2 Months Still wont Eat... Any Info?? PICS

[Bug22baby]

To all who have helped with some helpful info. I now have pictures hopefully they work. Just a reminder Luther my snake Im puzzled about is unknown in gender and has not ate in 2 months. I got he/she last May 2004, and was thought to be a 2004 corn but not positive for sure. Luther is 29 inches and about 1 inch thick. Luther has not ate in 2 months but has drank tons of water and will even drink when in my hand. Luther is extremly active all night long, never giving up, wandering all over the viv. I do have 4 other snakes and Luther has been in contact with 3 of them not knowing there gender as well. They are seperated and I feed outside of the viv in feeding containers. Even though Luther refuses every meal I try to feed he/she every 5-7 days, Luther will poop 9 times out of 10 which is mostly liquid. The viv is usually pretty warm during the day because I live in a small upstairs apt and it heats up and cools off at night. The viv on average is between 65-75 on the cool side and 75-85 on the warm side. Luther has not shed since giving up his food. I feed frozen thawed fuzzies. My past post gives more info as well. Any replies would be great. Thanks Everyone

[Chip]

Hmmm. Wild guess is that the snake is a male, though the picture was inconclusive. Going off feed could be indicative of a female in the proximity. 8 weeks is really long to go, though, and the snake should be young to have "love on the brain"" to such a degree. If you bought him in May 2004, he's a 2003, unless the breeder was on a VERY early schedule.
Have you tried putting "him" in a separate room from the others? Raising the heat to at least 80, and offering live food might elicit a feeding response, as well.
For what it's worth, healthy corns that eat well and grow that size have rarely given me big headaches down the road. I'd bet he/she will be fine once the feeding response is triggered. Good luck.

[Bug22baby]

Have you tried putting "him" in a separate room from the others? Raising the heat to at least 80, and offering live food might elicit a feeding response, as well.

Ok Luther is in a seperate room away from the other snakes. My viv is usually on the upper 70's side because the heat gets warm during the day so I dont think there is a heat issue. I did move him to my bedroom to try and actully cool it down thinking maybe the heat was a issue and also to seperate from the rest. As far as live mice go, Ive never ever fed live and the one and only pet store around only have adult mice and I think they would be too big. I will be going to the reptile show in 2 weeks in which I can get a live mouse if necessary. If anyone can reply to this and let me know if trying live would be a good idea. Because Luther has never had a live mouse will he/she know how to kill one? Thanks for the response

[PtDnsr]

You said that he was an inch thick and you're feeding him fuzzies correct? Since it's hard to judge by a picture take this with a grain of salt but he might be ready for bigger food (but that doesn't explain why he's refusing to eat). My 2004 normal male is probably only about 3/4" diameter and has been on fuzzies for a bit. Granted every snake is different and only you can judge. As another suggestion you could try something new like rat pinks. They're roughtly the same size as fuzzies and would probably smell different. My female refused mice for a month and then when we offered her a rat she didn't hesitate - actually ate in front of us which she never does. She took a mouse 2 weeks later (it was a big rat) and has been on a normal schedule ever since. Maybe something new, yet available would work. It's just a thought. Good luck and keep us posted.

~Katie

[Bug22baby]

Hey thanks Never thought about feeding rat before maybe Ill pick one up at the reptile show next week if my snake dosnt eat this week. They always have a booth or a few of them just of feeders. I would agree that my snake could probley move up on size of food but I have half of bag of fuzzies and half of bag of pinkies left so I wanted to finish them off before ordering more. Before my snake started refuseing I would give it 2 fuzzies and it would scarf them down without question. Hopefully this is just a phase because he/she use to be my best feeder eating everything and anything put in front of him without a second to spare. Thanks for your response

[MegF.]

I think Elrojo is correct in that the snake is probably an '03. It's too big to be an '04 although my '03 is much larger and definitely on the love path. He's been off food for 3 months now. He'll be 2 in June, and no one told him he's too young to be thinking about things like this! I think Cav has had some yearlings that have gone off food as well.

[Bug22baby]

Thanks to everyone who has helped me with my snake. Luther is in his own room with lower temperatures and I tried to feed him a meal to see if he would take it Well HE FINALLY ATE YAY!!! I just used a pinkie cause I have extras. Might have to sell that bag off to someone. Well anyhow I cut the mouse in half then put him in a smallar feed box than normal and placed him back in his viv where I checked on him 5 minutes later and it was gone. He appears to be looking for more but Im gonna wait a few days and try to feed him with the rest of my snakes. Its much easier to keep them all on the same schedule unless they like to be tricky. Once again I thank everyone who has helped.

[MegF.]

Awesome! Hopefully the trend will continue. If it wasn't so darn hard to move my viv out of the rack, I might try to move mine to another room to see if it helps, but it's not really practical for me. Hopefully mine will eat this week.

[Bug22baby]

Meg, Goodluck with your snake I hope he eats for you. I know what you mean I dont necessarily have a rack but I have a custom built 3 tiered snake viv. But I also have a few basic acrylic tanks around as well so they been put to use lately for some snake rearranging or moving him would never of been a option.... BEST of Luck

[manny_chan]

I have had my corn snake for 5 months now. I do not know if it is female or male and it is the only animal in the house. It has been doing great since I got her, eating every five days, then every seven when I switched to a bigger size of mice and still doing fine when I switched size again.

But two weeks ago I ran out of mice and since there is no pet shop around here I had to wait a full week before feeding one to her. Unfortunatly it was much bigger then its last size and she got 3/4 way before spitting it out. I bought a smaller size three days after (in which period she had shed skin) and it hissed and lauched at it. But it finaly seemed like it was going to eat but when I came to check it looked like my snake hadn't touched it.

