Snake still not eating or moving around much

[KyGirl]

I posted in a previous thread about my cornsnakes coloring being "off" and she has been inactive and irritable. Was told she was probably in "blue". That lasted three days and then she cleared up. She moved around for a day then started hiding again. She looked a little whitish and her eyes turned sort of white so I figured she was getting ready to shed. After two days of this she cleared up but still hasn't shed. I tried to feed her and she has refused to eat. She head butted the mouse but when I moved it she startled like she was scared and then wouldn't come near it. Every time I moved it she ran. I tried just leaving her alone for awhile but she still hasn't ate. It has been 12 days since she ate and she was eating every seven days and attacking the food really fast and eating well. I just got her out and let her crawl around me after trying to feed her. She still wouldn't eat. She has a few places on her that looks like dry skin. I put a moist hide in with her but she hasn't used it. I place damp paper towels around her viv. Should I put her in a soak tub for awhile? Just wait and see and try to feed her again in a few days? She looks a little thin. When she was crawling around my arms I notice she has clear definition between her muscles which she didn't have before? She moved around fine and seemed calm but when I put her back in her viv and then reached in to get her water dish she struck at me and rattled her tail. I don't have a vet around that will treat snakes so I am at a loss as to what to do. I checked the temps in her viv and it is 80 on the warm side and 70 on the cool side so I don't think the temp is the problem.

[jkgeorge]

Sounds like she just needs to shed. Keep the moist hides available and make sure there is something rough or textured she can rub against to help get the shedding started. Sometimes I add a little rough rock at shed time. Two weeks without feeding won't be bad on her if she was feeding well previously. Keep good feeding and shedding records and before long you'll know exactly when to expect a shed cycle. It's not a bad idea to keep humid hides available all the time, especially for young snakes. If she doesn't shed soon maybe try putting her in a warm damp cloth snake bag (or a pillowcase). That really helps sometimes. Just be sure to carefully examine the shed skin and the snake to make sure the eye caps and tail tip came off completely.

[Weda737]

What jkgeorge said, also leave her alone for a while, let her shed then offer food. No holding, no pestering.

[AliCat37]

Also, bump up the temperature on the warm side, 80 is pretty cool! it should be around 85

[KyGirl]

Thanks everyone. I will leave her alone for a few days and just look in on her to check temp and water supply. I added some damp paper towels to her favorite hide and she won't go in it. She is hiding behind it so I took them out. Humidity here is staying at 70% so it should be moist enough. I have been adding decorations to her viv so maybe she is just getting tired of me changing things. I added some ledges made of tree slabs that I heated and then sealed with acrylic and some fake plants. I also mounted a tree branch on a sand stone rock so she has rough surfaces to rub against. The other day when she finally got active for a night, she was rubbing her face against the wood of the viv. The last time she shed I never noticed anything. She just stretched out in her viv and was yawning a lot and the next day there was a shed skin. I had only had her a little over a week then. She was so active that it just worried me that she was suddenly staying hid all the time. I will bump up the temp a little. I bought a reostat to regulate the temp and I am having trouble getting it just right. We have big difference in temps from day to night in this area. I am going to save up for a digital thermostat and I think I need a bigger heat pad. The one I have now is really small, like 6x8 and the viv is 4 ft long. My nephew, who gave her to me, was only using a heat rock and he kept her very cool. So I guess I will wait and see. How long can she go without eating before I should worry?

[Chip]

How big is the snake? An adult can go for months without a meal, a baby lacks the mass to go so long.

[KyGirl]

She is 34 inches long. She has laid eggs before so she is an adult.

[jkgeorge]

She looks a little thin. When she was crawling around my arms I notice she has clear definition between her muscles which she didn't have before?

If you get a chance try to post a recent picture of her. Being off food for 12 days should not cause a visible change in a well fed adult. Sometimes the skin can look wrinkly and weird before a shed, hopefully that's what you are seeing. Did she lay eggs this year? If so her weight may be down from that and you may need to increase the frequency of feeding to get her weight back up.

[KyGirl]

I uploaded a couple of pictures. They are not the best. I only have the camera on my phone. She has actually started coming out tonight. She came out when it first got dark and stretched out. She went back to her hide when she saw me moving around. I had all the light out in my room and used a flashlight to check on her a few minutes ago. Couldn't find her in her favorite hide, she was on the ledge. That is were I took the photos. She looks shiny and new looking so I am wondering if she hasn't shed under or behind something in her viv. I am not going to look tonight because I don't want to annoy her. Tomorrow I will search her viv and see if she shed. I may see if she will eat tomorrow or should I wait a day or two? I did raise the temp on her warm side a few degrees. It is staying around 83 but I have not seen her go to that side. She seems to be staying on the cool side of the viv. It is at 72.

[bitsy]

When she was crawling around my arms I notice she has clear definition between her muscles
That rings an alarm bell. They have one long length of muscle rather than having individual groups like mammals. There aren't individual muscles for there to be definition between.

Would you describe the effect as being slightly bumpy for around the last one-third of her length? If so, sounds like she's about to drop a clutch of eggs. If you put a humid hide in with her (rather than trying to adapt an existing hide), she can either use it for laying and shedding.

[KyGirl]

She finally ate today. I noticed her moving around so got out a mouse and put her in her feeding tub. She latched on really quick so I shut the lid and left her alone for about 15 minutes. When I checked on her again she was stretched out and the mouse was gone. When I reached in to pick her up she struck my arm. No bite but she hit me pretty hard. I picked her up anyway and put her on the warm side of her viv. She is stretched out there right now. I checked her viv and found her shed skin all in one piece. She looks shiny and new now. LOL. Guess I was worried for nothing.

I was feeding her every seven days but moved it up to eight. It has been 14 days this time. Maybe I was feeding her too much? She is also getting way more excitement than she was used too. My newphew just left her alone more or less and was never home so she didn't have a lot going on around her. I am wondering if I need to move her to a quieter room. I have a lot of activity in my room with the cats and my son coming in and out. Plus I work on crafts in there.

when I was talking about the muscle definition in my last post I was talking about long hollow places between her belly and back bone like if you bunched up three or four ropes you see indention's down the length if that makes any sense. You can kind of see them in the photos I took. The snakes I see in the wild, rattlesnakes, rat snakes, ring neck and such, look really round and you don't see any hollow places when you pick them up. then again they have tons of prey and may just be fat. Maybe she is just underweight. The last few mice I have fed her barely made a bump and in a few hours you couldn't even tell she ate. Maybe she needs bigger prey? I told the pet shop how big she was and they chose the mice. They seemed to think she needed small size mice. When she has digested I will get a girth measurement and I am going to try to weigh her and take another length measurement. I started a health chart for her like I keep for my other pets to keep track of vaccinations and worming and such.

About egg laying. She laid eggs around 4-5 months ago. She escaped from my nephew and was gone around a month. She laid eggs about a week after he found her. He called the pet shop where he got her and they told him she may have bred with a rat snake or something because corn snakes will do that. Can they cross bred like that? The eggs weren't fertile. They started to rot a couple of weeks after she laid them. Do corn snakes lay eggs even without breeding? I am so clueless about their breeding.