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Baby corn snake not eating?

B

BNR34RB26DETT

New member
so i have a foot long baby snake. i got her almost 2 weeks ago and ive been trying to feed her pinky F/T mouse since end of week one.
i just tried feeding her again and she was not interested at all.
is this normal?
i know im supposed to feed her once a week but its been two weeks. how often should i try feeding her?
i take her out of the tank and try feeding her in a different tank.
thanks
 
Are you putting her in a small deli cup (like the ones breeders ship the babies in) or just an open tank?
Also, try putting a pillowcase over the delicup, & feed at night, when they're more prone to eat.
You can dip the head of the thawed pinky into *very* hot water, or in chicken broth, or if all else fails, you can "scent" the pinky with lizard scent (from a lizard shed, or tail), I've heard frog scent sometimes works too.
I had a hatchling go almost 2 months of not eating at all, before he decided to eat his first pinky. I have a hatchling now that was the first to start eating, but went on a hunger strike, a couple weeks ago, & I finally had to hold her in one hand, the pinky in the other, & put the pinky in front of her. She turned away twice, but then looked at it, sniffed it & then decided to eat it. She wrapped her tail around my thuumb, so I had to sit there, holding her, until the pinky was out of sight.
They can be stubborn, but even in my young/new experience, they tend to become piggies.
 
How often are you trying to feed? Don't try too often. If she doesn't eat, wait at least a few days before you try again.
 
There are multiple offering to try: brained F/T, scented with tuna, lizard and chicken, live pinky, wash the pinky with non-scented soap, baby anole, tease feeding, trying pinkies from another source/breeder as I've had some that didn't like what I produce myself but like RodentPro, taking hatchling out for a drive in the car - crazy as it sounds, it works, and some I've probably forgotten. Eventually, however, if it refuses to accept any of these after going through the list twice, the hatchling was probably just not meant to survive.
 
Quick ideas:

1) Do not disturb/handle the snake until it is on a regular feeding schedule (has eaten 5 or 6 times)

2) House baby snakes in small containers - like the size of a shoebox or smaller.

3) Do not subject snake to bright lights.

4) Make sure the snake has hide areas.

5) Feed the baby corn in the evening - do not watch it eat. Put the food into the cage and leave it alone until the following morning.

6) Make sure your reptile is being maintained at the proper temperatures - with a temperature gradient.

7) Ask the breeder/store what the snake was eating. Some corns take frozen/thawed, while other like live food.

8) Your snake could be going through a shed cycle, if this is the case, it will be less likely to eat.
 
nwheather said:
Are you putting her in a small deli cup (like the ones breeders ship the babies in) or just an open tank?
Also, try putting a pillowcase over the delicup, & feed at night, when they're more prone to eat.
You can dip the head of the thawed pinky into *very* hot water, or in chicken broth, or if all else fails, you can "scent" the pinky with lizard scent (from a lizard shed, or tail), I've heard frog scent sometimes works too.
I had a hatchling go almost 2 months of not eating at all, before he decided to eat his first pinky. I have a hatchling now that was the first to start eating, but went on a hunger strike, a couple weeks ago, & I finally had to hold her in one hand, the pinky in the other, & put the pinky in front of her. She turned away twice, but then looked at it, sniffed it & then decided to eat it. She wrapped her tail around my thuumb, so I had to sit there, holding her, until the pinky was out of sight.
They can be stubborn, but even in my young/new experience, they tend to become piggies.
Click to expand...


hmmm
so i guess 2 weeks is not bad at all.
i usually put her in one of those 5 gallon buckets you can get from LOWES and try feeding pinky mouse in her. but she doesnt seem to be interested. is it better to put her in a smaller casings?


Katie612 said:
How often are you trying to feed? Don't try too often. If she doesn't eat, wait at least a few days before you try again.
Click to expand...

i try about once every two days. yea i will start trying every three to four days from now

Susan said:
There are multiple offering to try: brained F/T, scented with tuna, lizard and chicken, live pinky, wash the pinky with non-scented soap, baby anole, tease feeding, trying pinkies from another source/breeder as I've had some that didn't like what I produce myself but like RodentPro, taking hatchling out for a drive in the car - crazy as it sounds, it works, and some I've probably forgotten. Eventually, however, if it refuses to accept any of these after going through the list twice, the hatchling was probably just not meant to survive.
Click to expand...


lol i had no idea there were so many idfferent things you could feeed a corn snake.


tspuckler said:
Quick ideas:

1) Do not disturb/handle the snake until it is on a regular feeding schedule (has eaten 5 or 6 times)

2) House baby snakes in small containers - like the size of a shoebox or smaller.

3) Do not subject snake to bright lights.

4) Make sure the snake has hide areas.

5) Feed the baby corn in the evening - do not watch it eat. Put the food into the cage and leave it alone until the following morning.

6) Make sure your reptile is being maintained at the proper temperatures - with a temperature gradient.

7) Ask the breeder/store what the snake was eating. Some corns take frozen/thawed, while other like live food.

8) Your snake could be going through a shed cycle, if this is the case, it will be less likely to eat.
Click to expand...


thanks for all your comments. i guess i will leave her alone for a while and feed her every four days and see if she takes the mouse.
is feeding her in a bucked a ok place?
 
Why are you feeding it in a bucket? That's a very bad idea. Snakes to not like open spaces and you're likely terrifying the baby corn. Either feed the snake in its enclosure or feed it in an 8 oz. deli cup.
 
This is a problem that I have been having with a few of my hatchlings. They have homes but since I have not been able to get them to eat at all or some have only eaten once I am not letting them go to their new homes just yet.

