Force Feeding

I need a how-to. One of my hatchlings has starved himself. He's all skin and bones and is limp when picked up. If I couldn't see him breathing I would have thought him dead. He was fine yesterday, and today he just crashed. I have somebody bringing food in in about an hour and a half, if he doesn't have the energy to eat I need to force feed him. I am so upset right now it's not even funny. I keep thinking it's my fault although I've tried numerous times to feed him.

Jenna

Honestly, the best thing would be to take him to the vet. It's hard to teach someone to forcefeed without being physically there, since you've got to be careful not to exert too much pressure, you have to restrain the animal properly, etc. Personally, I'd have two major concerns in your case: 1) does the animal have parasites? and 2) will the effort of digestion (not a trivial amount of effort for snakes) be too much for it?

The best bet would be a trip to the nearest herp vet. www.herpvetconnection.com should help you find one near you.

Henry

I agree, when they get really weak, sometimes the vet can feed them liquids with a tube, and then you can take him in if you still need to force feed him.
Also, not to sound heartless, but this is how nature takes care of aniamls that may not be perfectly healthy. Just make sure that you are prepared to care for a fussy eater if he survives this. I would personally be wary of buying an animal from someone that had to be force fed unless it got over it's fussiness as a baby. (I don't want to make assumptions about whether you are breeding and why, but just figured that it is something that a breeder who sells their animals has to consider eventually...)

best of luck and hope you can get him to a knowledgable vetrinarian!

Originally Posted by droogievesch

I need a how-to. One of my hatchlings has starved himself. He's all skin and bones and is limp when picked up. If I couldn't see him breathing I would have thought him dead. He was fine yesterday, and today he just crashed. I have somebody bringing food in in about an hour and a half, if he doesn't have the energy to eat I need to force feed him. I am so upset right now it's not even funny. I keep thinking it's my fault although I've tried numerous times to feed him.

Jenna

Jenna, it is not my intention to be harsh, but you dropped the ball on this. A hatchling doesn't go from being just fine one day to "all skin and bones" and limp the next. It takes time. I will pretty much guarantee you that he will not have the energy to eat, given the description you provided (especially since he has continued to refuse food up to this point).

As mentioned in a prior post (sorry, I am half awake & don't remember who it was), sometimes this happens & babies do not thrive. Sometimes intervention can be effective, but it has to be done early enough, and may result in looooooong term care and a problematic animal. I am not suggesting that it is too much trouble, just stating that once you go down that road you are more or less committed to it.

Also, I agree with the previous post that suggested that whole prey might be too much for the snake at this point (from the description, the situation is dire and forcefeeding it a rat pink would probably push it over the edge).

Just curious, you said one of your hatchlings...did you breed ball pythons and hatch this baby, or did you obtain some hatchlings this year.

Jenna, the UW-Madison has one of the best veterinary schools in the country...look up one of the professors on campus and bring him to the main teaching clinic. They have multiple experienced vets and will probably help you for free or cheap since you're a UW student.

Alright so I'll give a bit more detailed description.

I aquired the hatchling from a professional breeder (who I've gone through numerous times without any problems) and he ate for me for a good month. Then I moved where I was no longer able to find live food, so I tried (without success) to switch him to frozen. He was on feed for a month, and off feed for less than a month.

I do nightly inspections of all the bins to make sure they are clean and there is clean water in the water bowls. His substrate was clean and he was active and had a full looking body. Today at noon or a little after I did another inspection of the bins and I noticed he had passed urates and that he was not in good shape. It almost seemed like he passed everything right out of his system.

I made a few phone calls and got a hold of somebody who was willing to drive from out of town with some food and offered to bring a pinky pump as well. Unfortunately by 3:30 he had died.

I do not believe he had any parasites, seeing as he was fine until just recently. I have contacted the breeder I got him from and he has been nothing less than helpful and caring.

The more people I talk to tell me to chalk this up as a learning experience and to keep an extremely close eye on the other snakes in his rack to make sure they're doing fine (which they are, all ate today and are active).

I don't breed snakes, but I was hoping to start next year. This has been a major set back for me emotionally as well as stockwise (as he was supposed to breed next season). I'm unsure of what I want to do or where I want to go from here, but I know to take it one step at a time and to let things take their course.

I do believe I may take some urate samples down to the vet clinic and see if they can tell me anything (parasites, dehydration {which I doubt due to the constant access to water}, or any other kind of sickness it may have. I may even donate the body for research or something...any closure as to why this happened would help).

Jenna

I'm glad you are going to take samples to the vet, but a fecal sample is more likely to give an indication of parasites. Being off feed for less than a month should not have caused the appearance you described, or the death of a baby ball python. Since there was likely another issue, you have been well advised to keep an eye on the other animals. Sometimes babies just die (that was a comment on another thread), sometimes they deteriorate rapidly without good explanation. Out in the wild, it is called survival of the fittest...in captive collections, it can be upsetting, as well as a source of frustration. Unfortunately, sometimes that is just a sad part of this hobby.
I know that sounds dismissive and cold, though it is not meant to be. It is more a reflection of the difference in expectations between now & when I started keeping reptiles (let's just say that fresh imports were the norm, animals were regularly shipped with mites and/or ticks, and internal parasites were expected).

So many people have told me that, but I still have this feeling like I killed my snake. My snakes do mean a lot to me and I tried paying somebody $30 for 3 mouse fuzzies, one weaned rat, and a dozen crickets (he refused to accept that much). Money is not an object for me if I know my animals need it, and I do not intentionally cut corners (sometimes I have to prioritize and some things get put on the back burner until I get enough funding available). Since I am just starting to build breeding stock this was a serious set back since it was my first morph. I've kept normals for a while, and that's why I decided to upgrade a bit. For the odds to go like this was a major blow to my esteem, and my biggest fear now is I won't be taken seriously in the business because 1.) I'm young (18) 2.) I'm a girl (sounds dumb, but how many times have I heard, "You're a girl...why do you like snakes?) and now I don't want to add, "She's inexperienced to the point she'll kill the poor animal"

I will firmly stand by my word, and the jist of it is that I did/do everything within my power to provide for my animals.

The death of an animal is no reason for anyone not to take you seriously. There aren't too many people that are in this hobby that can say that they have never had an animal die in their care.
I do want to take the time to thank you for clarifying some of the details - upon first reading your initial post, I thought that this was a baby that had never eaten. That it fed for at least a month in your care must have made it all the more frustrating. I also understand the problems of trying to find a consistent, reliable source of good (live) feeders, and have maintained many a nonfeeder over the years. Nonfeeders are a part of this, too, and you will have to accept & deal with that if you plan to breed. Luckily, healthy young BPs are usually pretty easy to assist feed.

As more and more time goes on I'm taking it a lot better. I no longer break down and cry when I think about it. I guess this is where I'm going to have to decide what I want to do, whether it's replace him now and not loose any time on the project, or take a year and devote all my resources to my remaining ones and then pick up again next year. Time will tell and everything happens for a reason. I have decided I want a hedgehog though in all this turmoil.