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I'm stranded! My baby needs to eat!

Candyflipz

Candyflipz

New member
Hey guys,


Sorry for the classic new mommy panic episode, but I'm really worried.

My baby's a new hatchling and he's been eating pinkies just fine, but I've become stranded on my campus with no car to get to the pet store (and no ride to one) until at least the weekend. The last time he ate was Monday 2/9, so it's been well over a week and I won't be able to get to the pet store until Saturday probably at the soonest. I know these guys go weeks and sometimes months without food, but the poor guy is so limp and weak when I hold him and I feel like such a horribly awful mommy.

Basically, is there any need to really worry about the poor guy? Is there anything I could scavage for in a quickie-mart type place? Or do you think he's okay? I'm definitely going to start buying pinkies 3 or more at a time and keep some stocked up just in case from now on, and I'll do everything in my power to not get stranded like this again. But even if he's fine this time, is there anything household that snakes can eat and not get sick?

Thanks for the help guys and sorry for being so paranoid, I just love my Ringo <33
 
Hey, I promise your baby will be okay...
Adult Corn snakes in the wild can go over a month with out eating, It defanitly isn't a good thing to do but she'll be just fine!!!
And the fact that your so worried about her sounds like your an amazing mommy!
(a baby corn can go over two weeks without eating and be totaly fine!)
HAva a great day!!
 
That's a really great idea about the ordering online, but I don't have a freezer to keep 50 or 100 mice in. I have a mini fridge as I'm a college student =/ so I can't find a place that I can order max 10-20 mice, everywhere only sells 50 or 100 or more
 
OK, I'm no expert, trust me we are only a couple of weeks into having our corn, but I have read a couple of articles on alternative foodstuffs. Have a read of these two:

http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18393&page=2

look towards the bottom of the page 2 thread (the long post by vinman - IIRC), and read the following pages.

Also this one is suggesting chicken fillets

http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=79437

It would appear that this is as an emergency only, as it is lacking all the other lovely nutrients that you get from a whole mouse!

However, from our research prior to buying our corn, and from talking to the reptile shop when we picked Buster up, missing a week is not going to cause any problems. In fact Buster's feeding record showed he missed a feed in December when he would have only been about 10 weeks old.

It's good that you worry about your snake - I know the feeling - but concensus would seem to suggest that your little guy will be fine.

Cheers

ian
 
i know of a guy who had a baby corn snake and had been feeding it by mistake every 2 weeks. I told him he needed to be feeding it more often. He had it for 3months before I told him this.
 
sorry for the double post. not thinking all that straight. need some sleep. but yea the point is your snake will probably be fine. I've heard of baby corns being lost for a few months without food and found alive later slender and malnourished yes but still alive. I'm sure it would be helpful to have a few extra pinkies on hand to avoid the issue again.
 
I don't know guys. If the baby is already "weak and limp" is there something else going on here?
Do they have cabs in your town?
 
Yes, weak and limp doesn't sound good at all....
I doubt it's from hunger, though.

Is your baby from a petshop?
 
Candyflipz said:
That's a really great idea about the ordering online, but I don't have a freezer to keep 50 or 100 mice in. I have a mini fridge as I'm a college student =/ so I can't find a place that I can order max 10-20 mice, everywhere only sells 50 or 100 or more
Click to expand...

You'd probably be surprised how small a bag of 100 pinkies actually is. Even a mini fridge has the space. If you can fit a half gallon of ice cream in your freezer, you can fit the pinks.

Like the others said, a week or two with no food isn't ideal, but quite do-able for a healthy baby. "Weak and limp" isn't due to lack of food.

You sound like a great, caring owner. I hope all is well with your baby.
 
I am concerned that your little guy is weak ande limp! Are you sure it's weak and limp and not chilled and relaxed?? There is a difference.

Regarding his feeding this week, he'll be fine for a another week so relax.

I ordered 100 pinkies for Cyrus and trust me, you should be able to fit it in your dorm freezer.....if your freezer can hold a small ice cube tray it will hold 100 pinkies. If you just want to be safe order 50!
 
Thanks for the feedback guys.

My mini fridge's freezer can't hold even a pint of ice cream =/ so yea.

But the "weak and limp" thing is a comparison from when I'd hold him a few days after a meal, he would grab onto my hand pretty firmly and was moving around nice and quickly. I did get him from Petco and when I first brought him home he had the same weak/limp feeling. I've only had 3 feedings since I brought him home. After the 3rd (which was about 5 days after his 2nd) he was very strong and lively, a huge difference from when I had first brought him home. This could have been due to him becoming more comfortable with me and less stressed, as I'm sure going this long without food is stressing him =/

Thanks for the reassurance guys and I'll be checking out those threads, thanks for the info!
 
