Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok I've left the hatchling bloodred alone for 5 days since I got it, and today marks the two week mark since it last ate, but it will not eat. My albino eats up a storm but this new addition will just walk over the food and if I dangle it in front of him he just turns the other cheek or tries to crawl over it. I called the store to see if it had a preference of frozen or live but the owner told me that a hatchling could refuse eating for 2 to 3 weeks after transport to a new environment. Was she just BSing me so I'd pass the 7 day mark where I can't bring it back? Any other feeding ideas or tips to try before I get very upset at the idea of getting ripped off?

You could try the brown bag method...It's always worked for me.
Put the snake and it's food in a brown paper sandwich bag and leave it overnight. Try it with f/t, live,brained,or just the head to see if it will eat. It's always worked for me.
Hope it helps...
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Cory
Corns(Adults)
1.0 Snow(Ghost)
0.1 Banded het Amel(Rogue)
0.1 Blizzard(Storm)
Corns(Sub-adult)
1.0 Bloodred het Pewter(La Magra)
1.0 Anerythristic (First egg ever hatched)(Sam)
Pythons
1.1 Ball(Wolverine & Jubilee)

First of all, if you've had it 5 days and it has not eaten for 2 weeks...Does that imply that is was not being fed every week(had they gone 9 days without feeding a hatchling?). Also, in addition to giving you the "2-3 week" line...DID they tell you exactly what it was eating(live, f/t).

I like the idea of putting it in a small bag, deli cup, or other small enclosure. I like to decapitate the pink for a problem eater, squeezing some of the brain goo out the neck, and leaving both body and head in with the hatchling. This has enticed some serious problem feeders for me. Sometimes they will just eat the head, sometimes they will eat both parts. Sometimes, of course, they will not.

Good luck. When buying from a pet store, I would suggest in the future asking when "feeding day" is. Ask to watch the snake eat. This seems most important with hatchlings or generally skinny little snakes. The thing about buying a snake with at least a little meat on its bones...You know it has at least a few meals under its belt. Good luck . Duffy

I have heard tuna water works as well, but it has never worked for me. The braining of the pinkie has been my best trick, along with having them in a small container while they fed. They like to feel secure, and a lot of the times like it dark. Good luck. I have a 05 hatchling that I have to force feed twice a week. She just has no feeding response what so ever, the little dummy. But, she is very pretty, and I have kinda bonded with her through this near death and force feeding process.
Good Luck
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**********Misty**********
The more things change, the more they remain Insane!

2.1.2 bearded dragons
0.1.0 water dragon
1.3.0 leopard geckos
12.19.0 corn snakes
1.1.0 jungle corns
2.3.0 king snakes
1.0.0 royal (Ball) pythons
1.0.0 Sinaloan milk snake
0.1.0 Tri-Hybrid milk snake
0.1.0 rat snake
0.0.2 prairie ringneck snakes
0.1.0 chilean rose hair tarantula
1.1.0 emperor scorpions
1.1.0 Congo African Grey Parrots
0.1.0 German Shepherd hybrid dog

so I have to cut off a pinkie's head and squeeze out the brain juiceand leave both halves in a small deli cup with the snake over night? so I assume it won't have to use gravity to swallow food.

I breed bloodreds, almost exclusively, in my collection, and I have had exceptional good luck in getting non-feeders to eat. In fact, one of the larger breeders in the nation sends me his non-feeders so that I can get them to eat for him and then send them back to him. He could get them to eat, obviously, but he doesn't have the time, so he sends them to me.

I say all of that just to let you know...I have tried it all!

Here's what I do in the order I do it:

f/t pinky

f/t pinky brained

f/t pinky washed with soap and water (don't laugh!)

f/t pinky covered in tuna water (just buy the cheap brand of tuna with spring water and drain the water off into a baggie. Then you can freeze the water in the baggie and taw it out as you need it.)

f/t pinky rubbed on an anole

f/t pinky rubbed in the viscera (the guts) of an anole

f/t pinky with a piece of anole skin on its head

f/t pinky wrapped in the skin of an anole

I generally allow a few days to pass between each attempt, stepping up in the process after each refusal. This allows for the hatchling to eat what it wants as soon as possible (ten days without food is a LONG time for a hatchling, and if they go too long, some of them will NEVER eat, even if you find that right recipe for them!), without stressing them too much.

Of course you can try the brown bag trick in each of the steps attempted, if the snake doesn't jump right on the offered food. Some animals just want it to be dark and quiet before they'll eat at all.

A couple of problems for using anoles have to be addressed, though:

First, they're EXPENSIVE!!! So, if you have to use one to get a baby eating, as soon as you can, you are going to want to wean him off of that anole response by going backwards in the process (by this I mean, reducng the amount of anole scent on the food item each feeding until you are simply brushing the pinky against the anole skin, and it is still being taken).

Second, there are some anoles that have come to your petsho having been wild caught (maybe the vast mojority of them, even), and it is becomming more and more common that these anoles have come into contact with pesticides prior to their capture, which, while not fatal to the lizards on the outside of their skin, is fatal to the snake that eats them! I lost a VERY expensive corn hatchling to this problem this past fall.

Anyway...that's the basic process.

The trick is to always try to get the hatchling to eat the cheapest food source you find, so long as it still provides for the health of the snake. That's why I go in the order described above.

In my experience, some 95% of all corn hatchlings will eat somewhere along in that process, but 5% will starve themselves to death. It's not that they can't eat; it's just that I haven't found what they like yet. Unfortunately for them, however, if they have a developed taste for Bavarian Bat pinkies...they're not going to make it.

Hope that helps a bit!

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Darin Chappell
Hillbilly Herps
PO Box 254
Rogersville, MO 65742

Hey Darin. I appreciate the help and tips I'll be sure to try them. Right now I thawed a frozen pinkie cut off its head and squeezed the "filling" into the deli cup he came home in and put each half of pinkie on the sides of the brain goop and then put Corny in there with it and then covered the cup with a piece of reptile carpet and put him in the top of my closet. I'm hoping that while I'm at Paramedic school tonight or asleep that it'll eat. But I was wondering that if this happens to be in the 5 percent if you have any interest in selling any of your bloodreds that you raised since it seems you know what you're doing and not lieing (unlike the pet store that told me it was eating great). But if it does eat tonight or soon does it mean thats the only way it'll eat?

Well, for a while, whatever he eats is what you'll have to offer him. That's why you need to start from the cheapest to more expensive food items offered.

Once you've found his craving, you just offer him that until he takes it without refusing for several times in a row. Not only will that give him the needed nutrients he's been missing, but it will also ingrain that feeding response when food is presented.

After a few weeks of no refusals, you can then S-L-O-W-L-Y start trying to wean him off of whatever it is that you get him started on. It's a process, and there will be ups and downs, good weeks and setbacks. Don't stress and don't give up. You should be fine.

As for my snakes, well, I should have some bloodreds available later this year, and I would be happy to talk to you about them, if you want. But, I'm sure that you'll be fine with the snake you have, if he hasn't gone too long already. Just let me know, if I can be of any further help.
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Darin Chappell
Hillbilly Herps
PO Box 254
Rogersville, MO 65742