Reptile & Amphibian Forums

recently purchased baby milksnake and was told at pet store he was already eating pinkies but after 3weeks, no luck. pinkies are huge compared to snake. question: how long can you leave pinkie in habitat? should we cut pinkie into smaller "bite size" pieces? Help! we areworried sick.

The first thing I'd do is contact the store and ask what method they were using to succefully get the snake to eat. Of course they may have been pulling your leg about it having eaten in the first place. If whatever they tell you doesn't work, I'd take the snake back. What type of milk snake is it? Some baby snakes need to start on scented pinkies. Which if thats the case the whole process of getting them to feed can be quite a job for someone with no experience with problem feeders. So taking the snake back would be the best thing to do. If this is not an option you can e-mail me and I'll give you my number to talk you through some "tricks" to get it to eat. Good luck!

thanks so much for the advice. i will call pet store immediately. and will keep you posted. thanks again.

the snake is primarily red, black nose, black stripes with white in between - not sure - was just told it was a milksnake. My daughter is 15 and has wanted one for a very long time, and I finally broke down and bought one. It's habitat is a 30 gallon tank, the temp is 85 under lamp side of tank. It does drink water occasionally. However, he seems upset and strikes when you try to handle him (we were told they don't bite).

There are many milk snakes with those 3 colors so unfortunately without a picture I can't tell you exactly what kind it is. Although their care is very similiar. There are some milks that do great being handled (such as mexican milk snakes) and there is those that never seem to calm down no matter how frequently they are handled (such as pueblan milk snakes.) When talking to the pet store, If they won't refund your money, atleast ask them what type of milk snake it is. Although my experience with pet stores makes me think they don't even know what they sold you. Hope all goes well.

Try lizards. If you can catch a skink or anole (or whatever lizards you have near your home. If you can't catch a lizard, check out petsmart for anoles), break the tail off. Smear the blood on a day old pinkie's head and leave in a small deli cup (with small airholes) with the snake overnight. Go ahead and leave the tail in there too. The snake should eat either or both. Make sure you get a day old pinkie though.

Follow up on this forum and let us know how it turns out.

Good Luck,
Michael

We have given up and exchanged him at the pet store for a corn snake. they have assured us he is a good eater, but i will keep your info in case i need to put it to use on the new guy! thanks so much!