down. After the prey is in the throat area you must massage it down to the stomac, I usually place thumb on the belly and fingers on the back of snake give some pressure so while the snake crawls through my fingers he moves the prey down on his own accord.
The water is to Lubricate it yes.

Man I should've video taped the force feeding process last night, my bad. Well if you can wait a week I'll be doing it again I'm sure. Anyway I hope that is descriptive enough?

~B~

[mykee]

I've heard all this talk about force feeding and gerbils (force-feeding is VERY stressful) and may not work. I have NEVER had to force-feed a baby ball python and I've raised hundreds.
Not once have I heard a live mouse hopper mentioned.
If anything is going to kick-start this problem feeder, it's a live mouse hopper. You've got the right temperature, the right size, and the right amount of movement for this to be an open and shut case.
Toss in a live mouse hopper when the lights go out at night and pay attention. If not eaten within 15-20 minutes, take it out and try agian a different day.
This is your best shot at getting this little ball to eat.
Good luck.

[Gerrior]

Just to update, I was really against force feeding, and I didn't want to resort to that till the last possible day. So I tried every trick in the book paper bag, live mouse hopper, f/t, braining, gerbil, gerbil bedding..ect.ect.

Well the other night I was at wits end with this girl and she was starting to lose weight, so I took her out introduced her to the other babies while she had a soak in the tub (because of her weight the tail shed was not coming off and humidity was at 75 the whole shed period.

So after the bath i let her roam around with the other babies on the bed (shhhhh dont tell wifey) and I went to tank grabed a live pinkie rat chucked it in her cage. I introduced her back to the cage a little while later and let her and her new friend the rat get friendly with each other. Well if i didnt wake up in the morning and "by by pinkie"...thank the lord i though finally. So I waited one more night and I tried again to see if she was hungry (not trying to over feed but just wanting her belly to get back up to size. seeing as its been over a month now. Again I wake up in the morning and pinkie is gone...

I'm so excited no more worry for the time being anyways. Just needed some friends to talk some sense into her I think.....

Cheers all, and I really appreciate all the advice that was given to me.

[The Snake Guru]

There ya go man! See a little patience pulls it off in the end! Glad She went for you....hopefully she stays on the ball now....congrats!

~B~

[mykee]

Congratulations on getting your ball eating. Now up the size of the food item to a fuzzy rats and you're off to the races.

[Raven22]

Heres a little more help, right out of the pages of the snake book i have. Hope you can read it all. Well as soon as Photobucket is done uploading it that is. Ok, here they are.
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e234/MidnightRaven22/IMG_0001-1.jpg
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e234/MidnightRaven22/IMG_0002-1.jpg