Babies first meal.

[katach]

The babies ate today!! Salmon scented worm chunks. So far 5 have had firsts and the other 3 are still thinking about it. I'll give the slower 3 some more time then put the others back in for seconds. So exciting!!!!!

[guidofatherof5]

Congrats.
I love watching babies eat that first meal.

[katach]

Thanks! I was so happy when the first one chomped down! They like the salmon scent on the worm pieces. Maybe they weren't stinky enough before.

[guidofatherof5]

I'm out of pinkies for awhile longer so my concinnus' get a worm salmon mix.
It doesn't take these monsters long to empty a plate.

[katach]

yeah, we are picking our pinkies up on Tuesday. The supplier our pet store uses didn't send them in their last order so we had to wit another week. Thank goodness we have worms and salmon. The adult snakes are really wanting their pinkies though.

[kibakiba]

IMO, babies are usually an open book when it comes to food after they start eating. Mine were, at least. They ate salmon for their first meal (I had no pinkies and they were scared of worms), then pinkies for their second. No scenting required. I tried scenting the worms with salmon a few times, because they didn't seem to be able to get over the look of them (I guess :D) They wouldn't even take scented worms! Haha. They all seem to prefer pinky parts over everything else. They also eat frog legs, occasionally. (the chorus frogs I catch and freeze for a month). I have found that, with my babies, it was fairly easy to get them eating anything they could get their mouths around.

[katach]

I'm hoping they take to pinkies quickly. That would be awesome!

[guidofatherof5]

Cutting them up for these little ones will cover the parts with blood and fluids.
Makes an almost irresistible smell for them.;)

[katach]

Good! I'll try that on Tuesday. Tomorrow is their rest day.

[BUSHSNAKE]

its always a good feeling to see your babies take their first meal

[d_virginiana]

That's awesome. It's gotta be great to see them take that first bite of food.

[katach]

So feeding time was another good day. Mix of worm chunks, pinkie parts/chunks drizzled with salmon juice. Half of them ate. This is going very well!!

[RedSidedSPR]

That great!

[katach]

This is Fish Bait trying to eat half a pinkie head yesterday.

[kibakiba]

So cute :D

[katach]

I love to watch them eat now! I can't wait for tomorrow's feeding!

[kibakiba]

I do too, Pumpkin, Azul and Silver eat while sitting in my hand. It's adorable having them coiled up in my hand while munching on pinky or worm :)

[katach]

That chunk ended up being a little big for him/her to eat. I had to pick him/her up and he/she spit it out, and got a different piece a few minutes later. It was funny watching him/her try to push it into his/her mouth. He/she was using the bridge, the hide, and the glass, but it didn't work. I felt bad having to pick him/her up, but I didn't want him/her to sit there all night with a half of a head in his/her mouth.

[kibakiba]

Yeah, some of my babies will steal pieces from the bigger ones and end up trying to get it out when they realize they cant swallow it. A few times Pumpkin stole food from Thumbelina and got it partially down, but had a really hard time swallowing the rest of it. I tried to help her, but I couldn't really get the piece out of her mouth, and I couldn't push it down without hurting her, so I just held her so the others would stop spooking her. It took about 15 minutes but she finally got it down all the way. I was really worried that I'd lose her.

[katach]

It was my fault, I thought I cut the pieces small enough but I missed that piece. I guess both me and the babies are learning how this whole eating thing works. :D

[kibakiba]

Yeah, I have to figure things out still. I'm used to having a baby or two, not 5 in with 1 + year olds. Haha. They're so fun though. There is never a dull moment with the babies, no matter what they do it makes you go "Awwwwwww!!!!!" Hehe :D

[katach]

I will completely agree on that! Everything is awwwwwww! Even when they are just digging around in the aspen.

[katach]

Well still just 5 have eaters. Two of the non-eaters are starting to show interest. Nidra just doesn't seem to care as of yet. Hopefully the non-eaters will eat next time.

