Reptile & Amphibian Forums

this is a follow up to a post i put on this forum about a week ago. you guys can check that other one for all the details, but the gist of it is that my young corn won't eat. its been almost a month now and my snake still hasnt eaten. hes pretty thin and im quite worried. ive tried about various methods about half a dozen times now with no success. the next method i'll try is feeding a pinkie at night inside a deli cup. should i brain the pinkie first?

also, ive heard lizard scenting can work, but the only lizard scent product i could find online has been discontinued. anyone have any other suggestions for lizard scenting for someone with no access to lizards?

at this point im also wondering if i should increase the frequency of the attempted feedings. (ive been waiting 3-4 days between attempts) and at what point should i condsider a force feeding? i know this is a last resort but like i said its been almost a month and im getting worried. please help!

OK, I perused through your post below, but honestly didn’t look at all the replies so if any of this is a repeat, sorry, but I am lazy, lol.

Looking at the pics in your post it appears that you are depending on the under cage heating mat as your source of heat. Many times that isn’t enough if the ambient room temp is say 68-72. Go buy a Maximum/Minimum thermometer from Lowes, they run about $13-$15.00. Utilize it to monitor the temps in the cage and I bet you money the temps are dropping MUCH more than you think. Believe me; I learned the hard way even after being told this over and over. Also, be sure the vents in the room are not blowing directly at the cage. I closed the vents off in my winter room for raising my young and I also utilize the highest wattage bulbs and this alone has kept the room at nearly 78 with no other heating help.

You mentioned increasing the feeding response, definitely do not do that. If he is not interested in the prey now, then throwing it at him more frequently isn’t going to change anything. Unless he is noticeably skinny and in bad shape (if so it is likely too late anyway), then give him at least 7 days with no prey, only water. THEN after the 7 days have passed, try offering prey, you may have to utilize live and that is ok for a hatchling. I would start by placing the prey at the mouth of his favorite hide so he isn’t scared of the prey that “just showed up." I hate to say it, but if he has to be force fed, then the stress will likely kill it, that must be your last resort, but it shouldn't be utilized when the snake is way past saving. Make sense?

Hope this helps and I really suggest you monitor the temps as that has been the culprit to 90% of my non feeding issues in adults and babies. Good luck

dc

hey thanks for your help. i actually thought that it was possible that the substrate wasnt transferring enough heat, so i replaced it with paper towels. the warm side of the tank is quite warm to the touch and is certainly well above room temps.

ive had trouble finding live pinkies at local pet stores but i found one today that will have them for me on wednesday. is wednesday too soon to try again? at that point it will be 2 days shy of a month he has gone without eating and 4 days since my last attempt.

also, with the live pinkies, would i be better off putting it outside his hide? or in a deli cup? i thought maybe i would put the snake in the deli cup for an hour or two to let him get comfortable, and then sneakily drop the live pinkie in there with him. i got a solid lid, and covered the cup in black electrical tape to block out the light. here are some pics. let me know what you think.

forgot the pics

Everything looks good. I would switch from an under tank heater to an over tank heater.

When I cup feed my snakes I put the mouse in before the snake.

As far as how long to go before attempted feedings, 3 - 4 days is a nice amount of time.

What is the temperature on the hot side?

One thing that could help is raising the daytime temperature to about 87 degrees F. and the night time temperature in the upper 70s to low 80s for 3 days or so before the next feeding.

I keep my snake room at about 77F. and the corn snake that is in a 10 gallon cage can get up to 88F. with a 75 watt heat bulb or around 85F with a 60 watt.

When my grey-band was a small fry he refused to eat for 5 weeks. What I started to do then was reattempt my previously attempted feeding methods. The cup feeding at first did not work in fact it took me about 4 tries.
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The day I give up my dreams is the day I have strategic grill locations. A dreamer has a philosophy: the entire grill is hot.

I wouldn't worry too much about all the set up in regards to different hides and such. I would get the pink(s) on Wednesday and then wait until late to feed it. Be sure the temps are under control and maybe place one hide over the heat pad and one over the ambient end. If you can get 2 pinks, then place one inside each hide and do this as you turn out the lights. Some snakes are crepsurcular (sp?) and want to find the prey at night. You need to resist chcecking in on him, because if you are like me, you will turn the light on right as he is getting ready to eat and ruin the whole thing.

At any rate, try that, but I really do feel that you need to regulate the temps and if you get the mx min therm. and check the temps, you will realize major drops at night. Corns typically eat even if it takes a while, but they typically do eat eventually. Ohh, one other trick is to cover the cage with a towel so it is pitch dark. Hopefully this hodgepodge of suggestions will work. Good luck and le me know what results you get when you check on him on Thursday morning.

i'm fairly certain the undertank heater is doing its job. its in the mid 80s at the hot end of the tank., although the snake seems to be hanging out mostly near the other end for the past few days.

