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not eating

dana100mph1

dana100mph1

New member
I just got 2 cornsnakes on 12-3. I decided to try and feed them one at a time, on 12-5. i took the female sunglow put her in a separate tank, inside of one of those little pet store boxes that you get small animals in. Within 5 minutes she was finished. Took male hurricane in new box and tried the same thing, he wouldnt eat. so i put him back in his tank and left him there fora couple of days and tried it again on 12-7. He is just not interested at all he just kept trying to get out. I left him in there for a few hours nothing happened so i just put him back in his cage. Question How long should I wait before trying again? and When should i start to worry if he doesnt eat? Temp in his tank and the feeder tank are 83 hot side and 77 on cold side. bought them from Mark at Moreptiles and they were feeding fine for him. I'm just new at this and I don't want to make him sick. I have not handles him at all except to try and feed. Any advice? :shrugs: Please forgive if i rattled on a bit just got home from hospital. had sinus surgery and on good drugs. haha
 
well, first thing first, you should have left them be for 5 to 7 days after you got them. Even to feed them. the process of shipping and being set up in a new VIV is very stressing. Second, if a snake refuses food, don't offer again for 5 days. If you continually off food every couple of days and the snake always refuses it, you can instill a permenent refusal in the snake where by the snake will not eat that particular type of food.

So, my advice to you is to leave the snakes alone for a week, wait to feed the Hurricane till at least 12-12. After feeding don't handle the snakes for at least 48 hours.
 
Congrats on your new snakes! :) I hope you are recovering from your sinus sugery!
Pcar's advice on letting the snakes "settle in" is right on, it's great that the one snake ate OK but since the other didn't just wait until the next scheduled feeding day to try again. Another thought is ... did you feed the snakes the same "food" as they were acustomed to? for example I feed all my snakes frozen/ thawed, perhaps they were fed live food. Something to consider. Also, how old are they and were they established feeders when you brought them home, I have one snake that really takes some coaxing before he eats, others are grabing it out of the tongs.
well.... I hope this helps, good luck!
 
I had the same problem Two of my three new hatchlings ate fine, one wouldn't. I ended up feeding her in the viv on paper towels, placing the pinky near the opening of the hide she was in, and then covering the viv. She still eats in the viv, but doesn't need to be covered anymore. I'm hoping eventually she will calm enough to be able to eat in the seperate container like her siblings. Your male is probably too nervous to eat in another container, and might do better eating in his own home. It worked well on my aztec too. She now is a non-fussy eater in a seperate container, but I had to start her in her viv.
 
Well here it is sunday 12/12 decided to try and feed my male hurricane again. I put a f/t pinkie on a paper towel in his viv and in a matter of a minute he had snapped it up and it was gone. yeah yeah! I am so happy, I was getting worried. I have a separate feeding tank, but tried it in his viv this time because I didnt want to stress him out and I wanted him to eat. So far my female sunglow is not interested in eating today. She ate fine last week but nothing now. I'm going to give her awhile longer. How long should I give her before taking the pinkie out and giving up for the night?

Dana LeDuc
 
Well I have the same problem. Bought 2 cornsnakes in November 2004. Both had shedded two times, so they were very young snakes. One snake named Cor1 eats like a pig and would like to eat every day. The other one(Cor2) does not eat on its own. I have tried everything possible. Dead pinky, leave him alone with a dead pinky all night, a pinky that was alive and the next day the pinky was still alive and Cor2 was lying as still as possible in the same deli-cup.
I have given Cor2 food now myself 4 times: mouse-tail and oncethe head of a pinky. He hasn't got a clue how to swallow so I have to massage the food gently till it reaches his stomach. He doesn't regurgitate what I get into him but he doesn't eat by himself.
So I am very desperate now. I mean how long can I go on this way: force-feeding him?
He seems really afraid of the pinky's, even of a pinky's head alone. I have already tried it with slicing the pinky's skull open (dead pinky we are talking about.)
What is the best to do now? Hope someone has had the same experience and has a healthy eating snake now.
Liz
 
I would try putting them in a deli cup, or something similar...or even a stapled shut paper bag with either a live pinkie or a brained pre-killed (either fresh or frowen thawed) leave them overnight, with the lights off...seems most of my corns prefer to eat alone in the dark. This was the way I got a couple of my reluctant feeders (that fed fine before the stress of shipping and new enclosure) to eat after a couple of weeks...

Now they eat readily...on their own...but still want solitude and darkness.
 
I just wanted to say thank you for the advice. My snakes are eating just fine now. They only want to eat in their viv, but I figure when they get alittle older then I will move them to a separate viv to feed them. Thank you again for all the good advice. Sorry I waited so long to write back, but been trying to finish all my christmas shopping.

dana leduc
 
Im also a bit worried a bout my snake not eating. I have 2, one i got on saturday and Amber i have had for 4 months. They both live in the same viv. I tried to feed them both last night. Amber in her viv (due to previous not eating) and Humbug in a feeder box. Humbug fed fine but Amber left hers. She ate last week but not for 3weeks before that. I have tried a feeder cage and that didnt work. She has never eaten quickly, just eats in her own time (occasionally). I can no longer leave the mouse in overnight as i have 2 in the viv. I wiggle the mouse on tongs then left her with it for an hour and covered her viv with a towel. Is it possible that shes just not hungry? Her poo and temprement seem normal.
 
That is the worse thing ever. You try your hardest to get the liitle guy to eat but he doesn't make it.

Sorry for your loss.
 
Lizart777...that is so sad! I'm so sorry about Cor2.

We just bought a corn snake for my son for Christmas, but in reality it will be mine, because he is only 7. I am a little worried and hope some of you can offer advice or reassurance.

I understand our snake is about 7 months old. She is approximately 18 inches long. I bought her three weeks ago and set her up in her new viv at a friend's house until Christmas. She remained on the feeding schedule that the pet store told us she had been on, which was once a week, until this past week when she refused to eat on her normal day. She seems very healthy and active otherwise.

We brought her home yesterday. Here is my problem...we are leaving town for five days starting tomorrow, and she hasn't eaten in 10 days. I know that I should try to leave her alone for a week or so to become accustomed to her new surroundings, by isn't that too long to go without food? Should I offer her food today?

Thanks for your help!
 
Lizart, I am sorry to hear about Cor2, that's so heartbreaking when you try everything you can and they still don't make it.
AnnieC, if you will not be at home you might want to wait until you get back to feed your snake. They can go for a long time without eating and if you feed him and then leave town he could regurge in the tank or something and you wouldn't even know, unless someone's watching him while you are gone. He could also not be hungry because he's in shed. Oh and welcome to the forums :santa:
 
Thank you...

...for the welcome. I have been severely neglecting my children and household since finding this forum earlier this morning. :) I have read and learned so much!

Earlier this afternoon I went back to the pet store where we bought our snake (CeCe) and the woman there said the same thing - that we should wait until we get back to try to feed her and that she would be fine. This vacation has been planned for a long time, and when we started to research buying the snake we were told it would be OK to leave her for a few days. Little did I know that it would make me so worried! She is already a part of our household. Pretty little thing!! My kids are quietly and frequently checking her viv to see if she is out and about like she was last night about this time. She has been in hiding all day. But who could blame her?

Thank you for your advice! I'll be reading and probably posting frequently. Happy New Year to you all! :wavey:

Christine
 
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