Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Two years ago I accidently dropped a pinky in to some just hatched hatchlings and to my surpize it was picked up fast and ate...This gave me an idea 4 last year, to take 4 clutches and feed them one day after they hatched to see just how many eat and if there is any ill affects to doing this......The only ill affect that I can say that there is,they think the your fingers are food too.......lol

I took 4 clutches of hatchlings,came to 31 hatchlings...Of those 31 hatchlings 28 ate right off the bat,2 ate on the 2nd day and 1 never did eat....But of those 30 hatchlings that ate befor there 1st shed,the feed response is unbelievable,and none have turned down a meal, and growth rates are normal...

I came to the conclusion that the feeding response is highest after hatching out of the egg,I have allways waited till after there 1st shed and I will say that the feeding ratio is alot worse than what I came up with last years trial clutches...I will be testing this again this year to see what the trials reveal, if I get the same feed response I will be changing my hatchling feeding ideals....

Nice observation. I've heard the same thing from other breeders. I'd speculate that in the wild, a baby snake would eat whenever food is available and not follow the "must shed first rule."

I reckon there's a number of well-accepted "rules" (the "3 years old, 3 feet long, 300 grams in order to be ready to reproduce" thing comes to mind) in regards to the breeding of Corn Snakes that don't necessarily match up to reality.

Tim

Third Eye

I've been doing that for a few years now and most of mine usually eat too! Jeff

As a member of the "wait til the first shed to offer food" club, I will definitely give this a try to see what happens!! Cool observation. This is the neat stuff I love to read about on the forums!!

As I said,I started this by accident,but from my trials this seems to be alot better way to feed hatchlings, and the survival rate is alot higher also....I am not saying that this is "the way" to do so,but this is what is working very well for me.....Just wish I would have thougt about this 20 yrs ago,and had more data to share with everyone...With only 2 yrs data it still has a lot more trials and data to be compiled.....At least it's something , and maybe this will help others and save the lives of some hatchlings........

Well, it certainly cant hurt to try either. I quess my logic for NOT doing it was the "notion" they were still absorbing yolk and were not going to be hungry for awhile. I am definitely going to give it a try this season and see what happens!

that may explain your success is that they may absorb their yolk and assimilate quicker than we suspect? Is it possible that when we wait for the first shed they are actually too weak to feed or their systems have shut down due to lack of nutrition too late? Hmmm....

"that may explain your success is that they may absorb their yolk and assimilate quicker than we suspect? Is it possible that when we wait for the first shed they are actually too weak to feed or their systems have shut down due to lack of nutrition too late? Hmmm...."

As interesting as all that may sound,...I would think there is just no way possible that most would immediately be successful in finding meals in the wild right after they hatched. And even then many corn hatchlings can go for months on end and then start to feed with more than enough strength to go onto thrive absolutely fine afterwards.

To be honest, to find a definite correlation to any of this would take many years, with a very stringent way to repeatedly duplicate the "control" method with many different clutches, and especially the exact SAME pairings of parents back and forth many times under the EXACT same conditions year after year to come to any real conclusion though, ie., basically laboratory conditions.

Now, don't get me wrong here, it is very interesting I must say, and I am definitely not knocking what has been observed so far with this. But definitively proving this to be the case is tough to acomplish to say the very least. Lots of strict repeditiveness involved here.

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com

Thats true. I have had some stalwart holdouts that got pretty thin before eventually feeding, and then blooming as well as the good feeders. Of the 73 baby corns I produced last season, 70 ate a f/t pink the first try after their first shed. The other three never fed and one expired. The surviving two went to an acquaintence who had time to work with them, but not sure if they are still alive today. Still, I may try feeding them after hatching to see what happens. At a minimum, I may be able to get more corns better started before sale. Last year I had a group that only had time for one feed after their shed before the show I vended. Althought they ate great that one time, I was leary. I prefer to have three definitive feeds in them as a general rule.

"Althought they ate great that one time, I was leary. I prefer to have three definitive feeds in them as a general rule"

Yeah, me too. It always makes me feel better about KNOWING the animal has a good feeding response before being sold to a somewhat more novice buyer that might not know how to deal with the snakes that aren't quite as voracious as some of the others.

Also, it DEFINITELY depends on the genetic pre-disposition as to their eating, and exactly WHAT they will accept too. I had two huge clutches last year that a very large majority of them were a real pain in the arse to get started on ANYTHING! I used all freakin sorts of tricks too. Many Florida types tend to be a bit picky too, and/or only want to accept anoles. Which normally isn't a big deal for me al ALL here, as there are plenty of them around everywhere you look. But many of them could have cared less about anything offered. Eventually, most stuff sees the light eventually once something flips the "switch" with triggering a feeding response in their tiny little heads, but sometimes it is just unreal at how long some want to be stubborn no matter what is done.

I'd say your 70 feeder's out of 73 is WAY COOL!!!, wish some of the one's from my W/C stock last year were like those!..LOL!

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com

I agree that there is alot of data that is needed still,but one thing that I can say is that if they feed right away it is more likely that they will feed response will be as strong later.....I will keep colecting data and see what I come up with, hopefully I can come up with something conclusive......Like I said I am only seeing how this could work out....

>>I agree that there is alot of data that is needed still,but one thing that I can say is that if they feed right away it is more likely that they will feed response will be as strong later.....I will keep colecting data and see what I come up with, hopefully I can come up with something conclusive......Like I said I am only seeing how this could work out....

well, I know i'm going to try it.
sure can't hurt and I've got plenty of snakes to eat anything the hatchlings don't eat.
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Corn snakes and rat snakes..No one can have just one.
"Resistance is futile"
Jimmy Johnson
(Draybar)
Draybars Snakes

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Sounds very interesting man, I look forward to hearing about any further findings regarding this too.

And thanks for posting some of your observations.

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com

I am glad that everyone is interested in these findings,I will keep everyone posted on this years findings.....Please keep us all posted on your findings also....Hopefully between all of us we may be able to come to a common conclusion......Thanks again.......~Andy~

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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com