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My hatchlings wont eat!!!

hmm

Well starting the hatchlings in the 4 inch deli cups is what I always do,the only other thing that I could think of is the tempature that you hatch them out at,I pretty much dont even incubate the eggs I keep them at room tempature which is pretty much 82 degrees,they take a bit longer to hatch but it seems this gives them plenty of time in the egg to develop at there own rate which I feel they come out healthier that way. the only other suggestion i could give is scented pinks or even small enough lizards good luck with them. hope they start feeding for you Thanks Stephen
 
Thank you very much for everyone who has replied. I will try scenting with an anole and see if keeping the neonates in an incubator at 82 degrees will make a difference. I hope so and will keep my progress updated. I might experiment by scenting for half of them or I had called Kathy Love and she suggested awhile ago to get some dirty bedding from hamsters(I think she said deer mice were the best but I don't think my pet store has any) and leave the pinkies in that for awhile and try that with the other half. I just think it has to be something with husbandry and I'm really hoping it is the heat. The main reason is because when I switched to deli-cups 5 more ate but only one of those five continued eating.
Mark Westberg

P.S.
I do have to give much thanks to Kathy for taking my phone calls. She was very patient and seems like a wonderful woman. What other business or hobby can you call the big names and actually get to speak to them and on top of it have them be so pleasant?
 
I like the deli cup photo....

I used to do that, but now I've transferred to an easier system with my hatchling racks.

I won't advertise here, but I'll give you a hint...if you look at the cornsnakes for sale area you can find more details. :)

Also, I agree with some of the comments....keep it simple, dark, and little movement. I feed all my little guys last thing and then I leave.

-Jeff
 

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I also keep the babies in small containers. About the size of the ones Pictured just above~ but I use the lids rather than building a rack. I find I get the most success by taking the babies out of the tubs and putting the baby and a F/T pinkie in a yogurt cup over night. Just a plain old, regular yogurt cup with a lid~ (Usually Stater Bros or Albertsons store brand) no holes in the cup or nothing. I do this for the first two feedings, then start just dropping the pinks in the sandwhich size containers like in the photo.

That *usually* works~ but this year I have several hold outs. As it happens all the hold outs who refuse to feed (hatched June 19th) are ones that got SUPER STRESSED before their first feeding. Long story short~ I left town, my sister wanted to see the babies, did not close the door behind herself and I came home to SEVERAL tubs spread out all through the room where the cat apparently had a great game of trying to open/chew through the baby tubs.

Is it possible with your being new at this that some of your babies got just too stressed at the begining?
 
Well that is possible, but I have left them pretty much alone for the last few weeks only to change their paper towels and to try to feed and water them. I could have been over zealous when they were first born. On a side note my first clutch of 19 I think I only had one baby strike at me. The second clutch seems like they all want a piece of me when I moved them. If I did stress them to much at the beginning wouldn't they start to calm down now? I will post how the next feeding goes. Hopefully this whole experience will help someone with a similar experience in the future and crossing my fingers that I figure out what I'm missing.

Mark Westberg
 
I don't think I'd put it down to over-handling at early stages - in your case anyway.

I clean out my hatchling tubs every 3-4 days before first feed and every 2-3 after. To clean out, easiest way is to prepare a fresh tub and simply transfer the hatchling straight into the new tub.

First clutch - super mellow. Second clutch - wriggly but not aggresive. Third clutch - a few aggresive ones, more defensive overall.

Made no difference. I treated them all the same and didn't get a single refusal.

My moggies would have a field day if they managed to get into the snake room for any length of time! I dread to think ........
 
Update
Well I wasn't able to feed them around 5:00 today because I had family visiting. I went to the pet store and got soiled bedding from rats and from hamsters. I put 5 pinkies in each bedding for about 20 minutes. I shook them up in the bedding so they would get a good smell. At about 11:00 I fed them to 6 nonfeeders and the 4 that ate once. At midnight I was going to take out the pinkies of the ones that didn't eat and move them to some of the other non-feeders. None of the 10 have eaten. They are very active but not actively eating. They are the ones that are in the incubator and I temp gunned the top of their deli cups getting reading of 81.6 and 82.1 and then with the lid being off the temps started to fall. Instead of moving these pinkies I just put the lid back on and will check them in the morning.

I am just feeling sick about this whole thing. I have read everything I can find and have tried setting everything up as needed and at this point I'm just getting sad and frustrated. I hope things have changed by the morning but at this point I'm not counting on it. I just don't get it. I will try an anole but they didn't have any dead ones today (they will call me when they have one which the girl made it sound like is fairly common and if they don't have any within a few days I'll buy one) and I would rather not kill one myself if I don't have to. I will also try braining them but if cutting them in half didn't work I don't know that braining them will be any better. After that I have no options left but to try assist feeding the lot of them. If none of this works I would be willing to probably meet some with a good reputation that could drive up around this way and give them to them to try to save (I don't want to be responsible for them dying if I can save them). They could then sell them or give them away as they chose. Worst case would be to ship them to some of you that have lots of exerience with this and hopefully you would donate them to schools or give them to kids getting into herps. I just hate failing at what should seem to be fairly simple with a little patience.

