strange behaviour

[cocoasumatran]

I have only had my corn a couple of weeks (I bought him as a yearling). Everything's been fine so far but yesterday he started acting wierd. It was like he was really agitated and desperate to get out of the viv. Then he started striking the ground repeatedly with his nose - he was doing it quite hard as I could hear him across the room.

At first I thought he was hungry and trying to get out and look for food, I only fed him on Monday but he was straight out of his hide within hours this time whereas usually he sleeps his meal off for a couple of days. I gave him a pinkie but this morning there were more marks in the substrate like he'd been doing the ground pounding thing again...

Is this normal behaviour? Do you think he is getting ready to shed? He seems distressed, can I do anything to make him more comfortable?

Any help you can give will be much appreciated... I am getting worried!!

[princess]

The thing that stands out to me is that you're feeding pinks to a yearling. My 7 month olds are on weaned mice and I just bought some 10 month olds that are taking adult mice. As for the nose butting, I've never seen that myself so I don't know.

[cocoasumatran]

yeah I'm a bit unsure if he's actually that old, that's just what the assistant said in the shop! The owner (who is experienced and knows her stuff) told me they had been feeding him pinks and soon he will be ready for 2 and then go up to fluffs. It was the assistant (who did not seem experienced or to know very much at all) who said he was a yearling. He does seem rather small to be eating anything much bigger than a fluff... I have always seen the bulge for at least 12 hours after him eating.

Anyway I don't think the problem is hunger since it continued more or less straight after feeding, I just mentioned it in case I had done the wrong thing by feeding him.

[peep_827]

that your snake can eat a mouse about 1.5 times it's body size at the widest point. I know, I know . . . it seems insane but they REALLY do open up those mouths wide!! The pet store I got Monty from had me start him out on tiny pinkies, LOL he seemed starved the day after eating them. I slowly moved him up (cause I was paranoid) and he is now on fuzzies. You can see pics of him in the photo gallery. Oh yeah, and you can do a search for pics of snakes eating too . . . here's one of Monty with a mouse that was actually a little small . . . I hope this link works . . .

http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19485&highlight=monty+eating

Oh yeah, and after eating your snake should have a bulge like that or a little bigger. Does that help? I know I had a hard time with that too.