65 hatchlings and all...

[BoidKeeper]

...ate the first time offered! I know corns aren't like starting GTPs or anything but out of 65 hatchlings I expected a couple of problem feeders at least. Last night I fed my clutch of 11 aneries and 5 ghost for the first time and they all ate F/T the first time offered.
It may or may not be a factor but I am doing something different this year that I didn't do last year and last year I had 3 problem feeders, one didn't make it.
I was told that vermiculite can dehydrate hatchling snakes. So this year when removing the snakes from the egg box I placed them into a rubber maid with wet paper towel. They stayed in there while waiting to be weighed and the placed into the rack. The Rubbermaid on the scale also had wet paper towel in it. The container that each snake goes into that is in the rack is also lined with wet paper towel which I let dry out on it's own.
I also read that baby boas should be kept damp after birth to help keep them hydrated. So with this info and knowing that vermiculite can dehydrate them (although after a long period of time I'm told.) I decided to keep my corns damp for about the first 24 hours after hatching.
So like I said, I might have just been extremely lucky this year, or maybe there is a correlation between hydration after birth and feeding response. Either way I thought I would share my observation with all of you. I will test my theory by double clutching one of my females and use the same male for both clutches. For each clutch I will wet only half in hopes of testing my hypostasis.
I still have a clutch yet to be laid so let's hope my luck doesn't run out. With the balls I'm about 50%. Half are on F/T rats the other two are on live and fresh kill. They are on rats at least and not mice!
Cheers,
Trevor