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Baby false water cobra not eating.

B

breakneck

New member
I received a baby male FWC last week. I put him right into his home and left him alone for 5 days before introducing a fuzzy mouse.

He didn't come out of his hide and when the mouse went into his hide he did nothing. I tried again today and the same thing.

I called the shop I got it from and he said they're all eating like crazy.

Anyone have any experience with FWC's when they won't eat and have any suggestions?
I haven't tried any of the ideas for corn snakes yet as I would hate to try them, post here, and someone blast me for doing something that would be good for corns but bad for FWC's.

Should I just wait another week before trying to feed again? If the person at the shop is correct it ate approx a week before I got it.

It has me worried due to what I read about them being super great feeders and hungry all the time.
 
Well I'd like to thank everyone for the many replies I received on this post and the other posts I leave on other subjects with the questions I ask you experts. Yes I searched and there are about a dozen of you that have fwc's and more that know about them.
You guys who replied to this thread were very helpful, all zero of you.
Thanks for replying to my private messages too, all zero of you.

I figured I'd come back and leave an update.
Today the fwc ate.
Here's what I did if anyone ever searches this subject and has this problem.

He hides all the time. I've had it roughly 2 weeks now and only seen it out of its hide once or twice.
This poses a problem for me as I'm not going to leave a mouse in the cage (I feed my other snakes out of their enclosure).

I had a pinky in the container that I feed in and took the paper towel tube hide in my hand. The fwc always sticks it's head out to see what is going on every time I open the cage to investigate what is disturbing it.

I was going to tilt it and gently shake it out of its hide into the container so it was confronted with the mouse and could not continue to hide. Well it poked its head out and I put it near the pinky and it waited a second and ate no problem.
It did this while hanging out of the tube and pulled the pinky into the tube at almost upside down.
It kind of happened when I was trying to shake it out of the tube and was mostly accidental but at least I know it is feeding and should continue to eat.
 
Erm... the fact that some keepers here have them does not mean they feel they are an authority to go and hand out answers, or that they were even on line.
I am sorry but your post is insanely insolent. I know very few forums where people are so willing to help as this one.
With that attitude I must admit I won't be surprised if people will refrain from helping you in the future.
I don't recall anyone owing out anything.
 
Kokopelli said:
Erm... the fact that some keepers here have them does not mean they feel they are an authority to go and hand out answers, or that they were even on line.
I am sorry but your post is insanely insolent. I know very few forums where people are so willing to help as this one.
With that attitude I must admit I won't be surprised if people will refrain from helping you in the future.
I don't recall anyone owing out anything.
Click to expand...

Thank you!!! I agree!!!!
 
I'm sorry for the zero replies. Maybe it is because not many people here have FWC's.

Now why the people who have them didn't respond to your PM's, I have no idea.

Maybe 3 days was not long enough to wait. maybe a bump to this thread would do the trick. Just throwing ideas for your next thread(s).

Believe me, sometimes I feel ignored as well. :)
 
Oh, I forgot to mention the reasons I believe it did not eat for anyone else searching this in the future.
It shed 2 days ago. Since I have only seen it twice in the time I've had it the blue came and went and it came out and shed. That coupled with the bumpy ride from California is what I think did it (settling in). It was not easy to tell it was near shed because of its colors and the fact that I'm not very familiar with them to know the color change that well.

To those of you telling me I have a bad attitude seem not to understand that this is a forum to help others. Not getting any direction defeats the whole purpose of even being a member and doesn't make you feel to great. Yea I understand not everyone on here knows everything about every type of snake so I suppose I assumed that people on this forum were more familiar fwc's since they're posting pictures of them and talking all about them. I did search them and found owners and even pm'd them and got nothing back. I got a snake that's not eating and nobody on this forum would help. That's what my result was and you make me the rude one because it made me mad?

The reason I posted this question here too was to make this forum more helpful to people that own fwc's. I see q's here posted all the time about boas, pythons etc so this wasn't asking that much I didn't think.
 
If this happens to your baby fwc and you have any other q's feel free to pm me as I will make sure that I get back to you.
 
I'm going to have to agree with a previous statement...awesome attitude.

Did you even check to see that the members you PM'd were current members? I did a quick search and the most recent thread started by someone about their FWC was back in September, and that person hasn't been on the forums since 2/16. Obviously didn't get your PM if you sent one to her. Another one was started in August, and one in February....last year. The one in August was started by a member who has a very large collection and probably hasn't had time to respond to a PM if you sent one (plus, that member hasn't been on since 2/25). The one from February was started by a member who hasn't been on since August of last year.
 
