Baby Jungle still not eating

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Kristinlee1234

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Hi all,

We have a 9 month old jungle that still wont eat on it's own, we have had to force feed it now 4 times but is it good to continue to force feed them or should we take him to the vet?

He is the runt of the clutch and always been a lot smaller then the rest.

Any help would be appreciated.
 
how long has it not been feeding. don't panic if its only a short while..maybe skip the next couple of feeds and get it hungry.. my stimmie is like that, won't eat for weeks and then bam
 
For starters, what temps are you keeping your jungle at( hot and cold ends), what food items are you trying to feed and what have you done to these food items to try and get your jungle to eat??

How long have you had it for?

Simple things such as temps not being right can cause them to go off food. In saying that I had a jungle that didn't want to change from mice to rats, after 2 months he was willing to take a rat.
 
We have had him since he was born with all his brothers and sisters and his the only one out of the clutch that just wont eat.

We have tried pinky mice, pinky rats, little baby quails and just wont strike for it or just wont eat it if we leave it in there.

He is getting quiet little and weak but we are worried that force feeding him to much may do damage?? or take him to the vet?
 
Some snakes just are not meant to survive, Given its now 9 months old
and still wont eat on its own accord i would think that euthing it would be a sound option.
 
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Have you tried scenting, braining, dipping in egg yolk, letting the rat defrost near the enclosure then heating it up before offering? the last in particular has got very good results for me theyre usually going crazy for it by the time it comes to feeding.

It might also be worthwhile catching an asian house gecko and offering that.

As beeman said there are some animals that arent meant to survive, but I dont think thats quite as relevant in captivity - as we have bred them its our responsibility to go as far as we can to save them - in my humble opinion of course
 
As beeman said there are some animals that arent meant to survive, but I dont think thats quite as relevant in captivity - as we have bred them its our responsibility to go as far as we can to save them - in my humble opinion of course

I think it is just as relevant in captivity!
If we continue to prop up these types of snakes we are doing the hobby no favours.
I feel that there is something a miss within each one that doesnt respond to any feeding attempt and to allow these snake to be reared and onsold only exaggerates the problem further when one of these snakes is used for breeding down the track.
 
Some snakes just are not meant to survive, Given its now 9 months old
and still wont eat on its own accord i would think that euthing it would be a sound option.
I was given a 12month green that didnt eat by itself,the 1st night i offered it food it took less then 2minutes,didnt refuse from that night..
 
My jungle wouldn't eat for the first month or so, so one day I took a mouse that had been defrosted in warm water, rubbed it on my bird, and it worked a treat. Perhaps you could do something similar?
 
definitely give braining a go, works a treat with keiko although i am not relying on it, its a last resort
 
It doesn't necessarily mean that it's something wrong with him. You'd be surprised how many options there are in regards to scenting to find out what makes it respond. A search on APS should give you quite a few options. This also brings up the debate whether we should cull hatchlings that don't take rodents straight away in order to keep blood lines clean from "problem snakes" Personally I think you have the right attitude in really wanting this little fellow to get started.
 
I recently heard that young snakes can be more likely to regard a furred animal as food than a pinky. It makes a lot of sense, as a young python in the wild is more likely to find a young mouse recently weaned and roaming than a litter of pinkies hidden and guarded by their mother. Also wild rodents have to spend all of their time searching for food as they burn through it extremely quickly and almost definitely weigh less than a captive bred rodent of the same age. So I'd suggest trying a little fuzzy mouse, your jungle will have no trouble getting it down, supply it with plenty of heat etc. Also when my first jungle was fussy I got her to feed no worries by scenting with chick down.
 
I think it is just as relevant in captivity!
If we continue to prop up these types of snakes we are doing the hobby no favours.
I feel that there is something a miss within each one that doesnt respond to any feeding attempt and to allow these snake to be reared and onsold only exaggerates the problem further when one of these snakes is used for breeding down the track.

Not everyone wants to breed their reptiles and just because an animal hasnt taken a meal in captivity doesnt necessarily mean it wouldn't be thriving in the wild. I agree that there could be something off with non-feeding hatchlings, but it may also just be that its not responding to the particular feeding method/s used. For example, I have a hatchling green tree snake that wouldnt take feeder fish out of the water bowl, but if I take the feeder fish out of the water she grabs it as soon as it jumps - theres nothing wrong with the animal, it just refuses to take them from the water.

Anyway back on track, have you had any success yet?
 
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this makes me feel lucky my boy took his first feed after only having him home for 2 days. perfect feeding so far.

hope it all works out for you. I defrost mine just outside his click clack and he sits at the wall watching it so maybe that could help.
 
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