I'm sure everyone wants to hear about mouse butts, so...

[helen99]

As soon as we saw there were some new snakes in the tank, rialian ran to the store and bought some frozen pinkies and proceeded to thaw them.

They were way too big for the wrigglers, so I snipped off their back ends and gave the rest to Seraphim and Asherah for a snack. Then I offered the butts to the wrigglers. One of them struck at the proffered item, meaning "she's" already hungry. She never actually grabbed it, but it was fun to see such a tiny thing strike, as if she'd been doing it for years. I also observed her drinking water twice. The other one (I'll call him "him" for convenience) hasn't drunk any water or struck at the food, but "he" is larger (maybe he absorbed more nutrients from the egg, or maybe the other one has been out longer and is hungrier).

Anyway, I will update this if/when I get them to eat. Overfeeding is a danger when they're that tiny, because they'll just throw it up without absorbing any nutrients. Asherah the first starved to death because of that, because I was too dumb to even think of snipping off the butt for her. Asherah the second also had the same problem (regurgitating anything I gave her) until I finally thought of the butt-snipping procedure.

So ok, maybe everyone doesn't want to hear about mouse butts. Sorry...

Comments

[laurelindel.livejournal.com]

Mouse butts work...

sometimes the heads work better for tempting teeny snakes. Not sure why.

[helen99.livejournal.com]

Hm. Thanks. I'll try that next. I thought the butts would be easier to swallow, but perhaps they want braiiiinnsss!

[helen99.livejournal.com]

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.

[helen99.livejournal.com]

Urk - bad HTML tag - here's the rest of that comment:

... That confirms what [info]rialian said. I told him that I'd offered them food and they'd refused, and he said "wait a couple of days".

So, 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.