Venomous snake keeping is a dangerous hobby under the best circumstances. Dealing with animals, who are basically living weapons, is tough but it gets tougher when you have a baby snake, which does not want to feed voluntarily. There may be several reasons to this; some snakes are lizard and/or amphibian feeders as neonates and keepers usually don't have a stable stocks, other snakes are easily stressed and refuse to feed in captivity and some just seem like they are programmed to die. So when we have a tricky feeder, there are several options to try:
a-Scenting: Works with some, doesn't work with others. I think this works best with fish eaters. Fish scent is very strong and it masks rodents natural scent quite easily. My water cobras refused regular pinkies but ate fish scented pinkies right after birth.
b-Tease feeding: This is my favorite technique as it works well with Death Adders and it is not as stressful on the snakes as other techniques are. Here is a video I shot today that shows and explains how it works:
c-Assist feeding: This is one step before the last option. It includes keeper restraining the snake and forcing it to bite into the prey item. In some cases, initial bite is enough and the snake will proceed to eat when released. Quite stressful on the snake and the keeper.
d-Force feeding: Absolute last option for venomous snakes. Very stressful on both parties and quite dangerous especially for the inexperienced keeper. Like assist feeding, keeper restrains the snake but keeps pushing the prey item down even after the initial bite. I have had a friend, who got bitten by a Pilbara baby death adder when attempting this and I have seen animals die during the process so this has to be the last resort. Here is a demonstration:
There are less invasive methods of force feeding as well though, here is a video a friend of mine shot while force feeding a baby Flood Plains death adder with some additional tools:
a-Scenting: Works with some, doesn't work with others. I think this works best with fish eaters. Fish scent is very strong and it masks rodents natural scent quite easily. My water cobras refused regular pinkies but ate fish scented pinkies right after birth.
b-Tease feeding: This is my favorite technique as it works well with Death Adders and it is not as stressful on the snakes as other techniques are. Here is a video I shot today that shows and explains how it works:
c-Assist feeding: This is one step before the last option. It includes keeper restraining the snake and forcing it to bite into the prey item. In some cases, initial bite is enough and the snake will proceed to eat when released. Quite stressful on the snake and the keeper.
d-Force feeding: Absolute last option for venomous snakes. Very stressful on both parties and quite dangerous especially for the inexperienced keeper. Like assist feeding, keeper restrains the snake but keeps pushing the prey item down even after the initial bite. I have had a friend, who got bitten by a Pilbara baby death adder when attempting this and I have seen animals die during the process so this has to be the last resort. Here is a demonstration:
There are less invasive methods of force feeding as well though, here is a video a friend of mine shot while force feeding a baby Flood Plains death adder with some additional tools: