Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have an eastern milk snake and i am having issues with geting he/she to eat f/t mice hoppers. The snake is almost 3' on the dot. I am seeking help as it is a truly beutiful snake and i do not want it to perish besides not eating it is easy to handle and seems happy in its cage burrowing and coming out to see what im doing.
I have a few questions about feeding.
1. I read that the size of the food item shuld be only slightly larger than the widest part of the snake. Is this true?
2. If the above question is true the hoppers shuld be of corect size for my snake. Shuld i try live to see if it will eat?
When i first obtained this snake i had tryed feeding but it wuldnt take i noticed it was aproching a shed so i stoped trying to feed untill it had. Now it is 3 days after the shed i placed the snake and f/t hopper in a med sized container for feeding it showed absolutly no intrest in eating the mouse but more intrest in moving it around ( almost like testing to see if it was alive) then showed no intrest.
any advice is much apriciated.
cheers

Is this a wild caught snake?

Yes it is a wild caught snake. My neigbor was going to kill it so i picked it up.

Try feeding it a live pinky. Some milk snakes are scared to eat rodents that can fight back. The pinky is easy pickins, so it may eat it? If it does, you can then feed it several pinks to get it used to eating rodents, then start trying to switch it to dead fuzzies and hoppers as he get's used to eating rodents. If it was a Wild animal it may be used to eating lizards, or other snakes? I have gotten several picky eaters to eat by starting them off on small pinks. Good luck!
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King Snakes! Who can make a better mouse trap?
Jorge Sierra

My Site > www.Sierrasnakes.com

I will try the live pinky mice. Thanks

Just like Gerry asked - is it a wild caught snake?

Also like Jorge said, try a smaller prey item. Most of my NA milks would rather eat fuzzies when they could easily eat hoppers if they wanted to.

One other point to consider is that most of my NA milks have started to "shut down" for the year. Some even started in early August. Its very common for NA milks to stop eating late in the summer/early fall as they prepare for the cooler temps.

If it has good body weight, it should be fine but you need to consider to cool it down for the winter. If it is wild caught and thin, you may want to consider releasing it to let it do its thing and try to catch another one in the spring. Just a consideration.

Good luck!

Dave

DNS Reptiles - Milk Snakes

Yes its wild caught my neigbor was going to kill it so it picked it up. Points takin. Wait seems good not skiny still seems prety active.

Cool - I am glad you saved it from your neighbor!!

Dave

Have you tried using a long pair of tongs to hold the f/t hopper and dangle it in front of him to mimic a live prey? I have found that even tapping the mouse on the snakes tail sometimes will cause it to strike and then the natural feeding reflexes will sometimes kick right in directly after the strike. Best of luck.

Yes i tryed the tongs. The snake stuck but did not hold on more of a defencive strike.

As Dave stated, the snake is probably shut down for the upcoming winter. There is a chance however that it might not eat in captivity. If the animals has good weight and you want the snake, and it is legal to keep one where you live, then you might want to provide the snake with a temp gradient for a couple of weeks. (warm side 80-84 and cool side as cool as your house ambient temps will allow) If the snake still will not eat (even the smaller meals) then you need to look into brumating the animal. Until cooler temps arrive, the coolest room in your home will have to do. Most of my captive eastern milk snakes have shut down already. I am still finding them in the wild with meals in them though.

Joe

I have him/her on a temp grasiant off 82 hot side and 73 cool side. I will read up on there brumation needs if it comes to that. Thanks.

Wild caught Eastern Milks are not the easiest snakes to adapt to captivity. Have you kept snakes before? What's your setup like? They spend most of their time hiding and do not enjoy being handled. As far a feeding goes, your best best would be to place a live crawler or fuzzy rat in the cage in the evening and leave the snake alone overnight. Even if the snake does eat, I have found that adult wild caught Eastern are often irregular feeders. If you do not have a lot of snake keeping experience, you might want to consider releasing the snake near where it was found.

Tim

I am no expert by any means its been about 2-3 years since i have kept a snake or any reptile for that matter. But in the past i have kept several gardersnakes and water snakes. Rest assured if the snake dosnt eat after trying live then i wont be keeping it.

I have been working on putting a small breeding group of easterns together for the past few years. In my experience with wc specimens all of the information provided above is spot on. They are very challenging to work with. I figure aproximately a 50/50 chance at best that you will get a wc adult to eat in captivity. Even if you get them to eat they can be frustrating. I have a female that ate f/t fuzzies and hoppers great (for an eastern) all spring and into the summer of 2010. Her last meal was in mid July 2010, and didn't eat again until Hurricane Irene came through the NE about two weeks ago - late August of 2011!

Good luck with yours, but if it doesn't eat for you soon it would probably be better off in the wild. Love to see some pictures!

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Joe

Thanks for the advice. Here is a pic its not the greatest. But shows the atatude o
f this snake well. Along with coloration.