Wellp, I offered them butts, heads, midsections, legs, whole dead, and whole live (very small pinkies). They've both taken water and pooped, and they're both looking wildly voracious, but neither of them has taken any food yet. Dag. rialian acvised me to wait two more days before trying to force feed them with mouse tails. I'm afraid to try to do that! They are so tiny. I'm afraid of injuring one of their perfect little jaws. Hopefully it won't come to that. We got some reptile nutrient powder that we can mix up into a liquid and give to them via eyedropper, if it comes to that, so we're prepared for anything. But I really hope we never have to use it. Anyway, I'm probalby panicking for no reason - they just hatched and are probably still full of nutrients from the egg.
Ok, I just called Rick's Pet store in Frederick where they have snake gurus coming out of the light sockets. The expert on duty said that they don't eat for a week after hatching because they're still absorbing nutrients from the egg. That confirms what <lj user=rialian said. I told him that I'd offered them food and they'd refused, and he said "wait a couple of days".
A couple of days it is. According to http://www.moreptiles.com/
"New hatchlings will normally eat the smallest size pinkie mouse available." which is what I gave them. So I'm on the right track. I just wanted to make sure that maybe when they're really young I should be giving them bugs or something. It's hard to believe that something that tiny could fend for itself in the wild, but like the eggs, probably the best thing to do is just leave them alone and let them take food when they're ready.
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Date: 2006-10-08 03:54 pm (UTC)Ok, I just called Rick's Pet store in Frederick where they have snake gurus coming out of the light sockets. The expert on duty said that they don't eat for a week after hatching because they're still absorbing nutrients from the egg. That confirms what <lj user=rialian said. I told him that I'd offered them food and they'd refused, and he said "wait a couple of days". A couple of days it is. According to http://www.moreptiles.com/ "New hatchlings will normally eat the smallest size pinkie mouse available." which is what I gave them. So I'm on the right track. I just wanted to make sure that maybe when they're really young I should be giving them bugs or something. It's hard to believe that something that tiny could fend for itself in the wild, but like the eggs, probably the best thing to do is just leave them alone and let them take food when they're ready.