What happened to this thread?

np

One thing I notice is that your hides are so tall. Snakes like to be touching something on top and bottom. They like to be almost sqeezed into a space.
I suggest putting a folded up piece of newspaper under each hide so the animals can select the level to situate itself. Folded paper gives several layers or levels to choose from.
Also, a small paper bag with snake and pinkie overnight is a good thing to try first.
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Austin Herp. Soc.

I just went to through the same thing with my butter hatchling. What worked for me was feeding live. I tried braining/scenting/halves etc. I finally broke down and bought a live pink. She took it alomist right away. I fed her in a deli cup and put it in a closet so it would be dark.

The next week I bought another pink and also asked the pet store for some bedding out of the mice cage. She took the live again.

The next week I thawed out a pink(kept it dry) and dropped it into the mice bedding in a paper bag and did a little shake n bake. I cleaned the bedding off of pink and offered it in the deli cup again. She took it. I did this another 3 weeks.

Yesterday I offered a plain old F/T and she took it. I went through a lot to get her to eat and waited too long to try live. I was more stubborn than she was. I really did not want to go live, but it didn't take long and only a little effort and she is on her way.

Hope this helps.
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3.2 Corn (Butter-Sunflower '07/Anery Stripe-Ripple '06/Amber-Jack Straw '06/Snow-Casey Jones '06/Amel Motley-Cosmo '03)
0.1 Baird's Ratsnake (Sugaree '04)
1.0 White Oaks Grey Rat (Tennesse Jed '04)
0.1 IJ Carpet Python (Cassidy '04)
1.0 Western Hognose (Samson '05)
1.1 Shepherd mix (Dylan 8yrs, Porter 3yrs)

"i actually thought that it was possible that the substrate wasnt transferring enough heat, so i replaced it with paper towels. the warm side of the tank is quite warm to the touch
and is certainly well above room temps."

Do you know the actual floor temperature? Use a thermometer. It sounds like the hot spot is too hot and therefore the snake isn't using it. You need a section of floor with a temperature in the mid to upper 80s.

"also, ive heard lizard scenting can work..."

If the snake was eating previously, there's no need to scent. Scenting is used to get snakes to eat the first few times on pinkies.

How old is the snake? Do you know if it's a male or a female? If the snake is more than a year old, it could be off feed because it thinks it should be hibernating. Also, it is nearing breeding season, if the snake is a male it could be off feed because of that.

Tim

thanks for all the input. the temp. on the warm side is in the mid 80s. i used the same undertank heater for a couple years with my previous snake and it was fine. my current snake is about 3 months, and i'm not sure if its male or female.

i havent tried feeding live yet, but if you read my old post, the snake had eaten a thawed pinkie few times before it stopped eating, which is why i waited until now. but i ordered a couple live pinkies for tomorrow, so tomorrow night i'll try feeding live. i'm either gonna drop a live pinkie outside each of his hides, or i'll try feeding the live pinkie in a deli cup. does anyone have any opinions on which would be better bet?

also, most of you have said that my hides are the perfect size. does anyone else think that they're too tall? the past few days he seems to be splitting his time inside the hide or just coiled up on the side of the tank. right now, hes hanging out by the warm side of the tank, but outside the hide, so i'm fairly certain its not too hot. also, the hide currently on the warm side i had on the cool side the other day and he was using it frequently.

-Z Pops

Def. use lower hides. The newspaper idea is great.
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0.0.1 Tiliqua scincoides chimaerea
1.0.0 Pyxicephalus adsperus
0.1.0 Eublepharis macularis
0.0.1 Ceratophrys cranwelli
1.0.0 Python breitenstein
0.1.0 Heterodon nasicus
0.1.0 Morelia spilota cheynei
0.0.1 Bufo americanus
0.0.1 Ambystoma tigrinum melanostictum
1.1.0 Sternotherus oderatus
0.0.1 Ptyodactylus hasselquistii
0.1.0 Lampropeltis getula floridana 'Brooksi'
0.1.0 Japalura splendida

I use a brown paper sandwich bag ...put the food and snake in it and let them go undisturbed overnight then carefully look in the next day...this has worked wonders for me good luck

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CD
Corns(Adults)
1.0 Snow ZigZag
1.0 Bloodred het Pewter
0.1 Banded Motley het Amel
0.1 Blizzard het Anery A