Remember our previous post about the egg with half veins from our Lavender Albino clutch? Well that baby sure knows how to keep us on our toes. Months after hatching, they still have not begun eating well! We’ve kept a close eye on the baby’s weight to ensure they didn’t starve, but after exhausting all other options, had to do the last straw: force feeding. We have seen some progress though, as they are now accepting assist fed food! Every hatchling is worth helping if we can, so we will continue working on this baby for as long as it takes for them to start taking food. Hopefully we’ll have good news about them soon!
note: Force feeding and assist feeding should only be done by breeders or vets to hatchlings when all other methods of encouraging the snake to accept food have been exhausted.
It should never be done to a ball python who has previously accepted food on their own and is just in a fast. Fasting snakes is a major cause for anxiety among snake owners, but it is completely normal-we have a male for fasts 7-8 months straight every year and is perfectly healthy!
