shutmon

Hello! I'm new to this forum, and joined because (besides having a general love for corn snakes/reptiles in general) I've been having some issues with my pet corn snake.

I should mention before I begin that my corn snake is likely male, but I called it a she and I haven't been able to switch to calling it a boy xD he's never been sexed (I bought him from a pet store because I didn't know any better) but based on his behavior and outward appearance as a baby, we think that he's likely male. I'll try to use the proper pronouns for this thread but if I call him a she, that's why xD

Anyways, I'm a newbie reptile keeper, this baby being my first one. His name is Peppermint and I've owned him for more than a year and a half (will be two years this november). He seems pretty small to me compared to most snakes his age, but again, I've never kept reptiles so I don't really know. I don't have any friends experienced in reptile keeping/corn snake keeping either, so I don't have any reference point except the internet. He's a wonderful snake, never bitten me despite his poor eyesight, but now its easier to understand how I've never been bitten since his appetite has decreased so much ._.

For his first year, Peppermint was a very eager eater. Sometimes he'd start moving towards me just at the sight of my shadow moving or my tweezers, before I even had the mouse out! xD But it all changed around spring of this year. His appetite decreased and I started having to leave the mice lying in his feeding bin overnight for him to crawl out and eat on his own. But, while it was scary before I thought of leaving the mice for him overnight, once they started disappearing my anxieties were put to rest and I wasn't too worried. Every once in a while I'd try feeding him in his feeding bin again, and every once in a while he'd actually take one mouse from my tweezers (usually not both lol), but most of the time he had no interest. But that was fine; as long as the mice were gone in the morning, I didn't care (I feed him right before I go to bed). The original issues I believed stemmed from teen male snake hormones, as a fairly reputable breeder agreed with my findings - but since spring is now long over, I'm getting more and more concerned.

Unfortunately, lately its gotten worse. He started only eating one mouse out of the bin and now he won't even eat just one. I noticed he acted stressed whenever I put him in his feeding bin (more on that later) so I took it out and tried putting it in this little postal box as a secure hide. He didn't eat it. That weekend, I only got him to eat by putting the mouse on his body where he was sleeping, and he just ate it because it was there I guess. And after he ate that, he crawled into the postal box LOL for a while it became his favorite hide, but he hasn't been in it lately.

I was hoping just laying a dried mouse (so it didn't pick up any sawdust) on him would work for now until he starts eating better again, but so far it hasn't and it's been a week (I was gonna try feeding him one every few days instead of two on the weekend, it didn't work during the week and it didn't work today). I'd been feeding him half his regular diet (which I thought was too small to begin with - more on that later, too) and I'm worried that he won't be able to stay on feeding strike for too long and come out okay.

With that context out of the way, here's some information about his care and behavior. I'll let you know how I interpret behavior as someone who has tried doing as much research on this as I can, but of course please let me know if I misinterpret something. Just know that I am a firm believer that every animal is different (but not to like, a crazy extreme), so as opposed to "don't handle your snake at all" I would rather hear that "the behavior you interpret as being friendly is actually a sign of stress, and you should stop handling him". So please try to keep that in mind so I don't accidentally become rude and defensive ;^;

Caging: Peppermint lives in a forty gallon aquarium (bc i didnt realize the difference between an aquarium and a terrarium before it was too late -_-) with aspen substrate and three "hides". I say "hides" because he has a proper hide, the aforementioned postal box, and this wooden structure that he can curl up in. He also has a plastic tree that he sleeps around from time to time. The proper hide is on the warm side, the wooden structure is on the cold side. I have a bowl of wet moss meant for humidity on the warm side, that he would also use as a house if I let it get dry enough (and use for drinking if i get it wet enough, even though he has a perfectly good water dish on the other side of the tank). The plastic tree and postal box are in between the two sides. I can take a picture of his setup if anyone would like. His tank is very open, but he often sleeps outside of his hides, so I don't think he's too concerned about it.

Where I live, it's very hot and dry - southern california will do that to you. Because of this, we don't often heat the tank at night. We have a light we turn on during the day, which goes out whenever I go to bed. The heating pad is too hot for where we live but we recently added a power decreaser, so we can control how hot it gets. We still don't turn it on most nights because the heat tends to retain and I know corn snakes don't need it too hot. I noticed last night though that it was 80 on the warm side so I turned it on a low setting. I may need to increase the temperature on the warm side or I may need to give her a more regular day/night cycle, but I've been doing both of those the same way since last year. During the school year our day/night schedule is better since I have to go to bed earlier but I'm not doing that much different than I did last summer or even last school year. But if you think that could be the issue, let me know regardless! It's just not a recent thing is my point.

