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Snake wont eat unless I hold him. . .

Tanziny

Tanziny

New member
I have a very young, (between 3-4 months old) male striped normal cornsnake, he is about 14-15 inches long, has shed for me eats well IF i hold him and feed him out of a wooden bowl. When I put him in my 10 gal. feeding tank, or in a deli cup (I have tried both) he wont eat. I end up sitting at my computer desk with a pinky in an older wooden bowl holding on to his back end while he eats. While I dont mind doing this, I have 4 other snakes to feed on that night plus beardies and dogs, cats etc. So it takes up about 20-30 min of my time. I would love for him to be able to eat in his tank, or cup, etc but he absolutely wont unless I am holding him.

It is actually kind of cute, and if I thought a snake could "love" someone, he would be a lover, he enjoys being held, talked to etc lol. However non of my other snakes (including his sister) have this issue and all eat fine in the feeding tank and have no issues with feeding or shedding either. So I was wondering, is this normal, any suggestions, should I encourage this?

Thanks :D
 
It could be much worse. He could be a non-feeder. I have had shy/reluctant feeders...who I only wished they would have eaten out of the palm of my hand.

I suspect, as he becomes familiar with prey in his mouth, he'll require your presence less. Do you have a feeding tub/bowl with a lid, that you can set the wooden bowl down inside, at feeding time, with food in bowl? LOL. So he likes his favorite wooden bowl. And loves you. What more could you ask for? LOL.
 
Have you tried tease feeding him? Or seeing what happens if he skips a meal and is hungrier? I'm unclear about why it's taking 20-30 minutes of your time. He can't possibly be eating that whole time, right?
 
No, he is not eating the whole time, it takes about 15 minutes for him to explore my hands really well, then he settles down in his bowl to eat. I have tried skipping 2 weeks with him and just leaving him in a quiet place to see if he will eat, but so far no go. Today however (right after I posted) i was able to get him to eat in his feeding tank, I held the pinkie in my hand (generally I dont touch them) then put it in the tank. I also stayed right near him for a bit, then covered the tank (which is normal procedure) and he ate! YAY. Not sure if he thinks I am just a big piece of food that little bits fall off of and he can eat lol or what, but apparently either he has been a butt the last couple of months or he really likes the way I smell :D either way next feeding time, I am going to try again, using some of the same techniques and trying putting the bowl in if needed.

Thanks
 
Slit the mice. Also, leave the corn over night in a deli cup or paper bag shut tight in his viv (in case he gets out of the deli cup or bag).

Also, blood and bodily juices do wonders to encourage feeding. Slitting mice deeply to get the blood and juices to ooze are the only way I can get my okeetee corn to eat, and slitting just makes my little normal even more voracious with eating.
 
I kind of like hand-feeding (babies) but I always just hand them the pink and they take it and eat while I'm holding them, while I walk around and get their water bowl and wash it and whatever. I just recently "weaned" two of them to feeding by themselves. (The reason they were hand fed is Draco was too strikey and wanting to kill me to think about eating in his container, and Razzle needed pieces of pinks, and it was just easier to hand feed them).

First, I feed the hand-feeders last, so they don't hold things up.

I start by feeding as normal, and once they have committed, just setting them down in the feeding container and letting them finish.

If that goes okay, the next few times, I hand them the pink, set them in the container, ease the lid on and closed.

Once they are used to being set down and closed in to finish their meal, I try feeding normally- heat the pink, put it in the container, put the snake in, close the lid. With this type of snake, I don't cover them up with a towel right away, because I want to see what's going on. Generally, given a few minutes and not a lot of distraction, they decide to feed.

If they won't take the pink themselves, I had it to them and put them in and close the lid, and try again next time.

You know what- just be happy he eats, with _any_ method! He _will_ outgrow this behaviour some day...
 
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