Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Any suggestions? He hasn't eaten over 6 weeks. I've tried mice and fuzzy rats, but he won't eat either of them.

I put a mouse in a couple days ago, and he looked very interested, but I got my hand too close to him and he bit me instead. Well, not bit, exactly, but scratched. I know, it was a stupid move on my part. After that he wouldn't touch the mouse. Poor guy.

Anyway, do you guys think I should just keep trying or do you have any other suggestions?

Also, how long can he go without eating before it becomes a major issue?

Firstly make sure the temp and humidity that you keeping your little guy are correct. Next, try moving him into a smaller enclosure. Some youngsters don't take well to large open spaces. Third, try covering the feeding containter and/or feeding at night so that he's offered food when he would be natually hunting and doesn't feel watched when he is eating. My Coastal hatchling will not eat if you watch her and will sit defensively until you go away.

If all this fails you may need to buy a anole or gecko and 'scent' a fuzzy. He may only recognize lizard smelling prey as food. But this should be a last resort.

Best of luck
Darci

How old and what sex is your carpet? If it's an adult male, it might just be off feeding because it's breeding season.

Jake

Scenting it and a smaller enclosure are good ideas, but you should start with the more basic things. First off are you feeding it live or frozen? How are you thawing it? If your feeding it thawed use a bent coat hanger, hook underneath it and move it around a litte. Sounds stupid, but I have got many snakes to start eating frozen that way. Sometimes I'll pick it up with the hanger and dangle it right in there face. It pisses them off, but they will snap at it. I guess to give you any solid advice I would need more detail about your feeding process.

I would recommend heating the enclosure up a fair bit, like ambient temps of 35 degree celcius not sure of faren? for a day or so, then get a live appropriate sized mouse and let it go in the enclosure.Your snake should be placed above the mouse on a perch or something and keep watch (dont leave live with a snake ever unattended!!) For some reason the excess heat makes snakes a bit more aggressive and they strike at moving things, i have got non feeding diamonds to do this with success.Dont leave temps too high for too long(more than a day), better done at night.If it doesnt work try again in a week.If still no success, try getting chicken feathers and shove heaps of them into the frozen thawed mouses mouth, JCPs are suckers for chickens.Or try everything else other ppl have said, different snakes react differently to different methods sometimes.Dont stress though, they can go a long time without feeding, i have had a hatchling diamond not feed for well over 3 months.

cheers
Mark

I didn't actually do any of those things since the temperature, humidity, and enclosure size didn't really need changing. What did give me halp, was a suggestion on feeding differently. I normally feed fresh-kill, and I just threw in a live one. The snake ate it right away. I don't know if that's because it was alive or if it was just really hungry, but it doesn't matter now because he's fine.

Thanks bunches for all your help.

Damn it! Misspelling!

Help.