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If your baby snake won't eat...

Flea886

New member
Hey everyone!! I just wanted to post something based on what i experienced. We bought our baby Nefarian late april/early may, we think he is a ghost of some sort, ate a meal when we got him, a few days later fed him (F/T) again and he threw it up. Ever since then he has not taken a meal. We would leave the mouse in the cage with him over night and still nothing. We tried this for a month straight and he just would not eat!! We read somewhere to take tuna fish and cover the mouse in it. So this week that is what we did..we put Nef and the mouse in a small glad ware container and left him there over night with it. When i woke up, i was expecting the mouse to still bet there. We were starting to lose hope because he was getting thin and we knew that if he didn't eat soon he was going to die. Much to our surprise HE ATE IT!! We were so excited!!

So FYI, if you have a hatchling that refuses to eat buy a cheap can of tuna and rub the mouse it in and put them together in a small container over night..it does work!! :dancer:
 
You might be luckier than you realized that your baby didn't eat right away after regurgitating! Congrats that everything worked out.
 
I know. If he wouldn't have eaten this one i was going to bring him to the vet to see if he was still healthy and what option we could have done.
 
I checked on the baby earlier and sad to say he had passed away. All the conditions of his viv were right. I do not know what went wrong. :(
 
I checked on the baby earlier and sad to say he had passed away. All the conditions of his viv were right. I do not know what went wrong. :(
I'm sorry for your loss!

Not to doubt you but when you say all the conditions were right can you elaborate on that by answering these questions please?
What are the warm and cool side temps?
Are you using a digital or an analog thermometer?
What is the heat source?
Do you have a thermostat?

Sadly sometimes even if everything in the viv is correct babies just fail to thrive. Regurging is very hard on them :(
 
I am so sorry for your loss. Where did you purchase this snake from? Do you have other snakes? Was this one quarantined from the others?
 
I still wonder if he might have eaten and regurged an earlier offering...
 
We have other corn snakes (2 female and 1 other male) They are all housed separately. We have an exoterra dual thermometer and humidity and it is placed in the middle. The middle is always between 70 and 80 and the humidity is always between 50 and 60. My husband had said when we got him he had some black in his belly, which we thought was food since PetSmart said they had just gotten them in and the place they get them from feeds them before they are shipped. So we are thinking something probably was wrong with him when we bought him and PetSmart only has a 14 day return policy.

The heat source is a day and night lamp (60watt for a 10 gal tank) and an under the cage heat matt. Each snake has the same set up and we have never had any problems other than with the little one.

We have never had any problems with the other snakes. They all eat just fine, poop (I know gross) just fine, and their sheds are all in one piece. I just think the little guy was doomed from the get go and it is so sad. He was so pretty. I know sometimes these things happen.
 
I am so sorry to hear of your loss, my heart weights heavy for you. I also have a little girl who is not eating right now. So I totally understand how you feel.
 
PETsMART shouldn't of let you take them home after being fed. That very very stressful on them. They could've held them for 48 hours so they'd have a cleared belly. I work for them. I'm sorry for your loss I have gotten after my fellows associates for not watching the reptiles more closely. They have good intentions just a lot to do and split up between everyone.
 
I didn't see where the OP said Pet Smart had just fed them... Keep in mind, these are corn snakes, they breed like guppies, and sometimes they just don't make it.. Regardless of who you buy your animals from, there is always some that never thrive, regardless how anal you get over conditions... Just cause a big name sells it doesn't mean its worth a quarter...
 
We have other corn snakes (2 female and 1 other male) They are all housed separately. We have an exoterra dual thermometer and humidity and it is placed in the middle. The middle is always between 70 and 80 and the humidity is always between 50 and 60. My husband had said when we got him he had some black in his belly, which we thought was food since PetSmart said they had just gotten them in and the place they get them from feeds them before they are shipped. So we are thinking something probably was wrong with him when we bought him and PetSmart only has a 14 day return policy.

The heat source is a day and night lamp (60watt for a 10 gal tank) and an under the cage heat matt. Each snake has the same set up and we have never had any problems other than with the little one.

We have never had any problems with the other snakes. They all eat just fine, poop (I know gross) just fine, and their sheds are all in one piece. I just think the little guy was doomed from the get go and it is so sad. He was so pretty. I know sometimes these things happen.





This is where I said I bought it at petsmart. Yes some just do not thrive. This is our first loss.
 
My husband had said when we got him he had some black in his belly, which we thought was food since PetSmart said they had just gotten them in and the place they get them from feeds them before they are shipped. .


From the same post...that part answers the question
 
The black in his belly could have very well been his gall bladder. On baby snakes with reduced melanin, this organ can be really easy to see.
 
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