Hatchies - Feeding & Housing

[peterjohnson64]

probably the most common questions I see posted on this sight are 1. How do I house my hatchie and 2. How do I get him to eat. Whilst I am certainly not an expert in either of these two topics I still thought I would share my most recent purchase.

I was very lucky to get two hatchling diamond pythons from the diamond python god, Serpentongue. They are local to the town I grew up in (Dapto) and that is the reason I have been looking for these type of Diamonds.

I have had them now for nearly 4 weeks. One fed straight away but the second had its first feed today. They are eating frozen pinkies although the one that ate for the frist time today had a pinkie with a little bit of Fuzz. I dont think it was the fuzz that inspired it as I had tried both pinkies and fuzzies previously. But what I really want to point out is the strange way I got it to eat (by accident). I had been rubbing the mice in front of it for a while and she moved away and then I rubbed it against her body and she reacted by wrapping around the mouse and then whammo, she struck.

I am also posting pics of their tubs just to show what $4.00 can do for a cage. I already had the heat mat.

[MrBredli]

Where'd you score the tubs from? Are the bottoms flat, or do they have little legs?

[peterjohnson64]

Tubs are from the Warehouse mate. Flat bottoms. they are great. I also found deeper ones for $5.99 at Bunnings so I hiave a few of them ready for a few months time.

I can get mroe too mate. Maybe you can get them with the glass

[serpenttongue]

Originally Posted by peterjohnson64

the diamond python god, Serpentongue.

The cheques in the mail, Pete Oh and by the way, that's two "T"'s in serpenttongue

Originally Posted by peterjohnson64

But what I really want to point out is the strange way I got it to eat (by accident). I had been rubbing the mice in front of it for a while and she moved away and then I rubbed it against her body and she reacted by wrapping around the mouse and then whammo, she struck.

Yep, i've been getting them to feed this way for years. If you bump or rub the pinky along the sides of the hatchlings body it really excites them and they'll constrict it with a coil first, and then turn and grab it with the mouth. I've had babies constrict a pinky with their tail and then bring the pinky(still being held by the tail) up to their head, and then bite it and start swallowing.

It's like when you try picking up a hungry python from its cage and you go to grab it at midsection and it instinctively shoves its body to one side and tries trapping your hand between their body and the side of their enclosure, and then they turn around to bite the hand. Much like womas squeezing prey against the walls of narrow burrows.

[peterjohnson64]

Yes mate, I know about the T's. I'll just keep giving you all the extra "T" that people put in my name. I actually wanted to call the snake 'Jesus" as in the son of Diamond Python god but my highly religious daughter wouldn't have a bar of it so we settled with Angel.

[serpenttongue]

[Nome]

PeterJohnson, I think this is a great thread as lately there has been many non feeding queries with hatchlings. What you have yours in is setup perfectly, and as you say, very inexpensive to do so. All hatchlings seem to thrive in that kind of environment.

[triptych_angel]

Those setups are almost identical to mine, and my hatchie loves it. It seems to be thriving. So Simple and inexpensive.