New Here, with a couple questions

[bogienbac]

Hello,

We inherited an adult corn snake. We don't know his age, but he is about 4 ft long. We are new to snakes, so it has been a lot of research and trial and error. We tried to feed him frozen, both rat pups and mice and he refused those. We have had him 4 weeks and he has not eaten once. We then tried live and he killed the mouse, but did not eat it. About a week later he started looking clouded over, so we have just left him alone. He finally shed today and it was a complete shed! Now, my question is..how long do we wait to feed him and she we try frozen again, or do live?? Any help or advise would be greatly appreciated.

[bitsy]

Hello and welcome!

You can try feeding again immediately. I'd persist with frozen, as it's much safer than offering live mice which can cause injury if not killed immediately. You can leave the defrosted mouse in with him overnight - sometimes the absolute dark and quiet helps nervous Corns feel more secure about eating (during which process they'd be vulnerable to predators in the wild).

If he refuses again, it's best not to try again for a few days in case he gets stressed by it.

Oh and congrats on the complete shed! It's always a relief not to have to deal with stuck tail tips or eyecaps.

[bogienbac]

Thank you! I put in a warm, thawed mouse, will leave it in overnight and see how he does. He is such a wonderful snake.

[K. Rene]

Sometimes males go off food for months this time of year because they are preoccupied with their hormones and are only focused on finding a mate, but if it's a female there is also a chance that it could have eggs if they were ever with another snake. There are also a few techniques you can use to entice them to eat the frozen thawed mice, like making them smell like fish or chicken. I highly recommend Kathy and Billy Love's book I read it cover to cover when I got my first two very informational. http://www.amazon.com/Corn-Snakes-Comprehensive-Herpetocultural-Library/dp/1882770706/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1343021893&sr=8-1&keywords=corn+snakes+a+comprehensive+owners+guide