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lizard scent question

S

sykofrenic

New member
Hey, I have 3 non feeding 7 week old corn snake hatchlings. I knew they were non feeders when I got them, but felt like I could use a challenge ::shakes head:: now, I'm realizing just how much of a challenge I took on!
They have refused live, f/t and brained live pinkies.
I was wondering if it matters what kind of lizard species you scent the pinkies with? Everyone seems to mention anole scent, but I breed leopard geckos and was wondering if rubbing a pinky on one of my leos might work? I think I'm gonna try to use chicken broth to scent them next time, but was just wondering about the lizard scent.
Any info/tips would be appreciated!
Thank you! :-D
 
At this stage, you need to try anything. I've not heard that using another lizard species is inadvisable, just that anoles are native and known to be prey of wild corn hatchlings. And don't forget to try tease feeding. I have great luck with that.
 
i have heard many stories lol..some peoople actually use the sent of tuna fish..yea tuna..it smells really strong and its not harmful..i would rub some on a live pinkie and leave it in the cage over night and yea put the snakes in a very small container just enough room to place the pinky in it...that should work..good luck
 
Lizard scenting is simple, and it sometimes works when most other methods have failed.

Force feeding mouse tails (or pieces) is another option. I've gotten a few milks 'jump-started' that way with no issues whatsoever.

PM me if you'd like to discuss my approach to either method.

Don't lose hope.
 
Other things to try are raw chicken juice, fried chicken fat, ground up pelleted turtle food paste, dirty bird or mouse bedding, Ivory soap washing, boiled pink, feed on top of the washing machine while running, and withhold water for 2 or 3 days, then offer a dripping wet pink.
 
Thanks for the advise! There are some ideas I hadn't come across yet! I think I might try a different thing for each one next time, and rotate it so that each hatchling has had a chance with each idea, and then if one thing works I'll do it for the other 2 snakes.
The breeder I got them from said she'd housed these corns in 8oz deli cups for their entire lives, and when I go to put them in there they really really don't seem to like it and spend all their time frantically trying to get out. Is it possible that they associate the deli cups with bad things?
I was thinking about the next attempt being in the gallon size plastic shoe boxes I keep my leopard hatchlings in, although everyone seems to say that the deli cups rock.
About how long can they go before they just starve to death?
 
Do they have anything to burrow in, in their deli cups? I don't see why, if feeding them in their homes hasn't worked, it would hurt anything to move them to larger vivs. That way they can get some exercise and get hungry. I'd continue to feed them in deli cups, though.

And it's pretty easy to just sneak a mouse tail in through the corner of the mouth.

Are they bitey/strikey??
 
I put them in a 10 gallon with a thick layer of Care Fresh pet bedding and a bunch of stuff to hide in/under. They are movin around a lot and drinking water and burrowing (which is a good sign to me)
I'll keep up with the deli cups I guess, it really doesn't leave a lot of room to get distracted from the food.
They are not bitey/strikey at all. In fact, I'm pretty surprised they are this unwilling to strike (I cant even get the little guys to hiss at me) and I did try tease feeding each one for about 10 min and all they did was run away from the pinky.
 
Do you have them all together?? That is porbably not so good...And you brained a live pink? That is REALLY not good...Hopefully I read that wrong.
 
they are all together in a 10 gallon because they were all together in one super large deli cup when i got them from the breeder. I separate them into their own 8oz deli cup for feeding and and then put the deli cup in a paper bag and put the paper bag back into the 10 gallon. I'm currently trying to rig up a heat solution so I can put each one in its own gallon sized show box. Why is braining a live pinky bad?
 
Braining a live pinkie is bad because... well, it was alive. And you caused it a lot of unnecessary pain. A huge amount, actually.

And my gosh, if you want them to start eating separate them! One reason for refusing food is because of the stress of being housed together! That could mean the difference between life and death for these guys. Not to mention all the other disadvantages of cohabitation, especially cannibalization! Which is much more likely in hatchlings!
 
Ah, I see the point in housing them separately, and I AM working on a heating system for all 3 shoe boxes (which should be done tonight granted they all stabilize to a good temp), but I don't have a rack system set up, and only had the spare 10 gallon (it was that or my spare 65). I don't think they will eat each other, they are all equal in size... I was under the impression that cannibalization happened more frequently when dis-similarly sized snakes were housed together?
And as far as the pinky goes...they would have been constricted to death anyways, and the quick lobotomy I gave them was much more instant than that.

I don't think I clarified how I got these little guys, I was walking around at a reptile show and a breeder I happened to be talking to offered me these 3 non feeders for $5 because she didn't have time to take care of them anymore and had basically written them off as dead. I wasn't planning on taking 3 snakes home with me, but felt like I needed to give these guys a shot at life, and thought "how hard could it be to get them to eat?" LOL! It turns out that its not nearly as simple as I imagined it to be!
Thanks for the help guys! :-D I really appreciate it!
 
YAY!! I am glad that the chicken broth worked. As far as your original question about using your geckos for scenting. I use my pet geckos for scenting. They don't look thrilled when my husband is holding them so I can rub pinkies on them but I figure that it is better to use a pet gecko that I know is healthy than another lizard that I am not sure of. The lizard scenting works for me everytime.
 
I hope that you can get everone to eat. I hope now that the 2 that has eat that it will not be a problem
 
I got a related question myself. When you say mouse tails to force feed, do you mean pinkie mouse or adult mouse or somewhere in between?
 
One doesn't have to be smaller than the other.

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