1 year old snake suddenly on a hunger strike

Hi all,

We got our corn snake this past march and he turned 1 year old earlier this month. We feed him frozen-thawed pinkies as the fuzzies we have access to are bigger than his head. Live food is not an option for us. He seems to be a naturally nervous snake and has always taken some convincing to eat, but we have never had a problem getting him to take his food (even if it takes a few minutes.) He never strikes, but always very slowly wraps his mouth around the food. If the food wiggles, he acts afraid of it. When we first got him, we tried feeding him in a container outside his enclosure, but he started refusing to eat in there, and started insisting on being in his enclosure to eat. So we have been feeding him in his enclosure for months.

We didn't really have a problem until a little over a week ago. When we tried to feed him then, he seemed to show interest at first, but then kept turning away from the food and hiding, so we gave up. We tried again tonight and he didn't even flick his tongue at it.

It's not breeding season, so we know that's not a factor.

He's showing no signs of shedding - he is glossy.

His enclosure is the proper temperature - roughly 85 degrees on the warm side. He seems to prefer the cool side(?) He has a cool hide, a warm hide, and a tube between the too, as well as ample substrate for hiding in. So we don't suspect an enclosure issue.

We prepare our mice by thawing them in hot water to avoid bacteria growing on the mouse during air-thawing, and also because we read that the mouse should be around 98 degrees, and it will never get that hot with air thawing.

Nothing about the mice or our preparation of them has changed. We know these snakes can safely go without eating for months, but there's usually a reason like mating season or brumation - his tank is too warm for brumation and mating season is in the spring. So, it's worrying that a snake that reliably ate for months on the food we were offering would suddenly refuse the same food.

We did recently move him to a different room, but he ate without a problem pretty much right after moving from our old apartment to our current apartment. So moving to a new room should be small potatoes compared to the stress of moving house, right? We've been in the new place for about a month, if that matters.

We are first-time snake owners so we don't have confidence in finding our way through hiccups like this.

No edit button for me, so adding this here: We read we should handle him daily for 15+ minutes to help make him more tame/handle-able. Again, this hasn't been a problem for months. We havent been handling him more than usual.

First of all, a mouse being bigger than the snake's head is not how you judge meal size. "All Mice" are bigger than even a full grown corn snake's head.

A snake can eat a mouse up to 1-1/2 times the size of the snake's body at the widest point.

Most of us go by weight. You weigh the snake. Whatever the snake weighs, you feed about 10%. So if the snake weighs 30 grams you'd feed a 3 gram mouse, if the snake weighs 150 grams you'd feed a 15 gram mouse...etc.....

This works up to the point a snake is fully grown. Once you hit 35 gram mice (about a 350 gram snake) you just stay there.

Males sometimes go on feeding strikes during breeding season. But your snake only a year old should not be experiencing that.

They will sometimes refuse food before a shed.

You stated your snake is "Glossy" so he's not about to shed. You can't be sure about that. The shedding process is different each time. Sometimes it's obvious, sometimes it's not. Sometimes the process takes 3 or 4 days sometimes it can take 2 or 3 weeks. "They Know" when a shed is coming long before you do. And if he just doesn't "Feel Good" he may not eat.

My snake at 1 year old was eating hoppers. I know corn snakes grow at different rates, but if you have a 1 year old corn snake still eating pinkies, it suggests to me something isn't right.

Thanks for your response! That's good to know about the mouse size. I think we must have had bad information in that case. We had read the food item should not be wider than the top of the snake's head. I'll check the comparison to his widest point.

The weight method is really helpful! Our snake is due for another weighing, but last time we weighed him, he was 35g so it sounds like we haven't been feeding him enough I'm glad we learned this!

I'll try a fuzzy next time and see if he will eat it. What do we do if he acts afraid of it again? Last time he literally acted like it was dangerous to him and he needed to escape from it. It was a very strong reaction. Do pinkies and fuzzies smell different? Is that something we need to take into account?

Edit: I thought about it, and I still think shed isn't the problem. We got him in March and he didn't shed till July. It seems too soon for him to be shedding again in August, especially since we apparently haven't fed him enough. Maybe he'll be more tempted by the fuzzy this time.

Honestly, I would probably try to feed him in a container again. I would put him in a small container (with air holes) and leave him alone in the dark for like half an hour. Then heat up his food really nice and hot, plop it in with him, and then leave him alone again for an hour. If he still hasn't eaten at that point, reheat it and leave it with him overnight.

Oh wow! Overnight? Wouldn't dangerous bacteria start growing on the mouse after a couple hours?

Maybe a bit, but their stomach acid is able to dissolve bone, so it will be fine. I've done that before with picky eaters with no ill effects. Of course, if the mouse is still there in the morning, definitely toss it out at that point.

Okay thanks!

An update for anyone with the same issue:

Putting him in the smaller container didn't work; he didn't eat. However, he did poop. So we think maybe his enclosure wasn't as warm as we thought since he should have passed that long since. The heat was set to be within the suggested range, but there was some room to increase it, so we turned up the heat a bit. A friend also suggested cutting the mouse in half, so we offered the front half of 2 fuzzies, and that worked! He did take both. So we are going to try exposing the guts if he is fussy in the future. And we plan to gradually increase his meal size (not too gradually, but we do have 3 more fuzzies and some pinkies to dispose of.)

Thanks again for the replies! I learned a lot, so I'm glad I posted here

I'm glad he ate for you.