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CaptainRatbag

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So, my spotty had 13 viable hatchies, they are all in 1 litre tubs with paper towel a water bowl and plenty ov ventilation..... They were hatched a week ago and look healthy and move about.... most sleep alot, 3 go into strike-a-matic as soon as I take the lid off. Today I warmed up some pinky mice and offered them a feed.....a few actually struck and grabbed the pinky, but didnt continue to eat it? The others, just not interested it seems.

What is my best approach? Just wait and see? I know they can go for several months before food becomes critical. What do other spotty owners do to get thier hatchies eating? Someone suggested little pinkie sized slices of raw, warmed up chicken to start them off? The theory being that they get to work out what the gob is for..... after that they will know what to do with a pinky?

I did a search for feeding hatchies before posting this, if someone has a link to a relevant thread, that will be appreciated.
 
Are they big enough to eat a pinky? Have they had their first shed?
 
Maybe I am not the best person to ask as I have not bred snakes yet but I thought a lot of people wait until the first shed before trying. I also knew a guy who had some small spotters that he needed to cut the pinkies in two because they were too big for the hatchlings.
 
Leave them be until they have their first slough! After they do slough leave them for another 2 weeks and then offer a feed! Feed whole pinks there is no need to cut them up. We have had Ants at a hatch weight of 5-6gms and they are quite capable of taking day old pinks!
 
Yes it is a good idea to let them have their first shed before offering food. They will generally have their first shed at around 7 days old.
Pinky-velvet mice are the best thing to offer them. It's not unusual if you can't get them to feed first go but in time they should all feed well on there own with the occasional stuborn animal that just won't play the game...then you may have to try some other options, but I won't go into that now...
Also it is a good idea to learn/research this stuff before breeding not after..
 
Hi ratty make sure you have water for your babies !!!!! Listen to every one and ry what ever it takes we have resorted to buying a pinkie pump for our stubborn little stimmies - only three of them the rest are eating fine NOW !! it has taken 7 weeks for some of them to decide to eat . only 1 has eaten straight up , a few needed the pinkie cut in half first . the pump minces the pinkie and injects it down their throat pretty ugly but we want them to live . Try scenting with feathers we have our own ducks so we tried them with no success , quail can be used .

Just keep trying Good Luck
 
As said let them shed, give them a week or two and then tease feed them. Tease feeding is by far the best and easiest way to get any anteresia feeding.
 
Also it is a good idea to learn/research this stuff before breeding not after..

Hi swampman, yes, was an unplanned pregnancy :shock: You can read the story in another thread "clyde had some eggs" If I had intended to breed I would certainly have done my homework.... I was told they were 2 boys, one was big and one was small.... I thought the females would be bigger so I called them bonny and clyde, clyde being the smaller one who turned out to be bonny :rolleyes:

I will wait until they shed and a week or 2 then offer another feed. Only one of the little garbage guts's ate 3 little pieces of chook meat, raw but warmed up like a pinkie. It is one of the ons that goes into snap-a-matic at the drop of a hat :lol:

They all look healthy, move about, very active toungs..... yes and each have a water bowl so all is good so far.....

Thanks for all of your imput so far
 
Take note of what stimigex tells you..

I agree with the above. I don't even try my blonde spotted hatchy's till 3 week's after their first shed and all usually eat first go, just needs patience.
 
I always heat up a few pinkies after they've shed to see if anyone is interested right away. Always good to know who the garbage guts are! Zero need to get them on chicken first... last thing you want is for them to like birds and not mice.
 
Thanks for the info.... it makes a whole lot of sense now.... I had no pinkie mice today so I went to a snake and rodent breeder down the road to get some. I said they were coming up a week old, he just sold me the pinkies and said just offer them one, there was no mention of waiting for them to shed.... it is obvious now that they are pre shed, they are darkish and some have white eye caps.... they cant see well yet:rolleyes: so obvious now. Some of them may shed today....


last thing you want is for them to like birds and not mice.

Yeah.... like my coastal Montgomery (Monty) he has to start with a mouse appetiser.... then he will eat his rats.... offer him a rat first.... forget it.... need the entree first :rolleyes:
 
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try using mouse brains on the head of the rat instead of giving a mouse to your coastal with a rat chaser then you can give the mouse to one of your spotted adults instead thats what i have to do with one of my Proserpine coastals . By the way congrats on the hatchies mine are still in the incubator it's realy cool when you candle the eggs you can see they are turning from pink and some of them are getting their spots so i'm hopefully not far behind you
 
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I think you should stick with what stimigex has said. You will have the best success after a few weeks. There is no need to rush it and poke and prod them when they're not hungry. The yolk will last them a few weeks easily and you will have best success in about 2-4 weeks.

I have some stimsoni here that hatched quiet large in early December that still haven't been offered their first meals. They will in the next few days however still look big robust and healthy.
 
One point that needs to be mentioned is that some hatchies can shed in as little as five days while others can take up to two weeks or even a tad longer to shed sometimes but regardless of the length of period of the first shed/slough it is "very unusual" for a hatchie to eat prior to their first shed/slough .... solar 17

- - - Updated - - -

A "trick" l use with hatchies regardless of when l last fed them (the hatchies) or attempted to is if we get a big/bad afternoon evening storm try again .... not all of the time but in a lot of cases they will eat. solar 17
 
Thanks, yeah, they have all shed now and are stomping around in thier tubs looking hungry.... I will give it a few more days and see if any are ready to chug down a pinkie....

On marking/numbering thier tubs, it turns out there are 14 all up. Of the ones that didnt make it, one died after leaving the egg ok, one didnt make it out of the egg and 2 werent fully develloped in the egg.... so not bad that she layed 18 eggs to start with :shock: and mum hadnt eaten for about a year, at least 10 months before she layed the eggs....
 
Update: Just tried feeding them again, offered them all a warmed up mouse pinkie.... still none ready to eat.... they seem to be stuck in 'escape mode' I am thinking I will try them again in a few more days.... but will try them next just with some chicken about the size of a pinkie..... this lot makes about 30 mouse pinkies wasted.... anyone have any ideas?
 
Welcome to getting hatchies to feed!
What I do is, because I know that out of my 12 freshly 1st shed maculosa hatchlings, that only about a quarter will eat first go (sometimes none, but with a bit of teasing usually get a few), i only thaw out 4 pinkies. First attempt this year saw 3 eat. The left over pinky goes to a hatchling bhp.
Wait a week. Now I know 3 will eat, so i'll thaw out maybe another 4 (7 all up). go like that.
 
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