New keeper - hatchling won't eat

[Vermonter]

I entered the foray of corn snakes this weekend (Friday to be exact). I picked up a hatchling from the store and set up the tank with an astroturf mat at the bottom and about 3" of aspen shavings on top of it.

The hatchling spent a few hours topside when I put him in the tank. Pretty much all weekend and through today he's spent all of his time burrowed in the shavings on the warm end. I have a heat mat running on the warm end, and a light, the warm end is in the 82-85 range, cool end is about 75.

I've attempted to feed him pinkies this weekend, but he won't eat them. The times he has his head poking out of his burrow he ignores the pinkie when I dangle it in front of him. After a few hours I'll toss the pinkie.

The store said they were fed last Sunday, so it's been over a week. I'm concerned that he's not going to eat and he'll suffer from malnutrition or straight up starve to death.

At the store he was pretty active and seemed to be behaving normally.

Do you guys have any suggestions? I'd greatly appreciate it!

I'm also taking care of a leopard gecko, I've had him for about four and a half years.

~Josh

[haydnrobinson]

Usually people here advise to leave the snake alone for a few days to get used to its new habitat once you've bought it- he might just be getting used to his new surroundings. I had the same problem with mine and after 3 weeks she ate again. I've also been advised here to wait a few days between feeding attempts otherwise the snake may be conditioned to refuse food, which you don't want. Good luck! :D Let us know how it goes.

[Tim66/corns]

Hey Josh first of all welcome. I am from New England too. And you are from one of the most beautiful areas of New England!
I would not worry to much yet. Your temps are great & they love borrowing in the aspen.
Wait a whole week & then stick the pinky's head in really hot tap water almost boiling before offering it. Then leave him alone with it overnight if you have too.
The reason he is hiding & not eating yet is new surroundings, new home & new smells. That is why it is advised to give them a whole week with no feeding or handling. This is his adjustment period & he needs it to feel safe in his/her new home.
So wait a week before you offer him a meal & then do the heated pinky trick. I have other tips if that doesn't work. Some of my babies where difficult in the beginning.
Good luck & just ask me if you need ant more help.
Also you should consider going to the N.E. Manchester show Oct.3rd if the snake bug bit you! It is a great show. Good Luck.
Tim.

[Vermonter]

Thanks for the quick replies! My biggest concern was that he'd starve if he didn't eat after a week. I'll leave him be for the rest of the week to let him get used to his surroundings.

Thanks again, I'll check back in few days. :-) I'll give the pinky trick a try as well.

~Josh

[Tim66/corns]

I was giving a non-feeder 08 Josh when he was just a few months old. I think he ate once for the person? He is doing very well today & already celebrated & gone past his first hatch/b-day!
Your guy could go for sometime without eating. So that is why I said just give him a week to settle in & I bet he will do just great for you. Good luck & enjoy yourself here. A lot of good folks are willing to help you with anything. :)

[danielle]

You can also try putting him a small tupperware container with the pinkie warmed. Put the container in his tank away from the warm end and cover the tank up and walk away making sure it is night time. Sometimes when their that young the dangling pinkie can be scary so a little time a lone with it works well:)

[calistar]

You can also try putting him a small tupperware container with the pinkie warmed. Put the container in his tank away from the warm end and cover the tank up and walk away making sure it is night time. Sometimes when their that young the dangling pinkie can be scary so a little time a lone with it works well:)

Great advice

[ladypunk123]

I fully agree with Danielle. I've used that method on all of my snakes when they were young, and my parents used it on all of theirs... dangling food is very different than food sitting on the ground :P
I normally don't start dangling them until my snake is 5-6 months. By then they've normally got the whole food thing figured out.
At the shop I used to work at we had a hatchling that didn't eat for like 5 weeks. Then one day he just picked up and started eating! He's a little smaller than the others from his hatch but other than that he's fine. If his skin starts to get saggy (he starts to get extremely thin) you could take him in to your local specialist vet with a poo sample and see what he/she has to say!

[Vermonter]

Thanks for the added tips!

He was starting to peek out of his hiding spot, so I think he's beginning to get more acclimated.

http://www.uvm.edu/~jminer/reptiles/snake/

I took some pics of him on Friday, and then this afternoon when I finished decorating the tank.

[Vermonter]

So, my snake still hasn't eaten yet. It's been about five weeks since he ate at the store (Aug 30th). I've warmed the pinkie up in water first, dunked the pinkies head in really hot water first, put the snake into a small container with the pinkie, cut the pinkie up into smaller pieces...and the snake acts like the pinkie doesn't exist. I've even brained a few pinkies. I've offered food once every 4-5 days or so and no luck yet.

The odd thing is that the snake seems fine. It's crawling around the tank and has been burrowing everywhere, so I'm not really sure what else I can do for it. I've kept the temps and humidity normal. Even now it's crawling in the plastic plant and looking pretty active.

[glenhead]

Yeah, sometimes the little ba$tards refuse to cooperate, no matter what fancy tricks you try. We have four babies we're force-feeding now. They've been getting tails from mice and rats we had to feed to the bigger snakes, but this past weekend we started shoving warmed-up half-pinkies down the throats of two of them, and I'm going to shove whole pinkies down the other two tonight.

We've found that you pretty much have to stabilize the neck of the pinkie no matter what, and discovered that making pinkie-on-a-stick (impaling the front half of a pinkie on a toothpick) works well. We cut the frozen pinkie just behind the front legs, to avoid having to deal with the guts, and feed the pinkie hiney to one of the other snakes who is big enough to get one-and-a-half. We jab the toothpick in far enough to stiffen the neck of the pinkie, smear butter on the chunk, grab the snake behind the head, work the pinkie between the snake's jaws, then gently cram the chunk past the back of the jaws. We give the snake plenty of time to work the chunk down, sometimes helping by gently massaging the chunk back a ways. You just have to be awfully danged careful not to run the toothpick clear through the chunk! I'm going to use the same technique with the whole pinkie, too. The stubborn ones are growing now, and we haven't had any problems with barfing (knock wood). It's not any fun at all, but it gets nutrition to them whether they like it or not!