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My snake's not eating

cornsnakes97

cornsnakes97

New member
Title says it all. As of today it is April 15, and my male corn snake Draco has not eaten since early February. He ate one rat in early February, and one in late January, which is less than he usually eats because he wasn't interested in his food. Now it is April and I am worried about him. He has refused food every time this month my mother has tried to feed him. She even brained the rats for him but he still wouldn't eat. What could be causing this?

Draco is a seven year old male corn snake with no previous health problems. He has been shedding and defecating as usual. He has not been bred before and we own no other snakes.
 
Sounds like very typical behavior for males at this time of year!
The issue should resolve itself in a few more weeks/months.
Even if there are no other snakes around, he still knows it is breeding season and I think snake brains can only think of one thing at a time ;)
 
I wouldn't worry at this point. Make sure to keep good records of his weight to make sure he's not losing too much. It's simply breeding season behaviour, as mentioned above.

Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk
 
As long as he's still active and hasn't lost lots of weight there's more than likely nothing to worry about. As others have said, it could just be a breeding season hunger strike.

You could double, triple, quadruple check enclosure temperatures. Too hot or too cold will both turn a snake off food for different reasons.

Side note, why rat? Other than getting a *really* picky eater to actually eat something, there's generally no reason for corn snakes to eat rat. In fact, it's generally less healthy, as proportionally speaking if the rat and mouse are the same size, the rat is probably a lot earlier in the development stage and lacks the same nutrients an older mouse of the same size would have.
 
^^^^^^^^^^^That. Mice are less fattening and healthier for corns. Once he gets back on eating regularly I would switch to large mice.
 
We switched him to small rats after he outgrew mice pinkies and fuzzies. The vet told us we should step him up to baby rats because he is larger now. I'll talk to my mother about that, since she's the one who feeds him. Thanks for the advice.
 
Hello all. My snake problem is almost the exact same as Cornsnake97. Pinky hasn't eaten since mid-February. I tried feeding him tonight, no luck. He didn't even acknowledge the rat. Yep...I feed him rats. I have no particular reason other than that is what my brother was feeding him before he gave Pinky to me about 2 years ago.

I'm hoping he's not eating because of breeding season, like I keep reading. I don't have a thermometer though.

Do you guys have any suggestions for what brand/model I should buy?

Also, what do the numbers before the pet types mean? Such as 4.2 Corns?
 
LoveMyPinky said:
I'm hoping he's not eating because of breeding season, like I keep reading. I don't have a thermometer though.

Do you guys have any suggestions for what brand/model I should buy?

Also, what do the numbers before the pet types mean? Such as 4.2 Corns?
Click to expand...

You can go with a cheap probe thermometer, place the probe in the middle of the glass on top of the UTH. What is your thermostat set at? Most find setting it at 87° will keep the top of the substrate on the warm side at 85°, but you definitely need to know that the thermostat is keeping the right temps. Another option is an infrared, it is like a laser pointer that will give you the temp of what you are aiming at. I don't think any thermometer brands are better, I use the yellow probe ones and you can find them on eBay pretty cheap.

The numbers are the sex of the snakes you have going by males, females, then unknowns. I have 4 males, 2 females and no unknowns so my number would be 4.2.0. The third number is the number of snakes whose sex is unknown and some people just leave it off.

On the first page of each topic there are "stickies"; these are helpful hints and ideas about this forum. Take some time to read each, I know the numbers question has a sticky to answer it.
 
I would also switch him off to mice. Rats are okay as a rare treat, but they are very fatty for corn snakes. It could be another reason why he isn't eating!
 
AliCat37 said:
I would also switch him off to mice. Rats are okay as a rare treat, but they are very fatty for corn snakes. It could be another reason why he isn't eating!
Click to expand...

^^^^^^^^^This. Yup yup, agreed. Rats are like Twinkies, a nice treat once in a while, but not a great diet for corns. Mice have more of the nutrients in a smaller package than rats.
 
LoveMyPinky said:
Uhm...I don't have a thermostat. Any suggestions? :)
Click to expand...

Okay, a thermostat is a MUST. The UTH has to be regulated or it will just immediately go to the hottest it can. A thermostat programs the UTH to give off only the temp you need it to, some UTHs can overheat and kill or burn your corn.

What is the temp right now, taken from right above the glass over the UTH?
 
Ok...so I had to order the thermostat from Amazon. I also bought a new UTH because my last one was very small. I also bought a thermometer from Petco and two "adult" mice.

The reading on my thermostat and thermometer is about 86.3 degrees. I have the thermostat set to 85 because when I set it to 87, the temperature shot up to about 94 degrees.

Thank you all for your advice. I just put in all this new stuff today, so hopefully I will see positive results soon. Nanci's care sheet was EXTREMELY helpful.

About the "adult" mice...they are WAY smaller than a medium sized rat, probably less than half the size. How often am I supposed to feed him one of these little boogers? Before his eating strike, I was feeding him a medium sized rat every two weeks.
 
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