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Active baby, 1 month old, has yet to eat and shows no interest

B

BarryK

New member
Hi

As some of you may know, we had our first babies hatch out in April from one of our females and another hatch out this month (May) from the 2nd.

Out of the 4 we got from the 2nd clutch two have shed and both have eaten (the other two are very young), so no problems here.

From the 1st clutch, the eldest 1 is about to have his/her 2nd shed and has been eating normally.

The worrying thing though, is that its sibling, a snow corn, who hatched out 11th April has shed but, as of today (18th May), has yet to eat anything at all. We have tried 'her' with very small pinkies, we've cut them open, cut them into pieces, brained them and tried to tease feed her.

We also contacted Proteus who advised we try her on brown crickets. We have done this and she is not interested at all.

She is still very active and inquisitive but quite thin and I am very concerned about this, as we have (to my mind) tried just about everything :(

When she hatched out, she still seemed to have a good bit of her egg sack left over - it was completely attached to her stomach and came off when she shed about 8 days after hatching - I don't know if this is relevant

Any advice or opinions?
 
Don't do the Crickets! It's not part of their normal diet.

Try attempting to feed every four or five days. More often then that, and you will probably just stress her out. Try things like warming the pink up to around 100F, scenting with tuna juice, live feeders, leaving overnight in a deli cup or paper bag and tube feeding.

You can also cut the limbs off a large pinkie and feed her those. This is a type of force feeding and usually only needs to be done once or twice. Once the snake gets the taste of the feeder, they catch on quick. Another thing you can try is a mouse tail. Cut that at an angle. It's easier to get in that way.

Wayne
 
We've tried keeping her and it overnight in a cup, that didn't work - I thought of trying to get her fed through a tube.

If we do try any of the "mild" forced feeding ideas - I would take her to a vet knowledgable in snakes or to Proteus Reptile Trust as they will have more experience of this kind of thing than us.

I'm not sure of our laws here in the UK, but its not really possible to get live feeders - besides, I'm very much against live feeding, no offence

Thanks for the suggestions
 
BarryK said:
We've tried keeping her and it overnight in a cup, that didn't work - I thought of trying to get her fed through a tube.

If we do try any of the "mild" forced feeding ideas - I would take her to a vet knowledgable in snakes or to Proteus Reptile Trust as they will have more experience of this kind of thing than us.

I'm not sure of our laws here in the UK, but its not really possible to get live feeders - besides, I'm very much against live feeding, no offence

Thanks for the suggestions
Click to expand...

Everything I have mentioned is proven methods used by experienced breeders and keepers. If PROTEUS is telling you to feed your corn crickets, I get concerned about their "experience" because crickets are not a part of a corn snakes normal diet.

As far as feeding live, I'm against it too. The only exception to that is when a snake won't feed on frozen thawed animals. It's a tough choice, but sometimes a necessary one.

Good Luck and I hope it all turns out well!

Wayne
 
Hi - just thought I'd let you know - the baby had her first feed last night.

We had tried her with all sorts but wasn't interested - my dad (more out of desperation than anything) tried her with some cooked chicken liver (a lump about the size of a pinkie's head) and when we looked back in on her a little after midnight she'd eaten the whole lot. He put some more in and she's eaten that too.

Obviously its not a normal part of their diet (although I have read about feeding them chicken livers somewhere) but this is the only thing she has shown any interest in eating and at least she has eaten something and we now have a way to wean her on to mice
 
Beware - liver is very high in iron, which snakes can't metabolise. Although it's tempting her to eat, it will cause health problems that are life-threatening and may be worse than the original problem.

Proteus are a very reputable organisation and I'm sure they would offer good advice (definitely not involving crickets) and may be able to recommend an experienced vet in your area. However, at only a few weeks old, you're way off having to tube or force feed. Live feeding isn't illegal per se in the UK, but I share your opinion and don't do it either.

The key is patience. Don't try to feed too often, or the youngster will come to associate food with stress. Offering once every 5 days or so will be fine. Just keep trying each of the tricks in turn. Have you tried leaving her in a small container overnight with the pinkie? Some of them demand absolute dark and quiet before they eat.

The retained yolk shouldn't be part of the problem. Hatchlings don't usually eat until after their first shed, 7-10 days after hatching. They all hatch with a reserve of yolk (it's just normally internal) which allows them to grow for a few days without eating.
 
Well already we are planning on weaning her onto mice, we are going to try and give her another very small pinkie - feeding her on liver for the rest of her life was never an option as it not their natural diet - we're also planning on taking her to a vet in our area who is a reptile specialist.

To be honest because she had gotten so thin we were just glad that she's eaten SOMETHING but yeah - we're goin to get her onto pinkies ASAP.

Oh and yes we did put her in a very small container with it overnight - we tried a few times with the pinkie being brained and/or cut open and no interest - but hopefully now she'll start to eat regularly.

She's a snow corn and I heard that they have a tendency to be problem feeders - is this true?
 
Snows are one of the oldest morphs and are as robust as any other. They shouldn't give any particular problems.

Bear in mind that nature builds in a high percentage of "natural wastage" in Corn Snakes. Their clutches are large because so few of them would survive in the wild (think I once read that only 1% of eggs hatch and result in Corns that survive to maturity). It sadly isn't unusual to find one or two in a clutch that set themselves against eating and fade away. In the wild, they'd form part of the food chain. It's just that watching nature red in tooth and claw, at work in our living rooms, can sometimes be difficult to bear.

However, good luck with all your efforts and keep us posted. Maybe you could try rubbing a pinkie with some cooked liver - perhaps if they smell the same, she might be be fooled into taking it.
 
Well yeah - that's why we weren't too sad that out of the 1st clutch of 9 eggs only 2 hatched out (the snow corn and his/her sibling) and from the 2nd clutch of 11 we've only gotten 4 - the whole thing of it being nature taking its course.

Its the old thing though - once they've hatched out and if they you kind of can't help but think "Did I do something wrong? Was there more that I could have done?" etc

But yes - I've gone out and bought some more pinkies and got them as small as I can - we'll rub them in the chicken liver to try to get her to eat them.

I'll keep you all posted - from what I understand most of the time once they've gotten that first feed and gotten the taste of the mouse they're normally all set
 
I know - we were all "eh?" at my dad for trying it and then when he said she'd eaten it, we were all "WHAT!?" haha

It was cooked - I'm not sure what effect that would have on the amount of iron in it or the other nutritional things
 
Positive - its nowhere to be seen and she has a bump in her middle - which is the first time I've seen that with her
 
Well, there's some good things here. We know she can swallow, she swallowed a bit of cooked liver. Liver is very smelly so it ought to work well for scenting pinks. Maybe even cook the pink with liver to maximize the scenting if need be. Or maybe take a little piece of liver and wrap it around the pink? Anyway, I am sure there are ways to use this to encourage the little worm to eat. Liver! I never would have thought of that!
 
Update

Hello everyone - just to update;

The Snow Corn is still alive and well - getting quite nice and big now although 'she' is still a bit of a fussy eater.

Back when I mentioned us using liver I was actually mistaken - it was chicken gizzard and she still tends to need a little bit of this wrapped round the fluff (yep, onto fluffs now) otherwise she wont touch it.

Still - she seems healthy enough and has occasionally eaten mice without any "garnish" as it were - so hopefully we'll eventually get her off the stuff :)
 
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