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My hatchlings wont eat!!!

stephen

stephen

corn breeder
I have heard to many people tell me they are having trouble getting there hatchlings to eat,I have 100% feeding hatchlings this year,from my experience hatchling cornsnakes need to feel secure,so this is what I keep them in until they grow to big for it and move up to the next appropiate size. this is a 4 inch deli cup with a 2 ounce solo plastic cup stapled to the side,it has a paper towel cut into a circle on the bottom,then I take another 2 ounce solo cup and put water in it and place it in the stapled one,this makes it easy to change water daily and the paper towel can be replaced as needed. so good luck with your babys! :cheers:
 

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i like that method. i do the same but, that stapling is perfect!!!

its seems real time effective when there are alot of little poop machines kicking around.
 
feed

yes, I feed in there, i just barely lift half the lid and throw a f/t pink in there,usually always in the evening around 6:00 pm
 
feeding babies

stephen said:
yes, I feed in there, i just barely lift half the lid and throw a f/t pink in there,usually always in the evening around 6:00 pm
Click to expand...
Yeah I do the same thing as Stephen and it works great. I also feed them at night and by the morning....they have all eaten. Those deli cups are awesome. I get my deli cups from SUPERIOR ENTERPRISES. great prices too!
 
I do pretty much the same but with cricket tubs and coffee jar lids for water dishes.

This year I'm 26/26 feeders so far. 57 pinkies offered, 57 pinkies eaten.

:)
 
20 non-eaters

I still have 20 babies that won't eat from the 60 that I have hatched out so far and they are going on their 5th week. They are housed in fairly small containers as well. I don't have acess to live pinkies and have tried teasing them and have left pinkies overnight for them on several occasions, any other suggestions? One of them is getting really thin, but I just don't want to force feed, man I wish I had some live pinkies to try. I also only feed in the evening, I am just running out of ideas. Thanks__Twyla
 
Try an alternate food source.

I had best success with chick drumsticks.

Take a day old chick. Twist off the leg at the hip joint. Twist off the claw below the knee. Peel back skin and you should be left with a teeny-weeny chicken drumstick. I got my worst ever problem feeder (3 months) started on those.

Give them a few of those then try moving them over to pinkies. Scenting at first if need be.

Small anoles (lizards) are apparently pretty good as well but I don't have access to them.

Good luck!

:)
 
I am not sure where I would get chick drumsticks either and I hope they are prekilled, I couldn't rip the leg of a baby chick, are they expensive? What do you do with the rest of the chick?
 
When keeping them in those deli cups what temp do you keep them at? I'm assuming they aren't big enough to have a hot spot etc... I have had only 5 out of 19 eat right now and have them housed in shoe boxes but feed them in deli cups I have. I only have 5 cups so I have to rotate them through and give them 1/2 hour. I did leave 5 neonates overnight with pinkies and none of them ate (boy do pinkies reek in just a night). They were born on 7/1-7/3 so I'm not terribly worried yet but starting to get there.
Mark
 
kocorns said:
I am not sure where I would get chick drumsticks either and I hope they are prekilled, I couldn't rip the leg of a baby chick, are they expensive? What do you do with the rest of the chick?
Click to expand...

I got them from the same pet shop I get my pinkies. I got them frozen.

Can't remember how much they were .... not especially expensive though and you do get 2 meals from each one! :)

I just threw the rest of the chick out but if you have a big enough adult you can feed the main body of it to them apparently. It looked a bit too big to me at the time.
 
nonfeeders

Well in my opinon,there are two kinds of non feeding hatchling corns,ones that just wont eat,and ones that can eat as long as the conditions are right. One way to look at it is,these things are tiny and pretty much defensless,so they are pretty much very scared and stressed. So you have to make them feel as secure as possable.If you have some that arent feeding probably means they are so freaked out,that they arent even thinking about eating.they probably just wondering who or what is going to kill them! So knowing that, the first place to start would be to make them feel secure. which means putting them in something similiar to what I had shown in the begining of this thread.then place them in a area wheres theres not much traffic (vibrations). Dont look at them or mess with them at all for 2 or 3 days.then about on the 3rd or 4 night, barely open there container just enough to slip in a f/t pink and leave.In the morning check to see if it has eaten.This should tell you if the reason there not eaten is cause there so stressed. And if it dont work you have to try other things.But if you have more than 2 or 3 nonfeeders,the problem more than likely is that they are way to stressed to think about eating! Good Luck
 