Another important thing I should mention about his caging - currently, his tank has wood mites. They're very small, and I know they aren't reptile mites because we've had them in some capacity for a while (however I don't know how long its been - I think it's been since the last cage clean, but I'm not sure, and I only ever saw one or two over the course of weeks until we put the white postal box in her tank, which makes them much easier to see) and I've never seen them on Peppermint. But I've heard the scurrying can be a stressor. The tank isn't swarming with them by any means - like I said, I can only ever really see them on the postal box - but like the temperature, let me know if you think this could be an issue.

I don't clean out his tank very often but I do spot clean regularly. I change his water every few days but usually offer him fresh water when I hold him daily (he doesn't drink out of his water dish even when its fresh >:U). I don't generally clean his hides unless he poos on them, which is really rare.

Handling/behavior: I think a lot of people are going to assume based on my "I hold him daily" comment that he's likely stressed from me handling. I do NOT want to eliminate this as a possibility, but this doesn't seem like the case from his behavior. I've seen him stressed before; such as in his feeding bin, or being held by my mother. He's only ever rattled his tail at me once before, but I left him be when he did that (that was also recently btw, but I disturbed him at an unusually early time for anyone to disturb him - I just wanted to check on him when I had to wake up early for something so I poked him to make sure he was okay, and instead of moving at all he just rattled his tail at me LOL). When I hold him, he usually curls up on my chest/next to my arm and relaxes. Sometimes he looks asleep, but a lot of times he just kinda looks around. Sometimes his tongue will flick out a lot (or, probably a normal amount) but a lot of times he doesn't stick it out too often. When he starts squirming a lot, I generally put him to bed as quickly as possible - both because I know he wants back and because I know if I dont, he'll poop on me xD

Speaking of poop, he hasn't pooped recently. I was holding him while typing on my phone the other day (and thus ignoring his struggles to get back to his cage) and I noticed he was about to poop, so I rushed him back to his tank but in the process he sucked the poop back into his butt. He only just barely was gonna start but he hasn't let it out since and that has me concerned. I'm wondering if the reason he wont eat is because he hasn't pooped yet, but I don't know if the fact that he hasn't pooped yet should be of concern to me or not. We even tried to get him to poop a few days later by letting my mom hold him with a towel, but instead of pooping he just decided that apparently he likes my mom now and also likes towels.

He's a very sleepy snake and doesn't move around too much. Maybe he's awake in the early hours when I'm not awake, but he's not a very active snake. In fact I'd say he's quite lazy, LOL. I should mention this is nothing new, and I don't think he's lethargic because he CAN become active, he just rarely is - but if you think this is a concern let me know.

Pretty much everything except the poop thing has all been going on since I got him. I haven't handled him for the past few days (it's been like, half a week at most though) to see if my handling was the cause of his stress, but he still didn't take the food today. I don't even know if his lack of appetite is due to stress, but I'm trying everything.

I should also mention that I'm currently feeding him fuzzie mice. I think he's ready to graduate to jumpers, but I tried looking at them at petco and they seemed to be the exact same size as the fuzzies?? and a lot of my fuzzies are borderline pinkies!! :/ I don't think he's ready for full-grown mice yet but graduating to a bigger size is my next thing I'm planning to try. I'm also going to peak at the jumpers at pet smart to see if they're any bigger, and maybe they'll have something in between jumpers and mice. If worse comes to worse, I'll try feeding fully grown mice - I'd rather him eat too much than die of starvation. His head seems too small for that but....I guess I've seen mice with their full fur pelts that are small enough for him (my friend had some small mice recently, NOT THAT I WOULD FEED THEM TO MY SNAKE they were her pets lol, but still)

I often drop the fuzzies accidentally on their heads and make their noses bleed, and if anything this makes Peppermint more revolted by them, so I doubt any sort of trick like that would help. I have a blood/gore phobia and I'm not braining the mice if it's not going to help him eat. I also cannot feed live or fresh killed. I'm happy to have a corn snake because they're not supposed to need that - I'd have to get rid of him if that's the case... Again, I have a blood/gore phobia, and I'm a rodent lover alongside a reptile lover. I can't intentionally kill something that I would gladly keep as a pet. I really, really love Peppermint and he means the world to me, so I really hope that isn't the case... But because the blood doesn't seem to help at all, I think it may not be the issue.

