Poorly Corn Snake

Originally Posted by ccm118

He is actually much happier when he's around the hustle and bustle. He's really a social snake which you may think is weird but that's Moose for you. I will turn the temp down on the hot end and put a hide in the cold end to see if this helps. I will also add the vitamins to his water.
I will let you know in a few days after I've attempted to feed him if it works.

Thanks for all the advice.

Don't confuse "out and about" with being sociable. It may well be an attempt to escape the hustle and bustle. If he's only eaten 2 mice in the last year, but was a good eater before that, you have to make the initial assumption that something in his new life is terribly wrong. A "little tweak" is not what he needs. Because he was a rescue, you might not know details of his life before you got him, but if you can piece some things together, you might be able to eliminate some environmental factors that are causing him so much stress.

Can I ask you to try something. Buy a live medium sized mouse, stun it by flicking the head with your finger, then pin the head just behind the ears and pull backwards and upwards by the tail breaking the neck, make sure the mouse is dead and present still warm to your snake. Close the viv up with a towel and check every half hour to see if he has eaten.
Peeps', I am sorry for the graphic ugliness of this discription but I am describing something which I have to do with my 9 year old corn who also decided to stop eating about 1 year ago, this is the only way she will eat, I must say that I did this 5 months into her self imposed fast. The only difference is that I use medium sized rats and due to the length of this guy's snakes' fast I suggested a medium sized mouse.
Once again, my apologies for the grossness of this reply.

Ciao

Originally Posted by rolandslf

Once again, my apologies for the grossness of this reply.

Ciao

Not gross... good description of doing a cervical dislocation. I don't stun first, though. Does it still wiggle for a few seconds afterward if you stun it first?

I need to do that for Butter's next meal. He got nipped last time. Hate that he only wanted live (better put - completely refused f/t) but he was 'emaciated' per the vet's description and I need to get him to eat. Now that he's getting better filled out, I'll try to convert him back.

I don't usually stun first, because my 3 f/k feeders are better if there's still twitching going on. In fact, for Bret, the mouse has to still be taking it's last breaths otherwise he just poops on it.

If you dont flick hard enough yes there is almost a bit of convulsion for a few seconds. If this happens I just flick again. I only do the cervical dilocation for this one snake.
I stun for the rest as a safety precaution, all my corns bar one eat live.

Ciao

Originally Posted by ccm118

He is actually much happier when he's around the hustle and bustle. He's really a social snake which you may think is weird but that's Moose for you. I will turn the temp down on the hot end and put a hide in the cold end to see if this helps. I will also add the vitamins to his water.
I will let you know in a few days after I've attempted to feed him if it works.

Thanks for all the advice.

don't forget to turn off the light!
I agree 100% with bitsy (who I would have reped if I could), snakes are more active at dusk and dawn in the wild, they are not sun lovers. You didn't mention if you turn it of at night or not, but if you leave in on all the time I imagine it would stress him out. It would stress me out and I love the sun.

as far as I know, most of the people here use no light at all. One of my boys needed extra heat (he's in a colder room) and I got him an overhead ceramic heater. No extra light at all.

Snake behavior is so subjective, I would guess there is probably something he associates with 'busy' that prompts him to show himself. Not that he likes it, that just sounds kind of odd to me. But I'm of the 'snakes are lesser animals with tiny brains and no ability for social behavior or emotion' camp.

v_various
don't forget to turn off the light!
I agree 100% with bitsy (who I would have reped if I could), snakes are more active at dusk and dawn in the wild, they are not sun lovers. You didn't mention if you turn it of at night or not, but if you leave in on all the time I imagine it would stress him out. It would stress me out and I love the sun.

What about the theory that animals/snakes can't see the same range of light humans can, and that the red light bulbs usually used for heating can be left on at night without disturbing your snake as your snake can't see the light??

Originally Posted by TWGarland

What about the theory that animals/snakes can't see the same range of light humans can, and that the red light bulbs usually used for heating can be left on at night without disturbing your snake as your snake can't see the light??

you stated it yourself, it's a theory.
As far as I know, UV is ultra violet and not red light you're refereeing too.
Plus, it is unnecessary. UV light wouldn't be giving off any heat, so why use it all? If it *could* be stressing the snake, and is not giving any advantage, why not turn it off all together? Everything I've read says snakes get vitamin D through their food, and do not need uv light at all. Nor can I name anyone who uses uv lighting on their corns. In a site this big, plus my local herp society you'd think someone would be having problems if they actually needed it.

I have looked into it, I needed extra ambient for one of my boys. I ended up going with a ceramic heater because I can leave it on all night and it has zero chance of bothering him.

Those were the answers I found, and if I had a snake that hadn't eaten twice in 12 months I'd be trying everything I could, no matter how small it may seem. Turning off the light will not hurt and at this point the OP needs to try everything she can.

you stated it yourself, it's a theory.
As far as I know, UV is ultra violet and not red light you're refereeing too.
Plus, it is unnecessary. UV light wouldn't be giving off any heat, so why use it all? If it *could* be stressing the snake, and is not giving any advantage, why not turn it off all together? Everything I've read says snakes get vitamin D through their food, and do not need uv light at all. Nor can I name anyone who uses uv lighting on their corns. In a site this big, plus my local herp society you'd think someone would be having problems if they actually needed it.

I have looked into it, I needed extra ambient for one of my boys. I ended up going with a ceramic heater because I can leave it on all night and it has zero chance of bothering him.

Those were the answers I found, and if I had a snake that hadn't eaten twice in 12 months I'd be trying everything I could, no matter how small it may seem. Turning off the light will not hurt and at this point the OP needs to try everything she can. [/quote]

Completely agree with you on all of the above, i was just wondering in my previous post if what you had written about before, you think applies to the red light heating bulbs aswell?, not just the UV ?

sorry that quote didn't work out, everything before the bold writing should have been in quote tags