I went and found a bar type supply store and was able to purchase the deli cups and souffle cups. I set up all the babies in their new homes with 6-7 holes the size of a large nail around the top (not big enough for them to get out). I will try to feed them all tomorrow since I set them up on monday (the last time I tried to feed them was on saturday). I may wait until friday though. I am a little concerned though because they are getting condensation on the sides of the deli cups from their water dishes. I checked on a few of them yesterday to make sure their paper towel substrate wasn't wet which it isn't. I didn't want to bother them anymore than I had to. When using a temp gun on the bottom outside of the deli cups I am getting readings of 78-82. I hope these temps will be sufficient and all will eat. Wish me luck and I will keep you posted. Thanks Stephen for the deli cup set up I hope it works as well for me as it has for you.
Mark
 
Well I now have 10 out of 19 that have eaten and the original 5 ate their second meal so things are going alright. I have noticed on some of the snows and amels that haven't eaten that they still have some dark spots in their stomach so I will wait another 5 days and try again. That system seemed to work pretty well. Thanks for the idea.
Mark
 
I get my frozen chicks through rodentpro.com, they're a little cheaper than rat pups and I sometimes give them to a few of my animals that are large enough to take one down.
 
Update
On 7/20 I have 5 that eat regularly, 5 that ate for the first time and 9 still refusing. They were put in separate containers and left alone for several days.
On 7/25 I have 5 still eating regularly 1 eat his second meal 4 refuse their second meal and 9 still not eating. Same containers and the pinkies were left overnight.
On 7/30 I have 6 that have eaten 3 or more times 4 ate once and 9 still not eating. This time I took the head off about half of the pinkies and left them in the containers overnight but none at them. I did notice maybe 2 of the non-eaters looked like they may have taken a bite out of the pinkie but I'm not positive. These were born 7/2-7/4 so I'm starting to get worried the temps are from 78-84 degrees.
My next step is to either try braining or buying an anole and scenting. I have a second clutch that just shed yesterday (12 in the clutch) they are set up the same way so I will try to feed them tonight and see if they eat. That should I would think tell me if it's my set up if they don't eat. Any strong suggetions on why 4 ate once and then stopped or what I should try next, would be very much appreciated.
Thanks
Mark Westberg
 
Quick note the reason that the dates don't coincide with my posts above is because the pinkies were dropped in 7/20 and left overnight. When I post depending on the time of day it seems to say that it's the next day. Don't know if that makes sense but I think it has to do with the time zone.
Mark
 
What time are you offering the feeds ?

Corns tend to be more active in the everning. Maybe try early evening for feed time ?

Also, are they nice and warm and hidden (towel over the feed containers), left in TOTAL peace and quiet for at least an hour and are you pre-warming the food ?

I didn't have a single feed refused by any of my hatchlings this year so 9 out of 17 not eating at all suggests something fairly basic isn't right ..... or you're just plain unlucky!
 
Thanks for responding. I have them situated in deli-cups like is pictured in the beginning of the thread. I then put them about 6 inches from the back of my snack rack. I can stack 2 and go 3 across. When I have check temps with the temp gun it seems to run 78 to around 83. I leave them totally alone for those 4 days and don't even change the water (I change after every feeding attempt to limit the time I mess with them.) Since they are near the back of the racks not much light gets back there. I generally feed them between 8-10 at night but because of other obligations I fed them at 5:30 at night the last time. I just take the containers out drop the pinkie in put them back and leave them alone. I am now attempting to set my incubator at around 83-84 and will place the non eaters in there. There is also a window on the top so they will get more light than they did.

I broke my femur when they were hatching so I'm not able to experiment as much with them as I would like because I am limited at the time I can stand on my one good leg. I think I will try getting an anole for their next feeding and scent them. The only other thing I can think of is that with the deli-cup set up there isn't really any hiding place except under the paper towel and most of them have their paper towels scrunched up and in the water dish and don't really use it for a hide. I will try to feed them around 6:00 again. I just hope it's something simple I am not doing right. 9 out of 19 haven't eaten at all so I would think it has to be but I'm missing it.

I also fed my second clutch tonight and they just had their first shed yesterday. Out of those 12 only 2 ate right away. It seems like it has to be something husbandry wise.

Mark Westberg

Mark Westberg
 
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