Hiya,
u may remember that i posted about a non feeding snake i was sold. well, today, we attempted assist feeding. i held his head (we found a guide with photos on the net) then my mum pushed in the pinkie head. then massaged his throat until the pink was inside and put him bak. He hasnt regurged (yet) the pinkhead is now about half way down him. and hes resting in his cave.

The reason we decided to do this is because the snake was so weak for starvation that he had no feeding response at all. I think this snake is so close to death that we had to try. He is so thin it is distressing to see. Im hoping against hope that his poor little body will have the strength to digest it. I know making a snake eat like this is not good, but i felt i had to do something.

Well, just wondering.. if the baby is still alive in a few days how many days should be allowed before next feeding? anyone know? has anyone fed their snake like this before?

Thanks for ur thoughts Em

I have no experience with assisted feeding and I know little about it. But if it were me, I'd probably give the snake about 5 days before I tried again. That's too bad that you had to do that, but it sounds like it was pretty necessary. It's good to hear that the snake is holding the food down, so far.

Good luck.

Hiya,
snake is still with me, 6 hours later and hasnt regurged yet. Fingers are crossed. The state the poor little thing is in it will be a miracule if he pulls through. I didnt really wanna do this, but it was a last attempt really.

My main concern is that he laks the enzymes and bacteria to digest. If this were the case i suppose the mouse head would go rotten in him. I dont know how long its gonna take for me to know whether this is going to happen.

i am totally new to corns, so being sold a staving baby was hardly the way i wanted to start my new hobby!

Matt k is about right, I would wait about 5 days til next feed attempt, if he stays about the same. But dont get disheartened if it looks like he is not inproving it doesnt neccessarily mean he isnt. Just so long as he doesnt get worse is a good sign.
I had the same problem with my first corn, How long have you left it till you tried assisting? mine was about 8 - 10 weeks old before he took his fist feed and I had to assist for about 4 weeks until he showed improvement and then got the idea for himself and started feeding normally, Fluffy is now two years old and nearly five feet long, hope all goes well for you keep trying

Hiya,

The little guy didnt regurge and took another pinkie head today ( i will certainly make sure i give him 5 days rather than 3 this time thou, so thanks for that advice. Now the problem with this little guy is that i have no idea how old he was in the first place. I recieved him from an internet company that sent him by corrier from north england. (i live in the south) The the two little snakes arrived in terrible condition.. no feeding record, no shedding record and no indication of hatching date. As I said, sadly one little snake died on the second day. I went to my local pet shop cuz the guy sells snakes and he told me there was nothing i could do for my baby. Then I searched on the internet and found a guide on assist feeding. this was about a week after the little one arrived. so i gave it a go. sucess so far,, he hasnt brought it up and seems is anything more alert.

Now my feeling is that this little guy was on the verge of death. he is about 12inches long, but painfully emaciated. he is like a spine with skin flaps. I think he has literally wasted away through starvation. Now he is certainly perkier. when we went to give him his pinky head today he wasnt impressed.. before he just laid there like a flaccid shoe lace. He is now moving around where as before he could barely lift his head. (thou he is very weak and has now grip so we have to be careful when holding him to feed) I realised he wasnt drinking cuz he was too week to get into his water bowl, so i took an ice cream lid and filled it with a puddle of water and within minutes he was drinking away. I was really touched to see that! Im keeping my fingers crossed now. He has a long way to go and Im a total corn snake beginner! A lot of people would totally put their hands up at a beginner assist feeding without being shown how. But when its life or death u do what u have to i think. This snake doesnt need injections! he needs food!

I will let u know how he gets on.

Wow, amazing story. I hope the little one pulls trough! I am just a beginer with snakes myself, but I think what you have done so far for him is amazing!

Yeah, you're doing great. You should try to post a couple pictures of the little guy, I'd like to see his condition...I'm pretty interested. It's pretty important that he's getting lots of water, discovering that he wasn't drinking and then finding a way to get him to drink was a big step. Keep it up, hopefully he pulls though.

Yeah sweeeetcorn, doin good! keep us posted on how he is doing! I am sorry to hear your first attempt went this way, but if you can handle this you can handle anything else this little guy throws your way! later

Now that he is perking up you seem to be on the way back from the brink, but keep us posted on the liitle fella, and keep it up.