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Spoiled corn snake?

J

Jordan G

New member
Hey everybody, I got a slight problem with my corn. It's used to live food, but I'd rather have it eat thawed frozen food, although she doesnt seem to want to take anything except for live, I make sure the temp and humidity is in the right range, I've also tried coaxing it to think it's a live one, but it wont fall for it. I've been trying not feeding it for an extended period of time to see if it would take it, but that doesn't work.
Any ideas. :)
 
You might want to try braining or slitting the prey item, and then leaving it in a small dark space (like a little cardboard box) for an hour or so, making sure there are no lights and no noise to disturb the snake. This is what has worked for me.
 
Welcome to the forums. :) Yep, Jake's idea is a good one. If you thaw in hot water, you may want to thoroughly dry (even blow dry) the mouse, or consider dry-thawing. The mouse should also be warm (~100*F) when presented. Of course, there are some live-feeders that never convert to frozen/thawed...
 
As much as live feeding is fun to watch(Dont get me wrong lol.)In my opinion frozen foods would be healthier for the snake, germs and etc does get killed when it's frozen.. And a already dead mouse wont bite your snake. That really why I wanna go already killed, I get so worried everytime I feed her live, and shade, this is my first snake, so please explain what you mean by braining and slitting, I think I get it but I could be wrong :p
 
Jordan G said:
As much as live feeding is fun to watch(Dont get me wrong lol.)In my opinion frozen foods would be healthier for the snake, germs and etc does get killed when it's frozen.. And a already dead mouse wont bite your snake. That really why I wanna go already killed, I get so worried everytime I feed her live, and shade, this is my first snake, so please explain what you mean by braining and slitting, I think I get it but I could be wrong :p
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Braining is when you take a sharp object and make a hole or small cut in the head of the prey item, then squeeze the brains out a little bit and rub them over the body. This makes the mouse smell more appetizing (to the snake, anyway)

Slitting is basically the same concept, but done by making a series of V shaped cuts along the back of the prey item, with the point of the V facing the tail.
 
Thank you very much, I'm going to try the braining first, then if that doesn't work I'll try slitting, now .. Will I have to brain it everytime? Or should I do a sort of transition? Also if anyone else has any ideas please don't think this case is closed you could say.
 
Hey and Welcome to the Forums. You probably will not have to brain it everytime, just until it gets used to feeding f/t. If a snake has been eating live its whole life it might be hard to get it to eat f/t. Well tell us what happens.
 
Jordan G said:
Thank you very much, I'm going to try the braining first, then if that doesn't work I'll try slitting, now .. Will I have to brain it everytime? Or should I do a sort of transition? Also if anyone else has any ideas please don't think this case is closed you could say.
Click to expand...

You might end up having to do it every time, but I'm betting that it'll be a transition. I'd do it for the first month's worth of feedings or so, and then try to get it to take non-brained f/t.
 
Or you could try washing the pinkie real well with a mild soap like Ivory (I think that's the one they've recommended here on the list), rinse it real well and offer it that way.

I've been fortunate in getting great eaters, but several people here on the list swear by the washing the pinkie.
 
I would like to emphasize that the f/t item is very warm. Live mice have a body temp of 100-101 degrees F. A tepid mouse always got tepid responses from some of my snakes. I also second the idea on making sure you dry it well first also. I had a rescued burm that I transitioned from live to f/t. She struck and coiled but it took her forever to decide to eat as the wet fur put her off a bit. She sniffed the whole thing over very carefully, but ate it when I re-presented it to her.
 
No I havent tried freshly killed, I'm not sure of a way I could kill it(Humanely anyway)before feeding it to my snake.
 
Sorry for the double post, but I thought I'd share some pictures of Diamond. :)
I'll put links for now because there is 5 pictures, if its ok to put the all the pics on here tell me.
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2
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Post the pictures in the Photo Gallery, they'd be received better there. And yeah, you can have all the pictures in one post.

If you want to do freshly killed, just take a live mouse and give it a good wack on the head, or do cervical dislocation.
 
Or go to the snake store, and say "I'd like one fresh killed adult, please." I just found out they don't kill pinks, though. So I ended up stuffing it down the recalcitrant's throat live...

Meg, now you have me taking FT temps, thanks! I got chewed on because of the delay!

Nanci
 
I agree with the suggestion of going to a reptile store and asking for a fresh killed mouse. If you are still living with your parents they might decide that you're turning into a psychopath if they catch you killing your own mice. Ha.
 
Nanci said:
Meg, now you have me taking FT temps, thanks! I got chewed on because of the delay!

Nanci
Click to expand...
It's not necessary to stick in a rectal thermometer to make sure you know! :) Just make sure it feels warm to the touch. Great looking snake by the way. And the easiest way to quickly kill them is to hold the tail and just whack their heads against a hard surface. It's very quick and they are out right away.
 
I had one snake, about 9 months old, decide to stop eating F/T ever. I fed it live a few times to make sure it would still eat then I just waited for three weeks until it was hungry enough not to be picky. This one had accepted F/T quite well before, but it was acting like you said "spoiled". I don't feed him live anymore because I don't want him to go a picky on me again.
 
I am VERY happy to tell you that today I went to petsmart, Picked up some small mice(or hoppers the size they were)and I tried feeding it one before braining, or any other tricks. And she took it straight away! Along with the 2nd one I thawed and then I let her goto bed to digest. :) It could have been her just getting hungry enough, but i waited this long before, so i'm thinking maybe it has something to do with the size of the prey item before, I was trying fuzzies before, only because that's what my brother has and I wasn't going to buy alot of mice unless she would eat them. But I went and bought some because I'm pretty sure my brother doesn't want me to brain his fuzzies hehe. :) Thank you all very much, I just hope she'll take all F/T this way from now on.
 
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