We have recently purchased two cornsnakes, a female and a male. The male is eating very well, having been fed now about 4 times. However, the female has not eaten yet. Is there a way to "force feed" this snake, or should it be fed separately from the male? Any feedback is helpful, thank you!
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baby corn snake will not eat??
toads26
May 30, 2009 08:03 PM
Replies (2)
draybar
May 30, 2009 08:29 PM
>>We have recently purchased two cornsnakes, a female and a male. The male is eating very well, having been fed now about 4 times. However, the female has not eaten yet. Is there a way to "force feed" this snake, or should it be fed separately from the male? Any feedback is helpful, thank you!
yes it should be fed separately.
Are you housing them together?
It is probably stressed by the male.
Try housing it separately and after it has had a few days to settle into it's new surroundings THEN try feeding it again.
After she has had three or four days to settle in, place her and the pinkie in a small deli dish, place that back in the enclosure and leave it alone for a few hours, check on it and if it still hasn't eaten leave it over night. If this doesn't work get back on here and we can work from there.
but like I said separate them first, then give her time to settle in.
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Corn snakes and rat snakes..No one can have just one.
"Resistance is futile"
Jimmy Johnson
(Draybar)
Draybars Snakes
_____
KevinM
Jun 01, 2009 01:02 PM
Jimmy has given some good advice. Separate them, let the female settle in, then try to feed her again. Also, make sure you are offering what the seller said they were feeding on. If they were feeding live pinks, try live pinks. If they were feeding frozen/thawed pinks, offer frozen/thawed pinks. Many breeders feed live because they also raise mice, while most small scale hobbyist like frozen/thawed cause its convenient. However, I think the stress of living with the male causing her to go off feed is the most likely culprit.
If all else fails after a few attempts after she is housed separately, you CAN try to tease feed her. The easiest way being to simply hold the snake in one hand with her head and about a third of her neck/body sticking out and tap her gently on the nose with the pinky held in your other hand. Sometimes they snap at the pinky and hold on, and then start to swallow once they realize what it is. This appears to be the least stressful method of "force" feeding. It may take a few trys, but works fairly well.
Good Luck!!
