Reptile & Amphibian Forums

OK, never had a corn before, always had Hognoses, so this is new to me. My husband found this guy while mowing the yard ( I live in total
suburbia, so he should not have been in my yard). he did not run or try to get away. Zero defensive behavior, no fear of humans at all.
A real sweetie. He is 37" and 123g. My question is how do I get him eating f/t mice. Are there any tricks to getting him to eat? So
far he has shown no interest to f/t fuzzies. Even jiggled them to try and get a feeding response. He just looks at them. I know with
hoggie, there are several scenting methods, just wondered if you guys had any tricks.

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Jenea

2:3:1 Tricolor Hognose
2:2 Eastern Hognose
1:2 Western Hognose
1:2 Southern Hognose
0:0:3 Florida Redbelly Snakes
0:1 Gulf Coast Box Turtle
1:1 Red-eared Slider
2:0 Cats
1:1 Kids
1:0 Spouse

what I've done for reluctant feeders is get a live pinky or fuzzy, and see if they'll take that, and then leave a thawed fuzzy in the tank at the same time... after the little squirmy 'appetizer' they will almost always take the thawed... just remember to get the thawed rodent WARM, not really cold or really hot...

definitely a beautiful snake.
This might not be what you want to do and someone else might have a better idea but if I had found it this is what I would do.
I would give it about a week to get used to its new home before bothering it.
I would then try frozen/thawed, just as you did.
If it refused it the first try, I would wait another week and try again. If it refused the second time I would wait one more week and try frozen thawed one more time.
You may think three weeks is a long time but that snake is definitely healthy looking and can easily go three weeks without eating.
I just think by spreading it over a few weeks it is more likely to get hungry enough to eat the f/t.
For each of these feedings I would put it in a large tupperware dish or very small tank so it can't miss the food. I would also leave this in the dark for a couple of hourse before checking it.

I would be willing to bet it will take the f/t by the third attempt but if it doesn't, wait one more week and try live.
My personal opinion on the live would be to stun the mouse and basiclly drop it right in front of the snake for that impulse response.
If it eats the stunned mouse then repeat this until you are sure it has a good healthy feeding response and start trying the f/t again.
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Corn snakes and rat snakes..No one can have just one.
"resistance is futile"
Jimmy (draybar)

Draybars Snakes

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I don't consider myself an expert on cornsnakes, although I nave kept quite a few wild caught grey rat snakes, and currently have a wild caught 36" corn. I have been feeding him live mice for a couple months, and decided to try frozen yesterday, I took a warm thawed mouse and put it in his tank and he just ignored it for an hour or so, I took some dental floss and tied a half of a knot to its tail and drug the mouse into the snake so his instict was to strike at it and once he got a hold, voila! a simple tug and the floss released

heres a pic of "Red" after a recent shed,

The first pic was taken on the 21st, this pic was taken today, 5 days later. The way he has darkened, I am thinking he is going into shed. What do you think?

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Jenea

2:3:1 Tricolor Hognose
2:2 Eastern Hognose
1:2 Western Hognose
1:2 Southern Hognose
0:0:3 Florida Redbelly Snakes
0:1 Gulf Coast Box Turtle
1:1 Red-eared Slider
2:0 Cats
1:1 Kids
1:0 Spouse

>>Definitely going into shed.
I bet it will eat like a champ after it sheds.
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Corn snakes and rat snakes..No one can have just one.
"resistance is futile"
Jimmy (draybar)

Draybars Snakes

_____

VERY wrong. It won't work. None of their suggestion. The proper thing for you to do is to give me that snake. I'll wait till it's done shedding and then try what the others have suggested. Then I'll have to see how that snake likes the tank I have for it. I'll drive over there and pick it up tomorrow. You can leave it right where I left that hog for you.

Just kidding of course. All the suggestions are great. I'm glad to see you got your hogs. Any chance of of seeing some pictures of them?

Rob
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1.1 Bearded dragons
1.0 Brazilian Rainbow Boa
1.0 Creanscicle motley corn
0.1 Creamscicle corn

I need to increase my numbers. I don't like binary code.