This is Coriander. Never eaten, and a little buggy, but sweet as can be. Practically begs to be let out of his cage and crawls right into my hand:
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These are, admittedly not the best photos of Curry, but he’s a handsome guy and a fantastic eater. Best eyes of the boys.
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Caraway was our little zoomy one out of the egg earlier than everyone else. He’s eaten just once and then gave up on food altogether. Sigh.
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And the final one, Clove, made my son do the happy dance because of his pattern. If he’d had better eyes, we’d have kept him. Great eater, too.
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Great group! Love Clove’s splotches. Yeah, problem starters are the un-fun part of breeding. But I’ll bet most if not all will come around. 
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Love your confidence, Dean. Yours can fill in for mine when I’m awkwardly trying to figure out force feeding 
I’m sure I’ll get it.
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They make it look easy on the YouTube videos but trust me it’s not!!! 
Especially when you have teeny tiny mouths to work with!
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Did you try that “half tail force, then pink assist” method? I’m the worst when it comes to force feeding. I literally can’t do it for small corns. But I can easily do it via that method. I did it earlier. I’m not sure if it’ll work for every little corn or if he’s just well suited to it. Unfortunately I expect to have ample opportunities to find out.
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Interesting! I have never heard of this before! Is this inserting a tail and then following up quickly with a ft pink?
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Not yet. I tried my last non-forced feed tonight with halved pinkies on top of boiled water in a tin foil boat (and a couple with heads only just to see), plus thawed local lizard rubbed all over it.
ONE baby who has never eaten anything finally ate it!!! Another guy, who has only eaten once, (palmetto) also ate it.
Next is force feeding of some kind—and I’ll definitely try the tail-first-followed-by-pinkie method before I try anything else—but I’m just so happy two babies took that halved pinkie. Whew! Two down…what feels like a million (really only 14) to go!
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Kudos on the 2 eaters! The other ones will come around when they get hungry.
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Yay for the ones who ate! Feeding challenges are a super frustrating part of being a breeder. Like Dean, force feeding minute creatures is a skill I never planned on developing, although I have. I am pretty good at getting them to open up (even unwillingly) with a pinky nose. If that doesn’t work, I use the plunger of a minute syringe to open unwilling mouths. Has the advantage of being something I can hold with my teeth if necessary.
Glad you had some success with the heat and/or lizard. I find lizards really effective for a lot of stubborn babies, though not 100%. Had a few season who really loved brained pinks, though that had never been effective for me in the past. One insisted on their meals being brained for months. I’ve got three this year who refused 5 meals then took “boiled.”
Is their size the reason for the half pinkies?
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That’s because I just invented it a few weeks ago.
Cut a large mouse tail in half and keep the wider half that has the tail base. Insert the narrow end into the snake’s throat until just the tail base is sticking out of its mouth and the snake is chewing to swallow. Take a pink and gently push it behind the tail base and into the back of the mouth. Hopefully as the snake is chewing the tail and drawing it in, the teeth catch the pink and start drawing it in too.
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That’s excellent news!
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Yes, both size and simply a last-ditch effort to see if they’ll take anything at all. I’ve heard sometimes it helps a baby who could totally take a large pink, but doesn’t think it can, to have a shot at something smaller—like a half or a head.
Some of my babies are near 4 grams. Others near 7 grams. I figure I better start the 4-gram ones on something forced asap since it’s been a month and 10 days and they’re looking skinny. I may give the bigger ones a couple more weeks of trial and error.
So far, I’ve tried boiling, braining, and scenting (anole from a bottle, skink from my back yard, tuna, and even dawn dish soap). My back yard skink has been the only successful scent, and not super successful at that.
I’ve tried live pinkies when I can find them. Just one baby went for live, and not consistently. No one else even showed much interest.
I’ve tried babies by themselves all night in a deli cup (reheating after a couple hours). I’ve also tried just couple hours in a deli cup before going back in their bin. I’ve tried them housing them as pairs together in bins (someone told me this reduced stress), as well as separating them in their own bins. I’ve tried feeding them in their regular bins alone, and also together (figuring for non-eaters, the risk of cannibalism is super low).
I’ve also tried not handling or bothering them at all for a long time. But recently, I tried letting the bold ones out of their cage and holding them for exercise. Gamma, one who ate, was one of these. So maybe there’s something to exercise—helping them work up an appetite?
People have said a car ride sometimes helps. Or being shipped. I haven’t tried those yet, but they are the opposite of the “reduce stress” (no handling) philosophy others have told me.
So all the advice seems very much along the lines of “take-a-wild-guess,” and “hit-or-miss.” Every baby apparently needs something different and it’s up to us to figure it out. And if we can’t figure it out, then we either have to force them to eat something or let them die. I’m bummed about the latter option, obviously. And still baffled by the first. I never imagined so many of my babies wouldn’t want to eat.
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Well aren’t you the clever one Dean! 
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Lol. Not really. More of a “necessity is the mother of invention” scenario.
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That was always my go to with trying to get some babies back on track. For some emaciated babies it would be the tail for a couple of meals then working up to a pinky.
Had to do small rat tails for a teenie BP that had problems with it’s yolk sac too to get something in there and get some strength to get started.
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Yeah, I’m inept at forcing whole prey, but tails are easy even for me.
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