Corn snake not eating

Hello. Hope someone can shed light on this problem. My corn snake shed his skin towards the end of Jan. Between then and now, he has only eaten twice and doesn’t seem very interested in food (standard frozen mice) anymore. He occasionally puts the mice into his mouth but then appears to lose interest quickly and just drops then. Last time he ate was approx a months ago. Prior to shedding in Jan he would have two mice a week and had a very voracious appetite. He is also far more active then he used to be, always trying to get out of the tank - he was more docile before.

Bjorksbanjoplayer,
Well, you might try feeding your corn at night. Leave the mouse in the snakes enclosure overnight and just leave it alone until morning. He might just need some privacy. It would be helpful to know the temperature of his enclosure and any other general husbandry info.

Chris Olson

Re:

Thanks Chris. The tanks temp is between 20 - 25 degrees c. Water changed everyday. Warm and colder sections of tank. Substrate (aspen) changed regularly. Humidity 40 - 45%.

I feel you should raise the temps slightly. The temp should be around 25-30 C, but if he is young it probably should be slightly higher (26-32)

Has your snake not shed since January? That doesn't sound right. A snake should shed roughly once a month. If your snake is approaching another shed, this may be why he's refusing food.

Another question: are you thawing the mice? If not this may be why he drops them as they're too cold. Don't put frozen mice in the viv; they should be thawed out completely, and heated gently in a jug of warm water until they are soft.

Hope that helps!

If this snake is an adult or sub-adult, he may be fasting because it's breeding season. My breeding-age males are all fasting. Most breeding-age males will fast, or at least have a reduced appetite at this time. Also, only very young snakes shed monthly. An adult may go a few months between sheds.

Thanks for all the advice (Plissken and Roy Munson). Snake shed recently (about 2 weeks ago). Feed snake thawed mice (heated in hot water). Can anybody give me some advice on tank heating. Just using heat mats at the moment, but is there a better method? - Thanks - BBP

How old is your snake?

An under-tank heat mat is the best method, and you should have a heat gradient, which you said you have, so that's fine. It might be wise to have a heat mat which can be regulated, so you can control the temperatures manually. Also, if you don't already have one, you might like to invest in a digital thermometer with a probe, which will allow you to take accurate readings of the tank's temperature. It's not really a good idea to just guess at the temps.

As Dean said it may just be breeding season that is making your snake act differently (and thank you Dean for correcting me about the shedding! My mistake! )

However, there are some things you could try which may entice your snake in to eating.
You can try cutting open the head of the mouse ("braining") it to increase the smell.
Try "strike-feeding" - get the mouse on tongs and wiggle it in front of the snake to represent the movement of a live mouse, may rouse the snake's interest.

Good luck!

Roy Munson said:

If this snake is an adult or sub-adult, he may be fasting because it's breeding season.

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Ya, between that and the constant cruising, sounds like you have a horny male.

Thirded, he's randy

Mine did exactly the same last spring, I thought the mice were bad because he'd strike but that was it. He didn't eat for a few months.

One thing - don't bombard him with attempts at feeding, just offer food as normal once a week or less. Wiggle it with tongs to see if that sparks his interest; otherwise try not to worry. They can last a long time without food.

Forthded. Mine is doing the same thing. I wouldn't worry. Just do like Tracee said and offer food weekly. He'll eat when he's ready.