• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

... Zephyr Won't Eat

salvadorian

salvadorian

creatures are people too!
I tried feeding Zephyr today and yesterday. It had been a week since her last meal, and she is a small hatchling. She has eaten for me twice before, but now she shows no interest in her thawed, warmed pinkies. Absolutely no interest whatsoever. She seems active and everything, but she won't eat and there's obviously no food in her stomach. Help!
 
You can try braining the pinkie, dipping it in tuna juice (water), rubbing it with KFC grease, etc.

First course of action should be to put her in a deli cup (with air holes, of course) with the warmed pinkie, and placing the cup into a brown paper bag overnight - no peaking!

I wouldn't exactly panic yet. There are a number of things you can try to entice her to eat. It is also entirely possible that she will eat normally in few days.

Also, don't offer food more than every 3-4 days or so. Offering food everyday stresses them out and can lead to a pattern of seeing food and refusing it.
 
Well I actually figured it out! She's eating right now. She just REALLY hates the smell of the new corn I got (Apollo). I had to take her in another room to get her to eat. Weird.
 
Yah I'm glad too! I was worried about my little girl :)
She hasn't actually eaten it, but she's mouthing it and getting ready to. I'm leaving her alone now.
She better eat it!
 
Ok so she eats now, but I can't even get her to eat once a week. And when she does, she wants TINY pinkies or just their heads.... what is up?!
Apollo eats like a beast, and he's obviously growing more quickly than her. Ah!
 
They all have their quirks. She'll eat when she's hungry kinda like a kid,lol Why not try to stretch her feedings out to 8 days and see if she is more prone to take the whole pink then. They don't always need food in their tummy as a matter of fact its not healthy:)
 
Also remember it is getting to be winter. During the cooler months my snakes tend to be less intrested in eating. They will eat 10-14 days apart rather than every week. The first couple of years I wasted a ton of mice until I figured this out....
 
Buzzard said:
Also remember it is getting to be winter. During the cooler months my snakes tend to be less intrested in eating. They will eat 10-14 days apart rather than every week. The first couple of years I wasted a ton of mice until I figured this out....
Click to expand...

Does this depend on lighting & temperature? I mean, my 2 snakes live in vivs that are temp controlled & the lights are 12h on/12h off, so how would they ~know~ it's winter? If natural light is part of their environment, their bodies would be able to tell, but not if there are no windows, right?
 
wstphal said:
Does this depend on lighting & temperature? I mean, my 2 snakes live in vivs that are temp controlled & the lights are 12h on/12h off, so how would they ~know~ it's winter? If natural light is part of their environment, their bodies would be able to tell, but not if there are no windows, right?
Click to expand...

If you have controlled lights and temps, they will not know it's winter and thus of course won't hibernate either.
 
They brumate, and temps, humidity, and natural light cycles change drastically in the winter even with controled heating.
 
danielle said:
They brumate, and temps, humidity, and natural light cycles change drastically in the winter even with controled heating.
Click to expand...

So the humidity can tell them it's time to brumate even if the temps & lighting are constant? I am not trying to bug you, I am trying to understand. I am new to this cornsnake thing. I know something about mammals, and mostly either length of daylight or temperature or both are the seasonal cues for mammals, and if these are completely controlled, they don't know what season it is outside. Now, I admit the cool side temps in my vivs have gone down with cooler weather, so in my particular situation, they might well pick up on that cue, but what about in a closed building with really good climate control, where the temperature & lighting are ~completely~ artificial?
 
And apologies for the questions in Zephyr's entry! I hope now that Zephyr ~is~ eating there are no more difficulties on that score.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top