He has been acting nicer for longer in my hand since going on his feeding strike, but I don't think his appetite and behavior perfectly mirror one another. He's been hungry as heck before while being a good little noodle, and can be wiry even though he just ate. It's possible they're related but they don't line up exactly, and as I said before, he's always been a good snake. Now I can just hold him for half an hour or more instead of fifteen minutes, basically.

I talked about Peppermint being stressed in his feeding bin, so let me elaborate on that. He'll get really squirmy, trying to escape instantly when I put him in there (and escaping faster and faster every time I put him back; he's too long for the bin so I cant exactly keep him in there), and he physically turns away the mice I try to hand to him. Sometimes he'll inspect it but then he avoids it with all his might. He never has this reaction with me handling him, and when he gets even half as squirmy I know it's time to put him to bed. I think handling is not the issue but again I don't want to eliminate it as a possibility. Handling him is very important to me but his life is far more important to me than a week or more of handling, yknow? I'm desperate lol. But please just consider his behaviors before you jump to that conclusion.

Changes in cage: Besides the postal box, nothing major has changed about his cage recently. My mom said that Peppermint stopped eating (to this severe degree) around the time we changed the substrate/moss in his tank, but it's a brand of substrate we've used before and a new brand of moss, and as far as we can tell he has no issue with the moss. The substrate is of course aspen shavings, like i've said before.

Health: Peppermint hasn't shed for a while but her last shed was healthy. We've had her shed come off in a few pieces before (not flakey though), but we upped the humidity and lately they've been one piece. She shows no sign of any respiratory infections or bone defects as far as I can tell; I've never opened up her mouth to look inside but I see no mucus on the outside and she only yawns once in a blue moon, let alone keeps her mouth open to breathe easier. I don't know what "heavy breathing" can be defined as for snakes since this is my first one, but I've never heard wheezing but I HAVE seen her sides move pretty significantly. Again, the mites in her cage are not reptile mites. She's not currently in shed but if she was eating normal she'd probably be ready to, aha. I do handle her before 48 hours after eating but she's never regurgitated her food nor shown any signs of doing so. I also handle her in shed but I try to be extra gentle with her in case her skin can hurt her. She's never seemed particularly stressed by either action and handling while shedding wouldn't be an issue during this particular feeding strike as she hasn't shed in a while.

...gosh darn it, I was so good at keeping his pronouns straight and then I slipped up. I'm too lazy to fix it; I'm just gonna call it a her for the rest of this xD

Veterinary care: I have yet to take Peppermint to the vet for any reason because I have no interest in getting her sexed (I'm not a breeder and furthermore, am only allowed to have one reptile at a time) and I never thought a situation was desperate enough to take her to one. I'm a minor with an income limited to allowance and birthdays/christmas who has to pay for all their reptile care themselves, so I don't exactly like taking pets to the vet when I can help it. My parents would take her to the vet if need be even if I don't have the money, but I'd be expected to pay them back in full for it and I'm not about paying $100+ just for a vet to say "yeah your snake is fine, maybe you should handle it less i dunno, whatever I hope she eats soon kid". I also have not the greatest experience with vets and small pets; "we'll take small pets" doesn't mean they know how to care for them. I had a pet hamster whose suffering I paid $115 to prolong because I was a kid who wanted her to live through Christmas. She made it through Christmas but never recovered from the brink of death and I still feel guilty for making her suffer. The vet did his job, don't get me wrong (would YOU tell a 12 year old kid that their hamster is going to die and its better to euthanize them?) - but I don't want to do the same thing to Peppermint, especially when I don't even know if she's sick to begin with.

It may sound selfish of me to say all that, and well...perhaps it is. But I WILL take her to the vet if the vet can help her; I'm just not interested in taking her if nothing medical is going on or if the vet can't help her. If you know of any good free vet websites that could help me with Peppermint though, I'd be happy to copy-paste this all to them (or give them a TLDR since they're probably busy haha) and ask them what they think! I'm not saying I WONT take her to the vet, I just don't want to get "take her to the vet" and not be told why. I want to know how the vet can help and what may possibly be wrong. I just know how these threads tend to go, "stop handling your snake" or "go see the vet", and while I'll certainly take that advice if that's the issue, I want to be as thorough as possible with the care for my snake and I don't want to try treatments that come at a detriment to me and don't help Peppermint.

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Anyways...I think that's it! I may be able to post photos or videos of her behavior, setup, ect, if anyone would like that. I think you can tell when a snake is stressed but as I don't have a healthy frame of reference, I myself can't tell if Peppermint is hiding it or legitimately isn't stressed. Besides potentially constipation, I don't think anything is medically wrong with her, but if you disagree then please let me know. Thank you for reading this far, and let me know if you need any more information!