I have a hatchling who still hasnt eaten. It has been almost 8 weeks and it doesnt even show an interest in eating. I am almost positive i will have to force feed it. Am i making an irrational decision? Also, how should i go about force feeding?
I don’t think its irrational at all… I only give my babies 4 chances at feeding before i force feed especially if they are losing weight and deteriorating. Especially if you have exhausted all options… frozen/fresh killed/ live and various sizes.
you will want mouse pinks frozen. thaw and warm to about 100 degrees. dip in water. hold the baby with your non dominate hand behind the head. not too tight to make it hard to swallow. using the nose of the pinky and coming at the front of the mouth press to get baby to open its mouth. once open push pinky into throat far enough to at least get the shoulders in… i usually relax my hand then and hold them so they don’t fight. then gently set them down and watch.sometimes i will take a couple tries to get them to not spit it back out. sometimes hooking the teeth into a distal part of the mouse will help.
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Thank you so much. I will give this a shot tomorrow. Much appreciated
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I agree, force feeding isn’t ideal but it’s better than loosing your snake
If you’ve tried everything (live hopper, live rat pup, ft mouse or rat, boiled hopper, ft washed with dawn dish soap and dried, etc) then that would be your only option to keep it alive. You might want to take a listen to the most recent Herpetoculture Podcast with Ryan Dumas as a guest. He mentions a supplement for carnivores that they use at the zoo for non feeders. Seems like you can just syringe it down. I’ll be going that route in the future since. I have 15-18 clutches of ball pythons a year and there are generally a few out of that that won’t feed.
When it comes to non feeders there is some moral concern for hobby. If you force feed it, and you don’t keep it, you need to let the perspective owner know that it started out not feeding. After breathing, you’re talking about the most intrinsic survival behavior, there is a reason it’s not doing it. That reason could be a birth defect, genetic, or some other anomaly. A ball pythons that starts out not feeding, shouldn’t be bred in my opinion. Any ball python I hatch that is defective, leaves with a pet contract or I keep it as a pet. People love to rescue defective animals, and if it’s humane to do so, that’s awesome. Just keep in mind that people fall in love with their pets and you could be passing on unnecessary heartbreak or financial burden if the animal fails to thrive due to it’s issues.
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Update:
I warmed up a pinky mouse, got it wet, opened her mouth with its nose and… She ate! Thank SO much. I am very very grateful for this forum and everyone who makes it so amazing!
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Glad she ate. Hopefully now she will eat all on her own 
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I sure hope so. I don’t wanna cause too much stress for her
I hate force feeding and live feeding, but sometimes ball pythons just have no idea that food is yum 🤦
Keep us updated over the next few weeks as to how she is doing
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