Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I work at an animal shelter which normaly takes dogs&cats however we have had a corn snake come in which happens on occasion, however this one is a difficult feeder.

We do not have ideal conditions for him, he is in a 4' X 1' aquarium with a dog bowl of water and a cardboard box with a hole in the side.
We do not have any thermomitres, nor hydrometres. There is a heat lamp over one half of the aquarium and the humidity is probably only a little above normal.

The snake is deffinatly underweight and is not taking any food - he does respond to it and investigate but never strikes.
-we do not use live food, I am using forcepts to dangle and 'jiggle' the food with no responce.

Advice/suggestions would be appreciated.

undertank heaters are better for cornsnakes than basking spot. A normal human heating pad will do as well. Basking spot should be around 85-90F with a cooler end available. The hides and waterbowl you have are fine. Good to have two hides though, one in the cool end, the other in the warm end. Papertowel, aspen shavings newspaper are all good substrates.

for food, try smaller prey than it could normally take. You can try a life rat pinky or fuzzy mouse. If you can't get ahold of any live prey, try braining the frozen prey. Other methods is to put snake and prey into a pillow case and leave in the cage.

Getting a vet check may be an ideal as well, as there may be other things wrong with the snake. Deffinitely get it hydrated at the very least. Force feeding is also an option but this is very stressful on the snake so should be used only as a last resort.

I am corn snake and a mountain king snake breeder , the problem you may have feeding your corn snake is that it is preferable to send the snake in a different aquarium with nuthing in it (no bark no wood shavings)just the snake n its prey , and show the snake that the food is there , annoy the snae with the prey for a couple of seconds , than let it be alone , they get nourvous when people are around when they eat.

good luck

First of all if the snake is not eating most likely it has internal parasites. Your last resort is to force feed it if it don't eat in the next week. then keep doing that till he its in its own.

good luck

retic35

My suggestion is get a thermometer in your cage to monitor the temperature, if the snake is too cold, it won't eat. You can't monitor proper temperatures without a thermometer. The snake could be wild caught which is another factor why it might not be eating. Try leaving the food in the cage with the snake and see if the snake will take it on its own without you dangling it in front of it. Try using some substrate (bedding) for the snake as well. Paper towl will do, but you can also use mulch or pine shavings, make sure it is not cedar because cedar is toxic to the snake. Good luck, and I hope the snake does ok.

Well, the guy didn't eat with me however we did get him moved to a herpitile collectors a week ago do they can get him in a decent set-up.

Thanks

Sorry, I just found out you should not use pine shavings for bedding for the snake either. Sorry about that, I hope you didn't use that and I hope the people that have the snake now are not using it either. Good to know he's in a decent setup now though.

What was the corn snake feed previously? Was it raised strickly on mice or was it fed rats? Some corns can be very picky and have a prefernce to one or the other. Did the person feed the snake wild caught mice? The question I found was to brief as to what the corn came in eatting.. Temps can play a major role in the feeding thoughts of the snake too, as was mentioned..

I recently got a hatchling to eat its first meal recently by introducing a live new born pinkie that was rubbed on an anole. Some corns have only ever eaten anoles. Although I suspect in Canada, anoles are over priced little buggers and most people couldn't afford one to feed to thier snake..

Regards..