18 month old not corn eating

[HVani]

I know this comes up a lot but I couldn't find much with the search.

Anyway my 2012 amel, Henry, has sudden lost interest in food. He's always been a great eater but 2 weeks ago I had to push him a bit. Last week I had to reheat the hopper and today he flat out refused.

He's roughly 18 months old, 83g, 80% sure he's male. He's not going into shed, temps are 87-88 on the warm side. Wisconsin is going through some VERY low temps right now but it seems to be holding steady. My other corn is around the same temp and she's eating fine.

I know the boys can go off food but he seems too small for that.

[nancyg]

Is he acting normally other than refusing food? Not lethargic or wheezing or acting 'wrong' otherwise?

[HVani]

Yes he's totally normal otherwise. He's out at night, bright and alert.

[daddio207]

We are having the same deep freeze here and a few of my snakes are doing the same thing. Mainly kings though. I have a rat snake doing that right now and I added a heat pad to her location in the rack and she's getting better at eating. Normally I would just wait it out like I'm doing with the king snakes but she is falling behind the male she supposed to mate with in 2015.
Snakes being cold blooded burn very few calories especially in captivity and can go along time without eating. Keep an eye on her weight.
I wouldn't worry just yet :)

[HVani]

These winter temps have been brutal.

I know he can go a while without eating but he's my baby so I worry about him. Plus he's been on such a growth spurt he's almost caught up top where he should be for his age.

I was going to continue feeding him every 5 days until he was on adults, but now I'm wondering if I should back off a bit. At least during these winter months. Should I put him at every 7 days instead?

[NH93]

How are you measuring/regulating your temps, and heating the "warm side"?

What size prey are you feeding (assuming their mice)?

[HVani]

He's eating hoppers right now

I have a heating pad on the right side of his enclosure, it's on a hydrothermostat and set to 88 degree with the probe on the glass in the middle of the heating pad. The substrate is not very thick o he can burrow if he wants. Every so often I use a digital thermometer to double check the temps. They are usually within a degree or two of what the thermostat says.

[RavenSpirit360]

My first question when I saw this thread was going to be about heat. I see that you are providing heat so scratch that. Sometimes snakes will just do that in winter. How long has he been on hoppers?

[HVani]

He's been on hoppers about 5 weeks. He's almost ready to move up again to very small adults.

[Nythain]

Not sure of the size of your guy, but based on his age and size of his prey (especially if you bump him up another size) you should probably consider cutting back to 7-10 days. The hopper/weanling size is usually about the time to switch to 7 days, and once you get to young adults you might want to consider 10 days. Everyone's mileage varies though, as everyone's snake is it's own unique individual.

[Justine66]

yeah I was just gunna chime in,

at 83 grams he should be able to take a small 17-18 gram adult.
I switched my boy over to adults at 85 grams if I can remember right,

I did one Hopper ever 6 days and adults were 7 days untilled he reached.300g last week..
now I have him on every 10 days, he's still growing, although it's slowed but his activity has never changed and you cant see his spine. and no sign of hips.. lol I think I'm doing pretty good!

but they all grow at such different rates it can re hard to compare one snake to the next.

[HVani]

Well he still has not eaten. Again not a time to worry but it's frustrating.

[rich333]

Is there a female corn nearby?

[HVani]

Well yeah. My female snow corn is in the tank under him. I thought he would be too young to think about the ladies

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[rich333]

Well yeah. My female snow corn is in the tank under him. I thought he would be too young to think about the ladies

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Nope! ;)

I have breeding pairs right now.... Dead of winter... Ohio....

As for the males age and readiness.... I think the youngest documented case was 12-14 months. It's talked about in Kathy loves book... "The cornsnake manual"

[HVani]

Thanks for the reply. I actually feel a lot better :)

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[HVani]

Well Henry ate this past Tuesday. I fed him a smaller mouse than normal. I had to reheat it once but when left in the dark with it he ate.

Unfortunately he regurged 2 days later. I have no idea why. Nothing has changed. His temps are perfect, he hasn't been handled, the prey wasn't too big. I just don't know what's going on.

[Ripsaw642]

I would follow the regurgitation protocol by kathy love here: http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28342

[HVani]

That's the plan.

Though since I've had trouble with him eating I will probably wait 2 weeks instead of 10 days. There is warmer weather coming (above freezing) around that time as well.