I am assuming that this is a pet that you bought from a breeder so I am assuming that you have it in at least a 10 gal tank or something similar and in that case I would not recommend feeding in the enclosure if you have bedding in there. It is a possibility that they ingest the bedding and that can cause an impaction in their intestines. However, if you have paper towels in there then you can give it a shot I would not recommend to continue to do it but if it works then do it until the baby is eating good and then you can try to change feeding area.

I do use buckets or tubs to feed my bigger snakes my hatchlings because their is so many I use the little tupperware tubs that lunch meat comes in I think that it is from hillshire (lol) but this way I don't spend any extra money and it is tiny so they really have nothing to look at other than the food.

I have never had any luck with braining. I know most have so give it a try. I always feed all my snakes at night, with the babies they go into a dark quiet room for a few hours and then I check on them, if they still haven't eaten then I leave them over night. If they still haven't eaten then I will give them 4 or 5 days then try again with lizard scent or chicken broth. I just rub a lizard, that has become a pet for this purpose, all over the pinky. I just keep repeating those steps until hopefully they have eaten. I have four hatchling total that have not eaten. Two of them being twins (so they are already tiny) and they are no worse for the wear and we are on week #3.

I would contact the breeder if possible to find out when the last time the baby ate and what it ate. That might help you.

As far as this driving in a car to encourage eating. I want to know more about that. Do you have the pinky in the feeding tub while driving or do you give it to them right after you are done? I think I might want to try that.
 
cmalchow; [COLOR="Red" said:
As far as this driving in a car to encourage eating. I want to know more about that. Do you have the pinky in the feeding tub while driving or do you give it to them right after you are done? I think I might want to try that.[/COLOR]
Click to expand...

I have seen this technique used for breeding green tree pythons, but never for feeding anything. I would assume that the change of scenery and smells has something to do with it.
 
cmalchow said:
I have never had any luck with braining. I know most have so give it a try. I always feed all my snakes at night, with the babies they go into a dark quiet room for a few hours and then I check on them, if they still haven't eaten then I leave them over night. If they still haven't eaten then I will give them 4 or 5 days then try again with lizard scent or chicken broth. I just rub a lizard, that has become a pet for this purpose, all over the pinky. I just keep repeating those steps until hopefully they have eaten. I have four hatchling total that have not eaten. Two of them being twins (so they are already tiny) and they are no worse for the wear and we are on week #3.
Click to expand...
thanks for the great info. im gonan give that a try.
 
Keep us posted. I hope that little guy starts eating for you soon. I am sure that he will he just want to make sure you sweat it out a little. ;)
 
At what point do you think you should start to worry about babies not eating? Ive got a clutch of four and two of them took a while to take to eating (chicken broth did the bit!) but one of them just wont touch the food, and its been about 4 1/2 weeks. I know they can go a while, and honestly they are pretty big babies (92 days in the egg!) Is there a standard for worry though?


Ive had snakes stop eating for months at a time, but this being a baby i do worry!
(im going to try lizard scenting next!)
 
I finally got my twins to eat! YAY!! I was really starting to think that they weren't meant to be. The lizard scent really worked well. The first twin didn't even think twice he went right to the food the other I had to keep putting it in from of him, I think he was just to busy trying to get out of the tub and didn't notice it. I have been so worried about my twins just cause they were twins so that makes them even smaller than the rest of the clutch and they didn't soak up their yoke. They came out of the egg and left it behind. So they are bone thin on top of their twin tininess. lol I call them my little tape worms.

Dorgrim said:
At what point do you think you should start to worry about babies not eating? Ive got a clutch of four and two of them took a while to take to eating (chicken broth did the bit!) but one of them just wont touch the food, and its been about 4 1/2 weeks. I know they can go a while, and honestly they are pretty big babies (92 days in the egg!) Is there a standard for worry though?


Ive had snakes stop eating for months at a time, but this being a baby i do worry!
(im going to try lizard scenting next!)
Click to expand...

I would think that your baby is fine. We were on week #4 with the twins (I didn't realize that it had been that long until I pulled out their records) and they seemed to handle it pretty good. I hope he eats soon for you cause it does get a little stressful. I know that I was so excited that I was bouncing around like a little kid on Christmas Day. My husband thought I was nuts.
 
thanks for you replies. i tried feeding her again and no luck. its week 3.
left her in a small container in the dark over night and it just did not happen.
im about to brain the F/T or take her for a car ride.
but then i came across this

"So i finally figured out the secret to getting this Anerythristic Kenyan Sand Boa to eat! The secret is...Chicken broth...or in this case Chicken seasoning from Ramen Noodles :eek:P

Instead of warming the pinky mouse up with warm water, this time i warmed it up in warm water with chicken seasoning and she ate it right up! "

is this true? if it is, i would like to try it out until she starts eating. it would be less messy than braining a F/T

thanks
 
/\ yes i know its for a boa. but would it work in the similar way lizard scent would work? because im not sure where i can purchase lizard scent.....
 
I would try braining first. Really, it's no big deal. I slit _all_ my mice, until they are eating adults, and up through fuzzy size just snip right through the skull, too. Brains ooze out. It looks like whitish clearish liquid. Doesn't smell or look gross or anything. That is the most simple of scenting techniques.
 
It is not the best way to do it since there is a chance that you can give your snake something but I had a gecko that my husband caught in our yard. Now he has become a pet that we use to rub pinkies on. He does not look thrilled when my husband takes him out and I am rubbing pinkies on him. lol But you maybe able to try a reptile store if you have one in the area. They might save a lizard skin for you after they shed. But for as far as buying lizard scent I am not sure, but if someone else knows please inform us. I am sure that "Lizzy" would appreciate it.
 
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