Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've posted a few times about a baby corn not eating. Still no luck. I've switched to trying cup feeding overnight, and only using the head or a similar sized piece of a pinky. Also no handling of the snake at all since I've been trying to get it to eat. I've given it about 5 days in between attempts. I've owned the snake about 3 1/2 weeks. The breeder says that it did eat for him. How long can this little guy go with out eating? Does anyone have any other suggestions. I'm very capable of tube feeding if needed but certainly don't want to jump the gun if I don't have to. Another question. Do problem feeding snakes tend to remain so or once you get them going, do they continue to eat well? Thanks for any help you can give.

Maybe a force feed is due.Some people wait to long to try to feed and it turns into a mess with a weak and sick snake.If your comfortable going ahead and feed it a pinky....Paul.

I have a normal motley I got screwed at the monroeville show that eneded up never eating. I purchased (the nice way of putting it) him in August and forced him once in October. He always keeps down his force feeds and it wasn't until he had lost so much weight you could barely tell you were holding him if you set him in your hand, that I decided to start regularly force-feeding him, yes he is that light and small. He is so thin his skin has folds in it and he looks terrible. I'm holding out that I can force-feed him to health and sell him off as a non-breeding pet someday to try and recoup my massive monetary loss...

force-feeding sucks but I'll try anything...

Good luck.

Just a question: are you trying F/T only, or have you tried live pinks?

I have a hatchling prairie king that will not touch a F/T, but as soon as you drop in a live pink, he is all over it.
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Good luck and Happy Herping
Brian

Yeah, I'm using FT pinkies, no live ones available at the pet shop. I've considered even trying a live earth worm. I've used them on baby garters and they love them. I've got to believe baby corns eat them in the wild, along with crickets and other small insects. I'm probably going to force feed the little bugger tonight just to get some nutrition in to it.

I do know that someone on here posted that their corn snake ate a cricket (they even had a photo to prove it), but I would be highly surprised to find out that your snake would take an insect or invertebrate.

Corn snakes are NOT garder snakes. They are almost on the opposite sides of the spectrum. Garders are basically insect/invertebrate eaters, while corn snakes are rodent/small lizard eaters.
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alstiver@hotmail.com

Current pets:
1.0 '01 Hypo snow cornsnake (Tesla Coil)
0.1 '02 Ghost (pastel) cornsnake (Banshee)
1.1 '02 Bloodred cornsnakes (Desi and Luci Too)
0.0.2 Goldfish (Isamu, and Yuki; RIP Kabuki)
1.0 '99 American Eskimo mix (Rusty)

Next to be added:
0.1 BCI
1.1 Amber cornsnakes
1.1 Hypo Het Lavendar cornsnakes

The local pet shop said try crickets too, they do if nothing else works. Adult garter snakes certainly eat more than insects and other invertebrates. Depending on their geography, they eat plenty of frogs, fish, and even mice. Some that breed them feed pinkies and small mice as well.

I ended up force feeding a pinky tonight so maybe that will get the little guy going a bit. Thanks for all the suggestions.

Kevin