Aggressive, Non Feeding

I finally got my baby corn last Thursday from Petsmart, an Amelanistic. In the pet store, it eagerly crawled from the attendant's hands into mine, and after the short drive home I handled it for a few minutes with no problems before releasing it into its 20 gallon terrarium with 3 hides.

I was given a copy of this snake's feeding schedule, which showed it had accepted food every 4 days in the month it had been in the store. That first night, as the feeding was due, I tried dangling a pinkie. It came out of its hide, circled around the mouse, sniffed, but didn't eat, even when I left the mouse in overnight.

I handled the snake again today for the first time since putting it in its new home. It was unresponsive to my jiggling a pinky some distance from its hide. I uncovered the snake to pick it up, and it rattled its tail and struck when touched. It proved very flighty during transfer to its "feeding" cage, and wouldn't touch the mouse. I held the snake in my hand and tried to coax it with the pinky dangling right in front of it, no results.

First of all, this snake is obviously stressed and still not acclimated. And I also realize the snake's a baby and may be more prone to aggression, although as I said it seemed perfectly at ease with me the day I bought it. But a week has passed since it last fed, and I'm a bit worried. Perhaps the tank's too big for such a little snake and it feels insecure. The hides are admittedly too big for it (I may try using yogurt cups which it should fit into perfectly). The snake usually doesn't even use the hides but burrows under the paper towel substrate.

The pinky's lying in the terrarium for now, and if nothing happens soon I'll try braining. If that doesn't work I'll see about scenting with a lizard or trying live pinkies. Just feel really bad that things aren't going well for my little friend.

This rookie would appreciate any further advise. So far all attempts to feed have been disastrous and non productive, and the more I mess with the snake the angrier/flightier it gets.

I would personally let the snake adjust for a few more days without handling it or disturbing it. Then I would get a small bowl like a cool whip bowl with a lid. Put air holes in it and put snake and pinkie in it over night if you have to. I had a fire here that would only eat like this for a long time.
Also what are the temps?

The ambient air temp on hot side is 81. Humidity 60%. UTH is connected to thermostat set at 85 Fahrenheit. The UTH is my one heat source, no lamps or emitters. I notice the corn's been spending much more time on the "cool" side for what it's worth.

Last week when I brought it home the ambient air temp was in the mid 70s. The weather here was fairly cool and got hot over the weekend. Perhaps this natural temp increase hasn't helped either?

And as a total bunny trail, I had no clue corns could rattle their tails like that! Thanks for your advice.

Did I read correctly that you attempted to feed it the day you got it? If so, it might have associated the food item with the stress of being moved from familiar surroundings into a big, new world where nothing smells quite the same and every part of the place is a potentially dangerous unknown. I gave Saga a full week to get adjusted to her new home without doing anything more than changing the water from time to time before the first attempted feeding. She was flighty and snappy the first time I got her out, too, but she ate when I offered food....

You mention ambient air temp. Ambient air temp is usually lower than the temp at the glass/substrate level, often a lot lower, in my experience. Corns don't really care what the ambient air temp is, as long as it's above 60 or so; they need belly heat. You really need a digital thermometer with a probe or a temp gun to know what your corn is really experiencing. In my experience with two different thermostats (a $20 Zoo Med and a $45 BAH), the Zoo Med always needed to be turned way up to 95 to achieve a temp of 80-85, and the BAH needs to be set closer 75 to get the same results. I don't trust the accuracy of those things by themselves anymore. >_< It seems likely to me that your corn's temps might be a bit too high, given his behavior and the ambient air temp.

Since I come from a cool, humid climate, however, my experience with ambient air temp might not match up with yours. :P

Also, did you find out what the Petco people were feeding him? The Petcos and Petsmarts up here all feed only one, tiny pinky head every four to seven days. If your corn has been eating something that small, the full-size pink might seem too big. If you haven't already, I'd say to try and get ahold of the smallest-possible pinks, newborn or day-old if possible. Most Petsmarts sell them. The smaller size might help the baby realize he can, in fact eat the mouse put in front of him. XD

When Saga didn't want to eat, I used two pairs of tweezers to break the belly skin of a really hot pink, then left it with her in a cupboard over night. Worked like a charm.

Saga was quite the rattler when she was was a wee hatchling! Turns out all snakes have the muscles for it, and snakes whose ranges overlap those of rattlesnakes seem to have picked up the habit! XD Interestingly enough, rattlesnakes are starting to kick the rattling habit lately. Apparently, the rattling behavior has outlived its usefulness, since more rattlesnakes are killed by humans than by any other predator, and what was originally an effective warning/self-defense system only backfires when the snake rattles at humans. While a coyote or a mountain lion will usually leave a rattler alone, humans will locate and kill it.

Actually I do have a Reptitemp digital infrared thermometer. My thermostat is a Zilla 1000 watt. So, I took the surface temp above the area of the UTH: 118 deg. F!! The thermostat dial was set at about 87 deg F... Cranked that sucker down and will see what happens in a while. I'd say the thermostat is a bit off (can you feel my sarcasm??) and it only cost about $50 dollars. :/

I'm going to try leaving my snake alone for a few more days, maybe another week, and see what happens then. Hope things get better and that this cute little snake will eat eventually.

One more thing, the store attendant handed me the pinkies himself and said these were the exact ones the snake had been feeding on.

My corn did finally feed after I just left it alone for another week. Am hoping a second feeding attempt today will prove equally successful. S/he no longer strikes at me but is still flighty. My new ball python, by comparison, is quite content during handling. Hopefully with more handling the corn will grow friendlier.

Are you sure the thermostat is even working?? That temp is within the range of an unregulated UTH..

Pretty much all colubrid snakes rattle their tails like that. Snakes rattled their tails long before rattlesnakes perfected it.

Well as of now the floor temp (hot side) is 86 degrees. That's going by both the probe thermometer and infrared digital thermometer. It seems turning the thermostat down a bit was all that was needed.

Wow! No wonder the snake wasn't happy. And that's a very lucky little snake to have an owner who could monitor and adjust the temperatures before any harm was done