Running out of tricks, need advice

[salzar]

beautiful snakes yaaaaaa... cant wait till spring for mine!!
bye
michelle

[Stefan-A]

Damn.

Okay, so I did a little experiment. I put pieces of trout in the old plastic box I used when I was feeding her worms. Apparently she recognized it, probably by smell, but she wouldn't eat anything out of it. She inspected the box thoroughly and the fish, but didn't touch it. Now she just sits there. I'm assuming that she would eat, but unfortunately her preferences haven't seemed to change.

Or am I jumping the gun here?

[adamanteus]

It certainly sounds as though a worm might just trigger her feeding responses. Is it just to cold over there to find one?
It's been pretty mild here for a couple of days, so I was able to find worms today.

[Stefan-A]

It's below freezing at the moment and it's supposed to be getting colder these next few days. Either way, she's not getting another worm. Ever.

[Stefan-A]

Okay, so what is the proper way to hold the head of the snake, so that it is still able to swallow? I know how to restrain the head, but that's easy, I've just never tried to get a restrained snake to swallow something.

Just getting prepared here. Maybe I should get a pinkie pump?

[adamanteus]

I had a pinky pump, but I threw it away..... They're not able to properly masticate the pinky before ejecting it from the tube. Thus resulting in a sudden 'shot' of food which explodes into the snakes' throat at an uncontrollable rate. Also, they only expel a fraction of what you put in, it seems to take two pinkies to 'charge' the pump. All in all, they're rubbish.

If you hold the snake directly behind the jaw bones, between your thumb and fore-finger, whilst restraining the body with the remaining fingers, you can then have one hand free for opening the mouth and manipulating the food item. It's not really too difficult.

[Stefan-A]

Really fun to know what to do in theory, but not having anybody around to actually show you how to do it. I didn't have any mice thawed right now, but I had to test it without sticking anything down its throat. Probably didn't do the snake any favors by doing so. I just don't get how it's going to be able to swallow the food item if I'm holding on to its head and really preventing it from bending it out of my grip.

Damn this newbieness.

[Lori P]

I couldn't do it alone. I had to have hubby hold, and I pushed the food in. Can someone help you? Want me to run right over?? :-)

[Stefan-A]

I'm used to doing things alone. My big sister did volunteer to help hold the snake, but I can control it better with one hand and alone. I just don't get how the food item is going to get past the point where my fingers are holding on to the head/neck of the snake.

Well, at least it didn't poop on me or musk me.

[drache]

Stefan
this is harrowing
I see this in my near future - with much trepidation
and I have cop-out options that you don't
is your big sister willing to push the food in, so you can focus on the snake?
I did that with Jeff when I had to pump flagyl down my big king's throat
the stuff kept clogging the syringe . . .