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The Secret to my hatchling-feeding sucess...

H

h0mersimps0n

New member
I just got my 11 of 12 Miami hatchling to eat and even though this is only my second season of trying to get hatchlings to eat for the first time I think I either got really lucky or am onto something.

what I did:

THe day each one hatched I offered a live pinky for them in their new, bowl-sized container. Only one of the twelve actually went for this. I only tried for a few hours then I removed the live pinks and didn't touch them until they shed then not until almost 14 days later after they had their first shed. During those almost 20+ days I only bothered them enough to fill their bottle caps for water and change their paper towel. I kept the noise to a min, the light and heat constant as possible. I purchased some frozen pinks and on day about 22nd started trying 3 snakes at a time (as to not waste pinks) to eat. To my utter surprise they all ate within 30min of setting the thawed pinks in there, some right away. No regurgs, and they are thriving. I had a rough time getting my first and second clutches to eat two summers ago to the pt where I had to buy anoles and do crazy crazy stuff.

So I guess the bottom line is leave them alone, don't play with them (however painfully tempting it is) and give them peace and quiet for at least 20+ days before trying to feed them. They all were pooping during that time and clearly had some stores still in them from the egg. Most of us have experienced at least one hatching that has died from starvation despite our best efforts (I myself had one) and we know it wasn't meant to be. I don't know if genetics played a role or what but I had always heard miami's were the worst to get eating. I'm glad that wasn't true for me.

Good luck everyone
 
h0mersimps0n said:
I just got my 11 of 12 Miami hatchling to eat and even though this is only my second season of trying to get hatchlings to eat for the first time I think I either got really lucky or am onto something.

what I did:

THe day each one hatched I offered a live pinky for them in their new, bowl-sized container. Only one of the twelve actually went for this. I only tried for a few hours then I removed the live pinks and didn't touch them until they shed then not until almost 14 days later after they had their first shed. During those almost 20+ days I only bothered them enough to fill their bottle caps for water and change their paper towel. I kept the noise to a min, the light and heat constant as possible. I purchased some frozen pinks and on day about 22nd started trying 3 snakes at a time (as to not waste pinks) to eat. To my utter surprise they all ate within 30min of setting the thawed pinks in there, some right away. No regurgs, and they are thriving. I had a rough time getting my first and second clutches to eat two summers ago to the pt where I had to buy anoles and do crazy crazy stuff.

So I guess the bottom line is leave them alone, don't play with them (however painfully tempting it is) and give them peace and quiet for at least 20+ days before trying to feed them. They all were pooping during that time and clearly had some stores still in them from the egg. Most of us have experienced at least one hatching that has died from starvation despite our best efforts (I myself had one) and we know it wasn't meant to be. I don't know if genetics played a role or what but I had always heard miami's were the worst to get eating. I'm glad that wasn't true for me.

Good luck everyone
Click to expand...
thanks 4 that info..i've only just recently got into corn snakes but in the future i plan on breeding them
 
wow thanks for that advice, i have just added a new thread because i'm worried about mine not eating. I will try what you have done with my next lot that are due to hatch next month
 
I recently had basically the same thing happen. In early-to-mid September, I had two clutches hatch (total of 16 babies, one big clutch and one small). For various reasons (mostly time constraints), I didn't try feeding them until this past Monday (about a month after most of them were born). All I had done since hatching was check water and change paper towels as needed. Out of 16, 13 ate immediately (within a few minutes). I think I spooked the other three by checking on them too soon.

In contrast, this year with my earlier clutches (about 130 hatchlings), I've had only about 50% first-time feeding success with the clutches I started trying to feed right after the first shed. I think there really may be something to leaving them alone and letting them get hungry before offering food.
 
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