Should I be worried?

[Daeraelle]

My snake was born 7-9-06. She has eaten once, that was 7-17-06. I, personally, haven't seen her eat. I've tried feeding once but she's completely disinterested. I don't want to seem like I'm pushing food on her and make her even more discouraged. I know adults can go a while without food, but for a new hatchling, should I be worried? I thought they needed to eat every 4 or 5 days. It's hard to find pinkies in my area as well, especially the size you need. When I asked for them at the closest pet store (Petland, it's the only thing I don't have to drive 45 minutes - 1 hour to get to) they didn't know what a pinky was. I had to explain to them. Actually heard the male manager make a remark about him having a pinky that I really didn't want to hear. So, I'm going tomorrow and getting some mice so I can start breeding my own. Should I try and feed her again with the one frozen pinky I have (they only had two, and they look smooshed :-puke01: ) or just wait for babies? One of the mice I'm bringing home tomorrow is already pregnant, so in a week or two at most I should have some live pinkies.

[Chris Olson]

Here is a possible solution. You could have some frozen pink mice shipped to you. It would cost you about $40 to have a bag of 100 pinks shipped to your door from www.micedirect.com (http://www.micedirect.com). That's probably cheaper than buying them from the pet store. You can save even more by purchasing in bulk.

Chris

[Chris Olson]

Sorry, I know that didn't answer your question about getting your snake to eat. Here is a link to a helpful post.
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28342

Chris

[Daeraelle]

Thanks for that link. I was more worried about how long it's healthy for a hatchling to be off of food before I should start taking other measures to get her to eat. I took a long drive to a reputable privately owned petstore today. They didn't have any pinkies in, but I know I can buy them there, live and frozen. Tomorrow, I'll drive all that way again for a live pinkie and some frozen, just to try and get her started eating here (their mouse guy hadn't come to bring them their mice yet and they were out, they'll be in this afternoon or tomorrow morning). By the time she's done with those mice, my mice should be having babies. The three I had planned on bringing home apparantly grew on their owner too much and she couldn't part with them. But I did get a brown male, a brown female, and a light cream colored female. They're seperated, right now, but when they get bigger I'll let them breed. I love mice, so it's no problem for me to raise them and take care of them. I'll just have to convince my husband it's cheaper and easier than ordering, or driving out of town to get some. I'm hoping a live pink will do the trick and get her to start eating before I have to go dipping them in smelly stuff and cutting them open to entice her. She has been in a 5 1/2 gallon tank temporarily this week. I thought the smaller space might make her a little more comfortable. So it doesn't have a heater on one side, because of it being so small I thought it wouldn't do much good. So I'm moving her to the 10g I got ready for her soon. I want to get a few more hides to put in there first so she won't be scared of the open space.

[Chris Olson]

Cool. Sounds like you've got a good handle on it. The small enclosure is better for hatchlings in my experience. In fact the the 5.5 gallon is a liitle big. In a small enclosure the hatchling can explore every inch of the enclosure in a short time and determine that there is nothing in there that will eat it. I think that security usually evokes better feeding response. All of my hatchlings start their lives in a 6qt sterilite container.

Chris

[Daeraelle]

She's got three hides in the 5.5g. I was worried about it not having a temperature gradient. But it stays between 82-85 inside during the day, and doesn't get lower than 74 at night. I'm in Florida and it's hot. It's 82 in here now and the A/C is set on 75. She drinks water like crazy though, and she did poop two days after I got her, so I'm pretty sure there isn't anything wrong with her inside. My husband was excited all last week "When is she going to eat, when is she going to eat?" then I fed her and she wouldn't eat, so now he's bored about her already. I told him she wasn't eating because she didn't like him, lol. I'm going to wait until Friday to try and feed her again I think. So it'll be a week since I last tried.

[Daeraelle]

I did try to feed her the first time in the deli cup she came in. But I think my husband threw it away, I washed it and left it on the counter, now I can't find it. I guess I'll need to go buy a little container for feeding time.

[Daeraelle]

Well, I couldn't hold off until Friday, so I tried to offer her food on Thursday. I left her in her little container with a frozen/thawed pinky all night and she didn't eat it. She had pushed it to one side and she was curled up on the other side. The pet store didn't have any day old pinkies on Thursday, so next week I'll call back and see if they have any freshly born pinks. If they do I'll get a live one for her, I just didn't have the time this week to drive out of town for one little pink. Her cage is now right next to the mice cage. I'm hoping smelling the mice will make her hungry, lol. That's probably not the case, but I did at one point cover the f/t pink in some mice bedding from my mice (which was practically clean since I just got them) and then put it back in with her. She actually went over and sniffed it, almost touching it with her tongue, and seemed more interested in food than she did the first time I tried to feed her.