Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I bought a ghost corn at a reptile show 2-3 weeks ago he refuses to eat. He is about 2/3 months old his tank is 80-86 deg on the warm end and about 75 deg on the cold end. He is very active in the afternoon and is all over his cage his sibling is in the same cage is eating fine on t/f pinkeys. We seprate them when we feed and put them in a feeder tank in a nice dark quite place. Any ideas I've been trying about every 2 days?

Corn snakes do best when housed individually. They are solitary by nature and keeping two togather causes stress. You did not mention the size of the enclosure, but I've found that young corn snakes feed better when kept in something small, like a plastic shoebox or one of those plastic terrariums with a snap-on lid.

Tim

Third Eye

There tank is a 20g long breeder tank but I put him in a plastic 1qt container with snap lid. I will set up another tank an try that.I have a spare that I'm not using thats the same size.

Tim made some good points, and in addition to his suggestions, it sounds like it is probably looking for a nice TIGHT place to hide. This is extremely important to address, it will feel MUCH less stress if it can hide under something really low and dark placed on the substrate. This is very often just the key to get them behaving as they normally would in the wild.

If they cannot find nice tight hiding quarters, they feel like the entire world can come swooping down on them for an easy meal, as would be the case in the wild. This includes your big "monster-like" hand going down to grab it.LOL!. Tiny little snakes can feel very threatened by this, and it can make all the difference in the world most of the time.

When snakes feel comfortable and secure, their feeding response usually follows suite.

best regards, ~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

I just got my first corn and was worried I would have the same problem. You said your new snake is very active in the afternoon, this shouldn't be. They should be sleeping in their hides in the afternoon. It's most common to see them out in the evening and night. I've tried this and it has worked several times..leave the pinky or fuzzy in the enclosure overnight. Leave the snakes alone for a day or two and you should realize that they have lumps in their stomachs, haha. Good luck.
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Reptiles:
2.2 Leopard Geckos
0.1 Ball Python
0.1 Bearded Dragon
0.1 Box Turtle
0.1 Corn Snake

Bird:
0.1 Jenday Conure

Pups:
2.0 K-9

and lots of tropical fish!

-Patrick

Also I would suggest that after you get him in his own small cage with a tight hide, leave him alone for several days before trying to feed, let him get good and settled. Handling and offering food every other day is molesting, you only need to offer every 4-5 days for hatchlings, much less frequently for adults. Don't worry and hurry things, he wont starve to death by you patiently waiting a couple extra days for him to settle down.
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Jeff Benfer
gartersnakemorph.com

If all else fails try breaking off a frozen adult mouse tail and force feed it to the snake as easy as you can. back in the day many of the baby blood reds would not eat and this is how most could be started to feeding. Once the baby snakes gets a little something in its stomach it should start to feed on its own. Eric

One more thing too, you should check for parasites. If the snakes is not feeding and stays active when it should not be then this is another thing that may be wrong with it. It is CB but could have been cross contaminated. Try the mouse tail if after you make the cage changes suggested in earlier postings fail. But if the mouse tail doesn't work or comes back up then it is either worms or maybe even a virus. I would not worry too much until after some time has passed and you have tried plan A and B. Eric

Thanks everyone!I was just worried I was going to starve him.An its not afternoon more like late evening 8:00-9:00 sorry