[RedSidedSPR]

Word of advice: never name a non-eater.:D

Hope they eat for ya!

[katach]

It's still early. They are 18 days old. :)

[RedSidedSPR]

I know. Nice and early.;) More of a joke than anything, but there is truth to it.:rolleyes:

[katach]

Yeah, I know there are the chances that not all of them make it. I mostly named her because she yawns a lot and it's cute. Nidra is sleepy is an Indian dialect.

[RedSidedSPR]

Yeah, it's a really cool name.

I bet they'll all eat. They're such big healthy babies!

[katach]

I hope so. That would great! My first litter and all of them eating! That would be fantastic!

[RedSidedSPR]

I'd say your first litter is a success already! Nice litter, plus I've never seen such big NW babies!!!!

[katach]

Same 5 ate again yesterday. Think I may need to offer something different to the reluctant 3. Any thoughts? I've tried worms and pinkie parts, scented (salmon) and unscented. On a good note, the ones that did eat are taking from the tongs now. :)

[kibakiba]

Any chance you could do guppies? Maybe you could put some worm, pinkie parts and guppies in a small container with one of the non-eaters of the bunch and see if the guppies movement might get them to latch onto a food piece?

[katach]

Guppies are too expensive all the pet stores around here have stopped carrying feeders, they only have the fancies. :( I thought about a slug but I worry that the slime will hurt them since they are so little still.

[kibakiba]

Maybe if you tried a baby slug? Or catch a frog and rub it on some worms or pinky?

Could you have the pet stores order them like they do with your pinkies? Our pet store doesn't do things like that, so I'm not really sure how it works :)

[katach]

I've tried , but they say that they end up dying in transit, which is why they don't carry them anymore.

[kibakiba]

How about rosy reds? Those are safe to start babies on if you can get them.

[katach]

I'll have to check that out. I keep hearing about them, but have never looked for them. Isn't there a controversy about their safety? Some say they are ok and others say they aren't hard to know what to believe.

[kibakiba]

Well, they have thiamnaise, which destroys the b1 in your snakes food I believe, but to start babies eating, they're okay. Over a long period of time, they can cause some problems, but just for an occasion treat or, like I said, getting the babies to eat... There wont be any problems at all really. There is some risk of parasites, but with any live fish I think that risk is pretty up there, I think salmon even has a little bit of a risk.

[katach]

What about silversides? I keep hearing about those. What exactly are those?

[kibakiba]

Those are minnows that are thiamnaise free... They're a whole and frozen fish that you could cut up to see if the babies want some of that. I'm not sure how much they cost where you are, but here they were about 10-15 dollars.

[katach]

I'll have to call around. I think I may have seen them at the petco near us. I didn't notice the price though.

[RedSidedSPR]

None of my snakes loved silversides without scenting at first...

If the guppies ate expensive, you could buy jut a few, see if they eat them, and freeze ine so you can scent with it if they do...

[katach]

We have 5 eaters, and they are on unscented pinkie parts!!!!
I still have to figure out what the other 3's deal is and what they will eat.

[ConcinusMan]

Yeah it's really no problem getting captive born northwesterns to eat just about anything. It's the WC ones that can be stubborn worm/slug eaters.

[katach]

Yeah, Blade took a while to eat, but she's a pig now. She eats anything, even unscented pinkies. :)

[guidofatherof5]

That's good news.
Nice going Blade.

[katach]

Yeah, she loves everything! It's hard to believe from how she acted at first. She was a tricky one, but I'm thankful we hung in there, she is awesome!

[ConcinusMan]

Yeah, Blade took a while to eat, but she's a pig now. She eats anything, even unscented pinkies. :)

Took over a year before that red striped northwestern I had would eat anything but a worm or slug. And it was just like, one day, she just started eating anything with gusto. She could be so damn fat she could barely move and still wanted more. That's when I named her "Miss Piggy".:D

[katach]

I was thinking, "Fatty, fatty, python butt, can't fit into the hide hut." :D