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My 4 month old corn wont kill before he eats?

AWSneer

AWSneer

That guy.
Hello everyone! Sorry for the lack of an intro but i suck at introductions, so I just wont bother.

New to snakes... But my lil buddy has been a champ so far!

One problem:

He eats fuzzies alive!

(sorry for the graphics)

Normally he is all fine and dandy and will constrict a smaller pinky/ fuzzy and kill them before eating... But last feeding and today (i just started with actual fuzzies) he decided to just go butt first, and eat the squirming fuzzy! The mouse was squeaking and pawing as his nose went in lil buddies mouth!!!!!!!! I couldn't watch (and normally I dont care about this sort of thing)!

What should I do?

Im thinking I should just keep with the smaller fuzzies and or double pinkies till he gets a little bigger and stronger?

Anyone have any input on this?

Thanks,
Andrew
 
Yea for the first 2.5 months I did... but I feel that a real snake should be killing its prey, not eating prekilled frozen mice... With that being said, maybe I just have to wait till he figures out how to get a good constriction?
 
Well... I realize there is a risk with scratching and such. is it really a terrible idea to only feed them live mice?

aka is the rumor ive been hearing: (Corns not accepting frozen mice after only being fed live mice) is true?
 
A "real" snake? So what do most of the members of this forum have?

Rubber snakes? Sorry OP we can't help you, we don't have "real" snakes like you, just imaginary ones :/
 
If you don't want to use frozen you can kill them yourself. My corn snake had no problem taking pre-killed fresh mice. She still tries to kill them most of the time.
 
Well, scratching and biting mean a risk of scars and infection - maybe losing an eye if you get unlucky. An adult mouse can do a lot of damage to a snake and you won't necessarily be fast enough to stop it happening. Live food's an extra risk as your chap is deciding that he doesn't have to waste energy by killing first (as a cold-blooded animal, he'll only expend energy on the essentials). In a year's time, he could take a couple of hefty bites before he realises that he's found one that intends to fight back and has the teeth to back it up. It's not worth the risk, really.

A Corn's no less of a snake because of how or what it eats - that's a human perception. Frozen/thawed or live, it doesn't affect the Corn either way. Corns live to grand old ages having never seen a live mouse. Is a dog "less of a dog" because it eats vet formula dry food all its life, rather than raw hunks of cow?

Although its unusual, a captive-bred Corn is a pet and not a wild animal. You don't have to try and force it to behave like it would in the wild. In the wild, it would have an unlimited amount of space to hunt the mouse and move around it if it decided to fight back. In captivity, they have a limited amount of space and will be forced into contact with the mouse without the room to hunt/manoeuvre as they need to, to avoid injury.

There can be issues swapping from live to frozen, but you won't know unless you try. Many won't have a problem.

There's also the fuzzy to consider. I know it sounds daft, but that's a live animal as well and you need to think about minimising its suffering. Bit of an odd concept for a food animal I know, but being eaten alive is really unnecessary suffering.
 
F/T mice are safer....
They carry no parasites to start with, and they won't attack your snake trying to save themselves from death.....
Plus you can have the fun of trying to get the snake to strike feed without hitting your fingers.....
To think it's more natural to feed live is a fallacy........
 
Rarely are wild corn snakes found in PA, as far as I know. A snake and a mouse confined to a couple feet of space in which to play out their predator-prey instincts is no where near what would occur in the wild. Death by constriction is a slow, painful, terrifying process for the mouse, to say nothing of being swallowed alive. It also carries risks of being bit or scratched for the snake, which can be as small a problem as dabbing some neosporin and having it leave a scar to painful and costly infections to instant death, depending on where it is bitten. Choosing to feed live for reasons like 'it looks cool' or 'I want my snake to be a real snake' is unethical and HIGHLY frowned upon in reptile communities that are not comprised entirely of teenage boys who name their snake "Killer" and use it to scare their sister. Live food is acceptable only when the snake refuses anything else, and that's after MANY tricks to get them to eat are exhausted. If it's the show you want, snakes fed f/t their whole lives have been known to enthusiastically attack, constrict, and "kill" frozen mice. If your snake took f/t before, it should take it now, and if it won't there are many tips we as a community can offer you for getting him back on it, but I highly doubt anyone will come in here and give you tips on how to make it perform more for you at meal time.
 
No problem, and please try not to take the above posts as hostility... Feeding live by choice is just a pretty taboo thing in the reptile community. If you need any help convincing your little one to eat frozen (hopefully you won't) practically everyone on this forum has had to deal with a non-feeder at one point or another and everyone has their own "trick" to getting them to eat... I did the zombie mouse dance :p
 
haha well... I just dont like feeding him the f/t's you get from the stores, I feel that since I feed him mice that I raise myself, I know they are actually fresh mice not something that might have come from some super mouse that was given drugs to produce babies faster and at a higher quantity... you know? (because that is how stuff works now a days)
 
AWSneer said:
haha well... I just dont like feeding him the f/t's you get from the stores, I feel that since I feed him mice that I raise myself, I know they are actually fresh mice not something that might have come from some super mouse that was given drugs to produce babies faster and at a higher quantity... you know? (because that is how stuff works now a days)
Click to expand...


You could always build a CO2 chamber and raise your own mice then freeze them for future use.
 
If you tease feed with tongs corns will attacks and coil for the most part instinctively even though the mouse is dead. Of course its so much easier to just stick the mouse right in, but if you like the attack try tong feeding.
 
haha well... I just dont like feeding him the f/t's you get from the stores, I feel that since I feed him mice that I raise myself, I know they are actually fresh mice not something that might have come from some super mouse that was given drugs to produce babies faster and at a higher quantity... you know? (because that is how stuff works now a days)
Click to expand...

Rest assured, I have never heard of anyone feeding their mice some super baby producing drug.. Would probably be a lot more than the actual babies are worth..

Pepper gets kudos for this line...

A snake and a mouse confined to a couple feet of space in which to play out their predator-prey instincts is no where near what would occur in the wild.
Click to expand...

Thats the exact point... These are animals semi confined to smaller place and defiantly are not in the wild..

Of course this didn't help your arguement..

Death by constriction is a slow, painful, terrifying process for the mouse,
Click to expand...

I don't quite know how long for a mouse, but a well executed constriction/choke hold, will likely put mousey into another realm mighty quick... Its much like the holds used to subdue unruley customers in the bar.. 12 to 15 secs of fame and then they are on the floor with no idea of where they are.. Terrfiying for a few seconds, but I doubt overly painful on a proper constriction..

Dude, theres no reason to feed your snake live if it was already accepting f/t.. Its not in a natural setting so it can't flee when it doesn't wanna fight...
 
Yea, you guys are right... I guess I should of actually thought about it :(. You can tell I'm new to snakes and their needs, I'm sorry I sound like such a newbie haha

My plan next saturday is to just kill the mouse and do da cha cha so lil buddy goes for it.

Thanks for your help!
 
Not at all an issue. I'm sure you'll find people here are more than willing to help you, especially if you're willing to admit a mistake and try what's recommended like you are :) welcome to the forum.
 
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