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Now I know why he wasn't eating!!

CraziiTii

CraziiTii

Tyrannosaurus
So I'm probably the dumbest person when it comes to dealing with snakes.
My little corn wasn't eating, and I figured it was stress from being moved. So I did everything to get him to eat, but still nothing. I thought that it might be a batch of bad pinkies, so I grabbed a new bunch today.

I repeat: I am the dumbest person when it comes to dealing with snakes.
Turns out they were Rat Pinkies! I'm an idiot. But he finally ate! Yay!

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:p
 
Were you trying to feed him the rat pinkies and then got some mice pinks? If so, poor little guy must have been thinking "I'm supposed to eat that!!"
 
Yeah, he's my first snake so I just gave him the rat pinkie because I truly didn't know. I thought that they were huge for him, but they were pinkies so I figured they really can eat something that big. Ugh, I feel like an idiot but when you've never seen pinkies how do you know right? Anyway. he's much happier now! He smelled it, flipped it over and ate it right there. I feel so bad, he must have been hungry! Oh well, problem solved. :)
 
Did you get them at the pet store? Don't feel too badly. I went in and asked for mouse pinks and they brought me large fuzzies. I didn't even have to look at the bag before knowing they were too big. Now that you know, you won't mistake them again. It's an easy miss, especially for us newbies. Like you said, no harm done, and now he's eating, right? Win!
 
You shouldn't feel like an idiot. It's all one big learning experience. So just take it as lesson learned.;)
 
Hi,

i think he would eat a rat pinky but in his actual size he has not the possibility to do that. In 5 month a rat pinky is a great food for him. Rats are much more nutritious like normal mice and the snakes grow much better. In europe the african multimammate mouse is a popular food. Are these mice known in US? Very good mixture between rat an mouse and very reproductive.
 
D: Erk, well be careful! Give him a break for at least 3 days before feeding him again.

... also I'm not really sure rats are more nutritious than mice, except that they are "larger" so there is "more nutrition. I mean, they might be, but I don't see why a rat pink would be different from a mouse pink, gram for gram.
 
I don't mean to be contradictory Silvergrin but, do not feed him again for at least 10 days, 3 days is too soon, he needs time for his gut flora to replenish itself, otherwise he may not be able to digest the next meal and may regurge again, you do not want that to happen :(

Here's the link for the feeding problem FAQ and if you scroll down the page a bit, you'll find Kathy Love's recommended regurge treatment, follow that and you should hopefully get him back on track.

http://cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28342

Hope that helps and good luck.
 
Susielea said:
I don't mean to be contradictory Silvergrin but, do not feed him again for at least 10 days, 3 days is too soon, he needs time for his gut flora to replenish itself, otherwise he may not be able to digest the next meal and may regurge again, you do not want that to happen :(

Here's the link for the feeding problem FAQ and if you scroll down the page a bit, you'll find Kathy Love's recommended regurge treatment, follow that and you should hopefully get him back on track.

http://cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28342

Hope that helps and good luck.
Click to expand...

I would go with this sagestion too.
All the best
 
And when you finally feed again, I'd go for just the pinky head. And no handling- he must be absolutely stress-free. And if the pinky head stays down, then very, very gradually work him up to a whole pink. In the picture, his feeding lump looks big. He may not be able to eat a whole pink for a while, since he had trouble with the first one. Can you ask the breeder what he was being fed? You didn't handle him or anything while he was digesting, did you? For at least 48 hours? And his temps are right??
 
Tula_Montage said:
Good job he didn't eat or he may have regurged :p
Click to expand...

...or more likely died in the process! :(

CraziiTii said:
Oh wow. Thanks for the info! I'm not sure if we have multimammate here, but I'll check it out.
Click to expand...

Multimammates are called African Soft Furred rats around here. You can get them, but they are MUCH more expensive to buy than mice. The pinks are also LARGER than standard mouse pinks, so they aren't the best food for hatchling corns.

Silvergrin said:
D: Erk, well be careful! Give him a break for at least 3 days before feeding him again.
Click to expand...

Actually, wait 7 days. Three days will often force a follow-up regurg, and that can quickly lead to death. Wait a full weel. The suggested 10 days would be OK, but I don't think that long of a wait is necessary. Whatever you do, do not feed it again immediately. The head suggestion for the next meal or two is a great idea - especially for a snake that was prematurely weakened from not eating for a while. HOWEVER, the most important thing to figure out is WHY it puked! Was the temp range off. If you don't have a max-min thermometer on the warm and cool side of the cage - where the snake hangs out! - then you do NOT know the actual temp range within the cage no matter what you think. Was the meal too large for a snake that hadn't eaten in a while? Et cetera et alias.

One thing we DO know: it did not regurg because it "ate too fast." :)


Silvergrin said:
... also I'm not really sure rats are more nutritious than mice, except that they are "larger" so there is "more nutrition. I mean, they might be, but I don't see why a rat pink would be different from a mouse pink, gram for gram.
Click to expand...

Well, this is a case of saying without knowing....lol. Rats are completely different organisms. You seem to be confusing nutrition with overall meal mass. Just because something is LARGER, it doesn't mean it has more nutrition. A head of lice berg lettuce has MUCH less nutrition than a smaller steak......and a fatty chunk of pork ribmeat is less "nutritious" than a piece of wild game steak of the same mass.

Anyway, rats have a MUCH better Ca:p ratio than mice (which is a good thing), but they also have a much higher fat content. This may result in faster growth, but it is only because the snake stores more fat. Remember that a snake has too slow of a metabolism to really use fat in its diet. The fat is broken down and stored - not immediately used. (This is true in people and most animals kept on a farm - except chickens.) Feeding more fat to a snake means the snake gets fatter - not necessarily healthier or more mature. Rats are good for quick growth (even if not the "best" growth) and for quickly putting mass back on a female after laying eggs (lots of fat=energy goes into yolk production), but it may not be the best diet long-term. I firmly believe that it is not.

The better Ca:p ratio, though, is a BIG bonus when feeding rats. ...especially, once again, for laying females. ;)

KJ
 
Susielea: thanks for the correction, sorry about that :/ All I could remember is it was at *least* 3 days, probably longer, should have looked it up before I said anything

KJUN: I remember hearing that rat pups are more fatty... I know rats and mice are different organisms, but they're fairly closely related. I didn't say the two weren't different, but until someone makes a "nutrition chart" that says a) how much protein, fat, and carbs and vitamins and minerals each one has and b) that this makes a health difference for corns, I'm going to be a little skeptical. But if there is such a study I'd love to read it! I know someone showed quite clearly that slitting the back of pinkies improved growth rates, so maybe someone's done a rat-vs-mouse pink study too?
Sorry to be a skeptic, but I've heard too many "it just makes sense!" claims that were wrong. If there's proof though, I'll get behind it!

To the OP; good luck with your snake!
 
Wow, thanks for all the advice! I know I should wait for at least ten days. He hasn't be handled at all since after the feeding, and for about 5 days leading up to it. I know from the breeder he was on frozen pinkies, but I think the fact that we moved and then he hadn't eaten because of the rat pinkies might have traumatized him a bit. I'll try just head next time and see how that goes. Again, thank you all! I appreciate the help. ;)
 
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