Any other ideas would be appreciated. I will update if anyone ate in the morning.

Mark Westberg
 
Cutting them in half didn't work for me, braining did though. I used a hypodermic needle and poked the head full of holes. Mine wouldn't take live at all either. Just make sure you have very small delis, too big and they just won't eat.
 
Thanks Avalon I will try that next. I have them in the 4 inch deli cups. I would say that these are in the middle as far as height goes.
Mark
 
After reading your post I took the pinkies out and used a needle to puncture their heads several times. I then put them back in and left them until this morning. NONE of them ate. Becoming very exasperated.
 
You tried chick legs yet ?

Sounds like you're just really unlucky. Conditions and the way you're offering the food sound fine.
 
No I haven't I guess I just assumed they had to be fresh and our pet stores do not sell chicks. Now if boughten chicken at the grocery store would work just as well I will for sure give it a try. I keep hoping it's not a luck thing but feel like have done everything I should so we will just have to see. i just don't want to see any of them die.

I am going to try the other nine tonight and try them with the tuna juice dip, so I will keep everyone posted again.
Mark Westberg
 
I tried tuna juice scent with 3 of them that I did not try last night and with 3 that haven't eaten from my second clutch (they just shed last week so I'm not worried yet about them). None of them took to the tuna. I do have pretty crappy luck but I just can't believe that this many won't eat. I will try anoles and chicken legs. I think I might also move the incubator upstairs to a guest bedroom where sunlight comes in and see if maybe light cycle effects their feeding response. On a sidenote, because I have been leaving them alone I didn't notice that one of the lids on of them wasn't closed all the way so when I went to feed him tonight he was gone. I don't know how I'm going to find him. I don't know it's just very disheartening I have 7 ball pythons and other than 2 of them only eating live they seem like a breeze compared to these cornsnake babies. Well I have the rest of my 2nd clutch to feed tomarrow so hopefully some of them will brighten my night.
 
Update
Bought an anole today. I was able to get him to bite the head of the 3 pinkies (getting him to let go was another story). I also rubbed those 3 and 6 more pinkies on his skin. I then fed these 9 to my 9 babies in the incubator. Well some good news 2 of the 4 who had only eaten once ate again. None of the nonfeeders gave it a whirl though. I only left them in there for 2 hours I am thinking about about scenting them again with anole and braining them and putting them back with the 7 who didn't eat. I bought chicken broth to try on the other 4 holdouts tomorrow and on the 2nd clutch. Just about running out of ideas.

Mark Westberg
 
Update
Well here is the update on the first clutch of 19. I had moved 4 of the nonfeeders into a shoebox all together. I placed to live pinkies in there and left them over night. Well one of them decided to eat them both. I took him out and place 2 more live pinkies in the shoe box and another one ate those two. Unfortunately I don't have any more live pinkies. I also had placed some live pinkies in the deli cups with some and they didn't touch the pinkies. Before I tried the live pinkies though I had fed them part of a mouse tail 3 times and every three days. At this point I have sold 3 that ate right away. I still have 6 nonfeeders, 1 that ate on 7/20 and hasn't eaten again (he is getting the mouse tail treatment), 2 that have eaten once recently, 1 that has eaten twice recently, 2 that have eaten 3 times but very sporadically and 4 that eat regularly.
On my second clutch of 12 I still have 6 non eaters going through the mouse tail treatment right now. I had also placed 4 of these non feeders in a shoe box and left f/t pinkie in the cage overnight (this was after the first round of mouse tail treatment). To my surprise one had eaten the pinkie. I did it again and another one ate a pinkie. I also have had 2 others start eating f/t in their deli cups (one of them is my aztec patterned snow, only zigzag/aztec I had out of all the babies so I'm really happy she ate). So out of the 12 I have 6 not eating, 1 that ate over 4 times and was sold, 2 that have eaten once, 1 that has eaten twice and 2 that have eaten consistently over 3 times.
So it has been verying trying with my first clutches but I wouldn't trade it for anything. I have learned so much with these clutches and will continue to work with the babies that haven't eaten yet. Only 2 of them appear skinny but they are all very active so I kind of wonder if they came out of their eggs filled to the brim with yolk and haven't been hungry yet. In a few weeks I will give another update. At that point I will start to consider euthanizing some of the non feeders.
Mark Westberg
 
Mark, I was curious if you tried the chicken broth at all. I have heard this suggested by others and was wondering what kind of success it got. I have two that are refusing to eat right now. I'm considering going the anole or chicken broth route next, b/c I haven't had much luck finding live day old pinks (which is the size I would need) where I am. Thanks
 
I had bought the broth to try but then got sidetracked and went with the mouse tails. I will try the broth this week and let you know how that works. I may try the anole again because I had to get live one and just rubbed the pinkies on his skin I had got him to bite the heads of a few but it got to difficult to make him let go. Next time I would put the anole in a cup with the pinkie and a little water.
I would euthanize mine by putting them in the fridge and then the freezer. There were other ways discussed in another thread.
Mark Westberg
 
I have 3 non-eaters (out of 12) hatched the weekend of 8/20 that I just tried using chicken broth a couple days ago, but no luck yet. Hope things get a bit easier for you there soon.
 
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