I didn't get a chance to read the full thread from Vinman, but going to the 4th page I don't trust his judgement at all =/ But hearing from others that they've supplimented their snake's diet with turkey/chicken meat is very interesting. I'll probably be looking more into this just to learn, but I agree that it's really important, especially for a baby, to get all those vitamins and nutrients from a full mouse.

How big is an average package of 100 pinkies ordered online? I might see if I can grab my mini fridge from home (I've been using my roommate's) which has about the same sized freezer, but it's shaped more like a square (whereas my roommate's is just a small section that spans the entire top of the fridge).

What website do you all recommend for quality/inexpensive rodents? Especially those that have good packaging seeing as I don't have a true freezer, just basically an ice box. Do you think it will keep the mice frozen enough to be healthy to feed to Ringo?

I'm not too sure as the difference between "weak and limp" and "cool and relaxed." If it makes any difference, even now if I hold him after a few minutes he gets to be about my body temperature (just from the warmth of my hands) and he's still not really gripping as hard as he had been. He's not like, flopping around if I pick him up or anything, he just feels like he's got less energy to grip onto me than he has in the past. Which, obviously, makes sense if he hasn't eaten this week.

Thanks for the info guys, again, and for being generally awesome hehe <33
 
I am willing to bet that an order of 50 pinks would fit in your freezer....don't quote me on it, but I think a pack of 100 would fit, so I would think 50 would. My pack of 100 pinks came in an extra thick zip lock baggie. This is smaller then a sandwich sized baggie. Hope this helps!
 
cornsnakeluver said:
Hey, I promise your baby will be okay...
Adult Corn snakes in the wild can go over a month with out eating
Click to expand...

ALL adult snakes can go for over 6 months with absolutely no food. A study was done on the subject. I would say a baby corn would be around that, give or take a month.

Your snake will be fine. and when you do get more food, I recommend buying in bulk so you don't have to go and get more so often. AGAIN, your snake will be just fine :)
 
Candyflipz, I'm sure you'll be surprised at how easily you can squeeze a bag of 50 or 100 pinks in your freezer. They're usually shipped in freezer bags, as I understand it. I've purchased from RodentPro online and never had a problem. Others on the forum like The Mouse Factory and Big Cheese, and I'm sure there are other good choices, too. With a reputable dealer, you can count on the fact that your snake is getting balanced nutrition because the mice are fed balanced meals. Even with the shipping cost, and even if you only get one bag, this is the most economical way to feed a single snake -unless you just happen to breed your own mice for fun.

The mice will keep long term, as will any frozen meat. ;) Just minimize air in the bag with them as you open and close it. You may separate them into several bags, if you like. Heck, they could even be kept in separate places if need be.

As for length of time between feedings, babies do need to be fed more often than adults because their needs are different. That said, it's certainly not going to be a problem for a healthy young one to go a couple of weeks without food. When shedding, for example, you may not feed for 10 days. Post-regurge protocol recommends a 10-day fast to heal and rebuild gastric juices. Some hatchlings don't WANT to eat, and it takes some coaxing. My Wizard went 33 days between feedings when I got him. I was really worried, but he was fine. (Once he started eating for me, he's never refused a meal and is growing quite well.)

Keep being a good mommy, and don't stress about it. :D
 
hello
i just got done reading the post and i was wondering can u tell us the basic set heat and type of substrate... also get a pic of the snake.. so we can see if it looks really thin(even tho its hard to tell with babies) that way maybe one of us can spot something if there something wrong or see if it looks healthy.. also ording mice seems to be the way to go for you. also when u can get to a pet store.. just as a suggestion sense it from petco.. get provent a mite and they also have pariste powder.. stuff.. its a good idea to treat him for a few days..
make sure hes warm for about 12 hours of the day at like 84 degrees..

just my .02 cents worth.. sounds like your doing great!! as a new mommy
god luck.
 
Hey guys. Got to Petco today and got some pinkies. That was the fastest I've seen him gobble anything down haha. Was gone in about 2 seconds. I picked up some humidifying moss, some of the reptile astro-turf type stuff (not astro turf...just cant remember what it's called) and a humidity gauge (he had trouble with a shed a few weeks ago so I'm uppin' the humidity). He seems happy as a clam and at the moment is running (so to speak) around his terrarium exploring his new stuffs. He's got a big fat belly too =]. Thanks for the reassurance and yea I'm gonna check in on mites and stuff, but I think it was just new mommy worrying =].

<333 thanks guys, pictures to come (my camera=hibernating...so to speak)
 
I just noticed your in Maryland where abouts? I ordered 50 pinks and they are really really tiny taking up less than 6x6 space in my freezer.
 
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