Since then (a week now) Vivi has been acting very weird. It is out during the day trying deperatly to get out (which it has never done before) and seems restless.

The mice I feed it are dead, and I always held it by the tale and it would not hesitate to eat. Now when I offer one to it, it smells then turns away.

What could be wrong with it? I dont know how old it is either, thought the pet shop owner told me he thought it was about 4 months when I got it.
Please help.

[MegF.]

I know Cav has said that he's had yearling males go off food. It's possible that it's just coincidence that your snake quit eating after not being able to eat. Have you tried leaving him/her in with the food overnight? You might also try getting it probed to accurately determine the sex. My male isn't 2 yet and he's out roaming now. He hasn't eaten in 3 months now.

[dwyn127]

Hey Bug22baby,

Glad your snake ate. Mines in the same boat yours WAS in and Meg's IS in. In fact I keep running into Meg in the same threads.
I've been trying to feed my amel every Sunday; yesterday made 6 weeks no food and he/she's a late 03 not quite as big as yours. Yesterday I had him in one hand and was filling his water bowl with the other and he leaned over and drank...alot! So I tried again today with the same result. My 5 year old daughter thought that was the ultimate! So I thought OK water, maybe fuzzy, so I tried hand feeding and he crawled right over it on to my other hand.
His muscle tone is good, and he hasn't dropped any weight so I guess it's just a matter of time.

Meg, you responded to my thread "Boy or Girl". I'm taking him to a show next Sunday, so I'll finally be able to say he or she and not he/she. Keep us posted on how you snakes doing, hope he feeds soon too.

[MegF.]

Hope yours turns out to be a male like mine so it will put the worries to rest. My aztec has gone off her food now. I'm going to probe her after she sheds to make sure that she is really a she. I'm pretty sure she is, as I got her from a breeder. Sometimes they fool you though. I'm thinking that I might need to try live food to see if I can tempt my amel. He still isn't interested even after he finally shed. Sigh....He has lost about 55 grams, but he still looks very good, so I'm not too worried yet.

[manny_chan]

I tried feeding it again this morning. Still refused it and its really a tiny baby mouse. If its a male would it be normal for it to just stop eating like that? I dont get it...I'm kinda scared for my poor snake.
I left a mouse in the viv all night and it didn't eat it. Should I go back to little pinkies to see if it'll eat?

[mandi72]

I havent been on here for quite some time.........I posted on here a while ago, asking you guys why my sons snake wont eat, Thanks to all of your advice and thoughts my sons snake "Scales" has stared to eat after 3 months, we also found out that scales is a male and not female as we first thought.

So A BIG THANK YOU TO YOU ALL :cheers:

[mandi72]

I tried feeding it again this morning. Still refused it and its really a tiny baby mouse. If its a male would it be normal for it to just stop eating like that? I dont get it...I'm kinda scared for my poor snake.
I left a mouse in the viv all night and it didn't eat it. Should I go back to little pinkies to see if it'll eat?



Manny my son phoned the pet shop to which we had got the snake from, the owner who breeds snakes, told us that it is quite normal for the snake to stop eating for up to about three months as it is the mating season. Also somebody on here told us to just try every two weeks to feed him and believe me it will eat eventually, I know what you are going through as myself and my son where exactly the same.

[manny_chan]

Mating season heh? I guess that could be it. I'll try feeding it thursday see what happens. It looks healthy enough. I might bring it to the pet shop and get it sexed to figure out what sex it is finaly. Alright, thanks.

[dwyn127]

I'm thinking that I might need to try live food to see if I can tempt my amel.
Hey MegF,

I thought this sounded like a good idea; you may want to take your own suggestion. She finally ate after a 49 day hunger strike! 1st, I turned up the heat all week including low heat at night instead of turning it off, then brought 3 live pinkys today at the show. I didn't even get to set them down, she took all 3 out of my hand! Hopefully she won't give me too much trouble going back to f/t.

[MegF.]

I tried this evening with a f/t mouse and guess what???? He ate just like his old self!! Yeah! It was a small sized large mouse, and he's out looking for more food, but I figured after 3 months I had better keep it to a small meal....whew!

[Matthewk]

Manny, You said your snake had regurgitated its mouse the last time it attempted to eat for you? After such an event snakes will sometimes refuse that food type as it remembers the bad experience of its last feeding.Try another food. Such as rat pups or something, anything that doesnt smell like a mouse. Once eating again it should go back to mice after a while. I have had such experiences before and thats what worked for me. Good luck

[ghosthousecorns]

I've got a breeder size male that went off his food ever since January also, he is still refusing adult and hopper mice but has taken pinkies a couple of times. My point is that if they won't take one thing try something else. I hope I can get him to eat his normal sized prey item soon but meanwhile at least I've given him a couple of 'snacks'

[MegF.]

You can try that. I was almost to the point of trying much smaller, or live, but he was still in very good weight, so I wasn't in a huge hurry.

[Chip]

Noticing your avatar... I have one female locality Okeetee that produces one or three Aztecs each year. Should I get one (or some) this year; would you want them? I usually sell them for twenty bucks or feed them to kings. If you'd pay shipping, they (counting chickens before they hatch) are yours!

[MegF.]

I might be interested if I could figure out where to house them. I have small boxes for the hatchlings. It's when they get bigger that I would have a problem. Let me know when you have them, and I'll see what I can do. Thanks for the offer!