WOAH. Okay, tone down the animosity a bit. Seriously, who put vinegar in your frosted flakes?
Do I have experience with FWCs? No. But a lot of the feeding tips that work for non-feeding corns are very general for most colubrids, and other snakes. Even the anole scenting, although if I would have seen this thread before, I probably would have suggested frog or toad scenting, as that seems like a more readily available food in their natural environment.
But seriously, cut down the sarcasm. Like a few people have said before, no one wanted to give you bad advice. When you keep an animal that isn't very popular, don't expect everyone to be an expert on it. We can't have an encyclopedia of herpetofauna care in our head.
 
breakneck said:
Oh, I forgot to mention the reasons I believe it did not eat for anyone else searching this in the future.
It shed 2 days ago. Since I have only seen it twice in the time I've had it the blue came and went and it came out and shed. That coupled with the bumpy ride from California is what I think did it (settling in). It was not easy to tell it was near shed because of its colors and the fact that I'm not very familiar with them to know the color change that well.

To those of you telling me I have a bad attitude seem not to understand that this is a forum to help others. Not getting any direction defeats the whole purpose of even being a member and doesn't make you feel to great. Yea I understand not everyone on here knows everything about every type of snake so I suppose I assumed that people on this forum were more familiar fwc's since they're posting pictures of them and talking all about them. I did search them and found owners and even pm'd them and got nothing back. I got a snake that's not eating and nobody on this forum would help. That's what my result was and you make me the rude one because it made me mad?

The reason I posted this question here too was to make this forum more helpful to people that own fwc's. I see q's here posted all the time about boas, pythons etc so this wasn't asking that much I didn't think.
Click to expand...

Patience young grass hopper this is a corn snake forum. If this were a FWC forum i would understand. It is not that you are asking to much. It's that you are asking about an animal that is not that commonly keep. Having a bad attitude will make it so that no one will want to answer a corn snake question from you.
 
I haven't kept FWC, but I have done some research on them as they were a species I wanted to get eventually. Most of the people I know who keep them find them to be aggressive, fast feeders. They should take f/t mice easily, although if yours is from a petstore it might be an import and therefore a little harder to get started. I'd still try feeding frozen/thawed from tongs. It's safer. A week or two is not that long. A wild caught import might take a while to feed comfortable in it's new home especially if it's a large tank. Young animals tend to do best in smaller tubs until they gain some size. In case you don't know more about these animals, they are venomous and although they have fixed fangs, the venom has been compared to that of the crotalus species and extreme caution should be practiced with them. I would treat it like a hot and use caution when handling, especially during feeding and once the animal attains full size, which is respectable.
 
MegF. said:
I haven't kept FWC, but I have done some research on them as they were a species I wanted to get eventually. Most of the people I know who keep them find them to be aggressive, fast feeders. They should take f/t mice easily, although if yours is from a petstore it might be an import and therefore a little harder to get started. I'd still try feeding frozen/thawed from tongs. It's safer. A week or two is not that long. A wild caught import might take a while to feed comfortable in it's new home especially if it's a large tank. Young animals tend to do best in smaller tubs until they gain some size. In case you don't know more about these animals, they are venomous and although they have fixed fangs, the venom has been compared to that of the crotalus species and extreme caution should be practiced with them. I would treat it like a hot and use caution when handling, especially during feeding and once the animal attains full size, which is respectable.
Click to expand...

I keep it in a ten gallon for now. I'll be moving and will get it a nicer set up when I get settled in.
Its a baby but I treat it like it's very dangerous and give it the respect it deserves. I haven't handled it and don't plan on it. Not to say that won't change but not yet.
I've seen the videos of people handling them but this one is very unsure of things. Every time I go near it it hoods up. (today it was out on the side of the cage with the uth like my corns do after they eat) It hooded up like crazy when I got it too but mostly it hides.
I've seen a few videos on them but they seem to be either unpopular or unknown mostly.

Here are some videos on fwc if you're curious:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_hUQxFCH4Q&eurl

Big fwc's Feeding response
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=459C8Xbk0cE&feature=channel_page

FWC handling
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYDXkOI2AJI&feature=channel_page

Big male
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_hUQxFCH4Q&feature=channel_page
 
Do you have plenty of hides for it? If not, you might want some to provide it with cover to help make it feel more secure.
 
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