Sad News...and some good news too

[CornCrazy]

My beautiful male candy cane that I got in Serpenco's 50% off sale passed away today. He was an avid non-feeder right from the start. He was beautiful, and I am very sad that I wasn't able to save him:(

On a positive note, however, my daughter just told me that the female candy cane I got from the same sale (who was also an avid non-feeder), ate a live hamster pinky overnight. I can't wait to get home from work so I can peek in at her myself. I am READY to see a fat little tummy on her!

[Susan]

Sorry to hear about your loss, but also glad to hear that your female has eaten! It's always tough losing hatchlings, or any of your snakes, for that matter. I can sympathize quite easily. I've been lucky, so far, with my 50% off hatchlings from Rich, all 5 are eating great (my normal het lav had me scared for awhile...didn't eat for 2 weeks, but has eaten his past 5 meals OK). I did lose my butter male hatchling (my own) and that was after he had been eating great for almost 3 months. I just found him dead for no apparent cause. I also lost 2 of my adult male breeders recently... a '95 aneryth (one of my 1st snakes) and a '98 normal motley. I have plenty of their offspring and grandchildren in my collection but it still hurts since those two held special places in my heart. They just didn't seem to recover from breeding. Neither has ever really eaten much during the breeding season, but up until this year, both would eat ravenously starting about mid-July and gain back the little weight they had lost in no time for the next brumation. This year, however, they never got back on track, refusing almost everything I offered, but still would eat that occasional meal, about every 4 weeks. They didn't seem to lose any more weight, and really weren't underweight by too much. They showed no other signs of illness, fecal exams were negative, and both were still active. Necropsies were done on both with no conclusive findings. I guess it was just their time.

[CornCrazy]

Thank you Susan. I am sorry for your losses as well. It is definitely hard losing any of them. I always HATE when it happens.

[CAV]

It is amazing to me that my healthiest animals seem to be the ones that "just die". I lost two hatchlings this year and they were both great feeders. Now my big breeder male hasn't had a meal in 3-4 weeks. Sorry to hear about everyone's luck this year. :(

[stardust]

So sorry to hear your news. I also have a candy cane male that will not eat. I got him a few weeks ago. Have tried same deli, f/t and live. He just wont eat, and looks smaller than the female who cant get enough.
I am going to look for an anole and decapitate a head and try that. Anyone else have any other suggestion?

Thanks

[CornCrazy]

I am hoping for some more hamster babies soon...that's what I got my female candy cane to eat before. She was also a non-feeder and I've not had luck getting her to eat anything else since she ate the two hamster babies. I am going to try "hamster-scenting" today. I hope it works!

[RyanR]

Stardust! 2 methods that work well that ive hear( i tryed one) is washing the pinkies WELL in soap and watter then rinsing them REALY well and the other is the feet from chicks ussualy works