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Feeding Question

C

chuckie41

New member
i've had my corn snake for close to three weeks now. i bought it and the pet store employee told me it was about a year old...now i've tried feeding him and he just hasn't wanted to eat anything...i figure it was a problem with the temp...not enough heat...i recently added a basking light for additional heat...the temperature before i got the light was 27c on the warm side of the tank (with just a heatpad underneath) and now it's 32c, which is what i was told was a good temp to get the snake to eat...now i'm going to try feeding him again soon, and i got a couple of questions...the first time i tried feeding him i threw in a dead (thawed) adult mouse and he just ignored it. i tried a couple of days later with a live mouse, and my snake was on the defensive, he struck the mouse when it came close but didn't try to kill and eat it. now is this because the mouse was too big? should i try feeding him a fuzzy or two instead? another question is should i take him out of his tank and place him in an other tank for feeding? any help would be appreciated

:twoguns:
 
If you are using aspen or any other substrate that can stick to the mouse and be swallowed by your snake, then definitely DO feed in a separate container. It can even just be butter bowl or something simple like that. Just make sure there are air holes if he will be in there very long.
If he is year old, then he probably knows the feeding routine and might just be stressed/nervous from being moved to a new home. There are lots of different tricks to try to get him to eat. Many of them are probably covered in the FAQ section that is at the top of this forum.
My advice would be to leave him alone for 3-4 days and don't bother him at all. Then around dusk put him in a container with an appropriately sized prey f/t prey item. The mouse should be no bigger than 1.5x the widest part of his body. To give it some extra smell use a knife and put some slices down the back of the mouse. Try not to hover over him while you are waiting. If you have to just put the whole container back in his viv overnight so that he has peace and quite (and darkness) to eat in.
If this doesn't work you can start to try some of the other options like braining, live pinky overnight, various scenting methods.

It's important not to try feeding him too often. If he refuses all the time and you keep offering food he will learn to just refuse. Try to only offer food every 4-5 days. If he still refuses to eat after a few more tries I would talk to the pet store and tell them that they sold you a snake that won't eat, but don't give up on him yet.

Oh, and I didn't do the Celsius conversions, but you want your temps to be in the mid-70s on the cool end and the warm end should be in the low to mid-80s (degrees F).
 
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