Got my first baby

[Staggnant]

Hi all, I'm new to the boards. I just got my first baby corn yesterday; it's an albino, and was told it's only about a month or two old. It's a little over a foot long. It's got beautiful color, and so far is a little squirrelly. The pet store said that their snakes hadn't eaten since last week, and that was their feeding day. They were feeding them crickets. Today I bought him a pinky mouse to munch on, as I assumed he would be hungry if he didn't eat for a week. I am using Reptile Litter as substrate, so I moved the snake to his dish that I got him in for feeding, and put the mouse in. I left him there for about an hour, and still no eating. I had to leave, and didn't want the snake in that tiny little compartment outside of his new cage for so long, so I removed the lid and placed it inside his cage. I came home tonight, about 7 hours later, and the snake still hasn't eaten. Being as the snake has only been in his cage since yesterday, and he MAY have eaten, I'm not sure, and I don't think the pet store knows either, is it okay for me to leave the dish with the live pinky mouse in it for the snake to eat? Will that encourage the snake to bite when anything enters his cage? I could sure use some help, I feel like a nervous parent waiting for my baby to eat.

 

[babbaloo99]

Hi there. Congratulations on your new snake. I am unfortunately sad to say that if the pet store has been feeding your snake crickets, they don't know what they are doing. You could do a search on here and hear many horror stories on how badly some pet stores care for snakes. That does not mean your snake won't eat the pinky. It is probably best if you leave your little one for at least 3 days without being disturbed so that it can get used to its change in environment as that can cause stress.

Also, if you can find a copy of Kathy Love's Corn Snake Manual, it will be very helpful should you have trouble feeding. There are also many threads online here that give instructions on how to feed a new hatchling that doesn't seem to want to eat, what to do if it regurgitates, etc. All these steps are very important to making sure your snake gets a good start.

But don't get too worried just yet. Do some research here, follow the steps, ask more questions if you need to and hopefully you can get him/her off to a good start in its new home.

 

[Staggnant]

Thank you for the help. But in the meantime, I've got a live pinky mouse in my cage that's been sitting there for over a day. It's still alive, and I now have the snake in the small container with the mouse with the lid on. Should I continue doing this until it eats? That's the main thing I need to know. Should I take the mouse out along with the container and leave the snake alone? Or should I leave the snake in the small container with the mouse? It still doesn't seem to want to eat it, I'm just not sure if I need to leave the mouse in the viv or not.

 

[pcar]

If you have offered the snake food, and he/she refuses it, then you need to remove the mouse so that you don't cause the snake to always refuse the mouse. Put the snake back his/her terrium and leve him/her alone for a couple of days to adjust to the new living arrangements. In about 3 to 5 days, offer the mouse again and see if he/she will bite.

 

[Staggnant]

If you have offered the snake food, and he/she refuses it, then you need to remove the mouse so that you don't cause the snake to always refuse the mouse. Put the snake back his/her terrium and leve him/her alone for a couple of days to adjust to the new living arrangements. In about 3 to 5 days, offer the mouse again and see if he/she will bite.

Okay, thank you. That was the main thing I was looking for.

EDIT: what should I do with the mouse? It's still alive, but I'm assuming in 3 to 5 days it will not be. Should I put it in the freezer?

 

[pcar]

well, you can do a couple of things with it. beings it is a pinky, you can put it in the freezer and when you are ready to feed, just thaw it in a cup of warm to hot water. or, you can get another pinky when you are redy to feed again.

 

[Staggnant]

I think I'll put it in the freezer, as pinkies here cost me $1.35. Thanks for the help!

 

[niblips]

one more thing........

When you take the Pinkie out of the freezer it will take about an hour to thaw. Then you can warm it up in warm water, however put the mouse into a small bag first. This way it will warm up without washing the scent of mouse off it. People usually don't mention the bag part when they talk about warming up "dinner". My snake won't take it if there's no scent of mouse.

Oh, and welcome to the board.....

 

[MegF.]

I agree with niblips in this instance. If the poor thing has been subsisting on crickets (someone needs to inform the petstore that this is wrong), you'll want as strong a scent as you can get. I find mine eat f/t just fine even if put into water directly, but in your case, you'll want as much scent as you can. I would make sure it's quite warm too. You'll want it as close to actual mouse temp as you can (around 100 degrees F). Someone needs to slap those petstore people around!

 

[Staggnant]

Well, I took all of your advice and warmed up the mouse, and I am currently watching my snake eat it as we speak. Thank you all so much, I was very concerned for poor Dominic. I first put the mouse in without warming it up very long, then when Dominic was not eating him, I came back and realized I didn't have the mouse warm enough. I thawed him out some more and even cut him a little bit to draw some blood, and Dominic looks like he's enjoying his meal. Thank you all again so much for your help. Here's hoping he doesn't regurg.

 

[pcar]

You are very welcome and glad that I could help out a bit. Another thing to think about is not to get too worried about your snake not eating right away. Snakes can go for weeks with out food. Just as long as your snake doesn't loose a lot of body weight or size.