Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have had such a good week getting baby corns to eat I wanted to share the experience. Every year I have a few hatchlings that refuse to eat and eventually die. This year was especially good in that I hatched out about 125 corns. It was bad in that I had about 20 that WOULD NOT EAT. It was so bad I went to Home Depot and bought a wine refrigerator to put the babies in because I hate force feeding and cooler is better for snakes not on food. By the way, the wine fridge is about the best thing I have put in my snake room for a long time. You can set them at 55 degrees and you can check on the animals through the glass front. Anyway, after about eight weeks I pulled them out and warmed them back up over the course of a week. Not ONE of the little devils would eat. I tried live, frozen, prekilled, brained, washed, not washed. NOTHING. So I tried scenting. I took a couple of green anoles I had in the freezer and cut about 5mm x 5mm squares of skin off and stuck the skin to the head of live, newborn, nonwashed pinkies. This is gross but I opened the skull of the anoles and used brain goo as the glue to stick the skin on. All of the babies ate right away exept one!! I gave one of the skinned anoles to the one that did not eat its pinkie and he sucked that down with no problem.
These were babies between 12 and 18 weeks old and had never taken a meal and every one of them ate. I hope this can be of use to someone.

before cooling them down as well, or only after the chilling? Curious as to whether it was the chilling, the scenting, or the combo.

I tried chilling a few this year, but lost most of them. I think they were already too thin when I cooled them. I have been meaning to take some that only refused a few meals and look really good, then cool them down for a while and see what happens.

I tried fence swift scenting before the cooling but not anoles. I used anoles after a friend asked if I had tried them since they are also native to the south east.

np

I did something similiar this year with a pair of pewters that quit eating. I bought the pair from R.i.c.h. Z and they ate a couple of times but then they wouldn't touch anything for over a month. I tried scented pinks, brained pinks, everything but force feeding. I was at my witts end, So I figured I would try something that I have heard other people do, and brumate them for a little over a month. I used my little mini fridge and kept the temps between 50 and 55 degrees. Well after warming them up, from their short cooling period, They have become two of my more agressive feeders.
When I put them in brumation they were still relatively healthy, so I wasn't to worried about them making it through the cooling period.

Do they get oxygen if they stay inside the fridge for that long?
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2.2 Corns (2 striped and 1 okeetee and 1 blizzard)
1.1 Graybanded
2.1 Banana Cal Kings
1.1 Leopard Geckos (High yellow and Jungle)

The fridge was opened at least once per week to change water bowls and for a detailed check of the animals. I have to say that must have been enough air exchange because no animals were lost during the cool period.

How much was the cooler? And is water really necessary when they are being cooled?
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2.2 Corns (2 striped and 1 okeetee and 1 blizzard)
1.1 Graybanded
2.1 Banana Cal Kings
1.1 Leopard Geckos (High yellow and Jungle)

I think that brumating is actually a milder form of hibernation. I know that my snakes would move around a bit while they were brumating.
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sue

Always have water available. I never see them drink in the fridge but I would never have them go without water. The wine cooler was a 14 bottle cooler on sale for $60.