Desperate Help!!! My greyband won't eat

I have a 10 week old gb which I purchased from a breeder that did not get her to feed. I have tried all the following methods:
1. Offered a frozen thawed pinkie
2. Offered a live pinkie overnight in her tank
3. Brained the pinkie and left overnight in her tank
4. Brained a pinkie again and left her in a small container for about 3 hours
5. Tried even juice from a tuna can where I read somewhere to try

I was told from the breeder to force feed her mouse tails for about 5 times or so which I did and he stated eventually she would eat a pinkie when offered and of corse this is not working and right now this is her only source of food.
I have three other snakes which eat very well and never had to do this. I want to try the method with the lizard and scenting the pink. The promblem I have is I live in Delaware and we do not have lizards hanging out in the backyard. Do I go to a petstore and get one? They have different kinds such as anoles. Do I keep the lizard alive and just scent it with the pink as I have read searching on different forums?

Any help is very much appreciated!!!! I just want to get my little girl to feed on her own. THANKS!!!!!! Michelle

My local petstore has anoles but I had to tell them it was a pet because they do not sell them as feeders. I would call around and see what your local stores have. It may sound icky but if you are using it to scent pinkies you can keep it in the freezer and just cut off pieces as you need them for feedings. Good luck, I really hope the baby eats for you.

There is also a product called Lizard Maker, made by T-Rex. Created specifically for the purpose of scenting for those hard to get started babies.
Greybands are well known for this.

I'd look around for the lizard scenting stuff before you try an anole. It's usually a safer bet to keep w/c stuff separate from your captive bred greyband...If it came down to it, altho it's probably real late to find them, 5 lined skinks are local to DE...

You probably won't find it in pet stores unless you have a reptile specialty shop.
Online is your best bet.

I haven't tried it yet, as I don't produce greybands in quantity...if I keep my adults and breed them again, though, I will probably give it a shot. For now, I just forcefeed

Originally Posted by lovemygreyband

... Do I go to a petstore and get one? They have different kinds such as anoles. Do I keep the lizard alive and just scent it with the pink as I have read searching on different forums?

I haven't tried lizard maker, but I've used scenting to get a lot of stubborn eaters going. I would recommend going to the petstore an purchasing a lizard, anoles would probably be the best bet (get the cheapest species available and select a healthy looking one). If you're interested in a lizard pet, keep it alive (this is what I do); if you don't want to care for a lizard, put it in the fridge for about 30 minutes to let it go into a kind of cold coma and then transfer it to the freezer. A frozen lizard can be used for scenting for years.

Take a dead pinky and wash it thoroughly with a little unscented or lightly scented soap to remove the mouse smell. Rub the lizard all over the pinky, make especially sure that the head of the pinky is thoroughly scented. If the snake is in a large tank, you may want to down grade it to something like a critter keeper until you get it eating. You want it to be unstressed (some snakes stress out when you put them in a little continer for feeding) but in close contact with the prey. I try to avoid transfering my scent to the pinky after I've scented it with the lizard so after scenting I handle it with forceps or by the tail. Put the pinky somewhere that you know the snake will find it (the openning of the hide works well). With nocturnal snakes, I like to offer the food item at dusk and leave it in there over night. Resist the urge to check on the snake until morning. Leave the room dark.

If it hasn't disappeared, wait a few days and repeat the above. But this time, cut off a section of lizard tail and stuff it down the throat of the pinky (you may want to use a pre-killed lizard in this case). Make sure the tail is thoroughly lodged and protrudes about 1 cm.

If this doesn't work, offer a thawed lizard. Keep the lizard frozen for about 2 weeks before you offer it, this will kill most parasites.

If this doesn't work, offer a live lizard.

If you end up getting it to take a lizard, wait a week and try feeding with a pinky scented with the lizard species your snake ended up consuming.

Good luck,
Alice