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Whats wrong????

J

jake the snake

jake
Hello, My 11 inch corn shows no intrest in his pinkie. He just slithers over him. What do you recomend? He is in his 20 gal. long with no hide spots and 1 live pinkie. am I doing it wrong? Thanks.
 
I would put both the snake and the mouse in a paper lunch sack and staple the bag shut. This will make the snake feel more comfortable, because it feels like it is hiding, and it also doesn't give the snake much of a chance to get away from the mouse (there's a lot of floor space in a 20 gallon tank for such a small snake). Leave it alone for up to an hour, and the snake will probably eat. I had to do this with 2 of my hatchlings because they both refused to eat, but it worked. If that doesn't work, search the forums for ways to get problem feeders to eat.
 
First of all 8 days, although seems very long to us as humans, is not very long for a snake to not eat. In fact I think I read a recent post here by someone saying he had seen hatchlings go 10 WEEKS before deciding to eat!

Secondly, and I'm purely taking a shot in the dark but I'm thinking this is your first snake and you probably just got it not that long ago. Umm...maybe 8 days ago...lol

The best advice I could offer would be...

Let your new captive settle into it's new home without ANY disruptions. I tend to leave new arrivals completely alone for two weeks! I know this is hard, especially if this is your first and only snake! But this means no handling or feeding! This gives them plenty of time to settle in to their new home and calm down. It also provides time for the new baby to get plenty hungry, even if it was on a vigorous feeding scedule at the breeders! Thus you will have a easier time with your first feeding if your snake is especially hungry!

After the two weeks, offer a small meal. Even if you were told it was eating two pinks, feed it one. If you were told it was feeding fuzzies, offer it a pink, etc. A small first meal is much more easily accepted and digested than a large meal!

And lastly, I find like Flygning said, sometimes hatchlings feed much better in a confined surrounding. Whether it be a small paper bag as mentioned or a new or cleaned deli cup! Another thing to consider is time of day. In the wild corn snakes will normally feed during the evening hours or very early morning hours (sunrise and sunset) I have several snakes in my collection that simply won't feed during daylight hours, but after night falls, they will pound down mice like the best of them!

So there you have a little food for thought, I hope it helps! Part of becoming an expierenced herper is trial and error, finding what works for you and your indivual animals. All snakes are not the same, some will react differently and some will having different feeding responces!

Hang in there and don't get too antsy, I'm sure it will end up just fine for ya!

Quigs
 
jake the snake said:
with no hide spots
Click to expand...
What??? why dosen't the snake have any hiding spots?? At the VERY least, he'll need them while he gets settled in to the new environment. It's not like it's expensive either, a cereal box is all it takes. IMO, you should definitely get him somewhere to hide asap.
 
Toilet paper rolls or paper towel rolls work well for tiny hatchlings too, and everyone has those! I hope anyway! :cool:

Quigs
 
When you said no hide spots, did you mean only for eating, or when he's normally hanging out in his viv? I figured you meant only for eating, so I didn't wanna sound nitpicky, but like Azruial said, the snake really needs a place to hide and feel secure. It puts a lot of stress on the poor thing, and then you'll have bigger problems than it refusing to eat once or twice.
 
O, I wasn't thinking about just for eating, that's what it sounds like he meant, sorry if I sounded like an a$$
 
i had the same problem, then a week later after i got my snake, i bought a pinky and placed it in the tank with nothing in it, then i thought she would take long to eat it, so i went to go get a coke, and when i came back she was already constricting the mouse and eating it, i was really mad so now i have to wait till this saturday to see her eat
 
Oh, good, that had me worried for a bit. But, like I said, not all snakes like to eat in the open, so if you give them a nice little area to eat (like a paper bag or deli cup, etc) they'll usually take to eating better.
 
I have a simple small plastic container for a feeding basket. I place some paper in it. Let the snake in and let it crawl under the paper. Then i place the pinkie under that paper. Works like a charm :)
 
Sometimes the snake will ignore the food offered if there is someone pressing their nose against the side of the feeding container. put the snake in the box, then the mouse, and then cover the box with a towle to make it completely dark, and walk away for an hour or two. This will give the snake 100% isolation from everything that can catch its attention, other than the mouse. Give this a try and see what happens. This is the only way that I can get my adult female to eat.
 
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