Reptile & Amphibian Forums

In case you missed my post a while back, I was given two baby corns who were hatched with deformities. One of them is not going to make it. I may have to euthenize him soon. Is the best way to put him in the freezer or is there a more humane way? The other one I think has a good chance, but he just won't eat on his own. He's a month old now. Only has one eye, and does have at least one kink in his spine. I offered food many times and he just shows no interest at all. I got worried, so I force fed him a pinkie head last night. I thought I'd start small. He swallowed it down and knock on wood has kept it down for over 24 hours at this point. What is the best way to proceed with this snake? Should I do a few more force feedings before offering for him to eat on his own, or always see if he'll eat before doing the force feeding? Should I stick with just partial pinks for a few weeks before tryint a whole one? I really like this little guy and want him to make it. I've even taken him to my reptile vet to have him checked out. The vet agrees he should be able to live a happy life despite the missing eye and small kink. This is my first force feeding attempt and I really don't know what to do in terms of frequency and size of the meals. Any suggestions would be great. Thanks!

"Suezo"

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Lyns Lair
Frogwatch USA
WNY Herpetological Society

0.1 Cat (Mia)
4.2 Ferrets (Wolf, Shadow, Verdell, Sullivan, Boo, Peach)
1.0 Carpet Python (Bear)
1.0 Malagasy Blonde Hognose Snake (Wilbur)
1.0 Yellow / Everglades Rat Snake (Pumpkin)
1.0 Russian Sand Boa (Fang)
0.1 Normal Corn Snake (Mysty)
1.0 Anery Corn Snakes (Suezo)
1.0 Banded Water Snake (Ripley)
0.1 Golden Greek Tortoise (Sunshine)
1.0 Green Iguana (Norbert)
1.0 Whites Tree Frog (Trevor)
2.0 Solomon Island Eyelash Frogs (Chompy & Gimli)
1.0 AFT Gecko (Cocoa)
5.5 Leopard Geckos (Trouble, Scooter, Simba, Firenze, Teddy, Mystique, Freckles, Dotty, Zipper, Twister)

Hey Lyn,
I am sure that you know all the tricks to get a snake to eat.
Scenting with lizard, leaving overnight with food, brained pinkie, scented brained pinkie, etc etc etc.
So when you get through all of these possibilities, it still won't feed and you resort to force feeding then you might want to try getting it to feed on it's own, each time, before force feeding.
Let's say Tonight is feeding night. Try leaving the little guy with a scented pinkie over night. If the pinkie is still there in the morning, feed it to the snake. Or the head anyway. I still have two hatchlings that were born in April and two I adopted in March that won't eat on their own. I have tried all the tricks over and over. There were five of the hatchlings and three adopties that wouldn't eat but three of the hatchlings and one of the adopties finally started eating. I feed on Saturday night so each Sunday morning I will check the non feeders and if they haven't eaten their pinkie, I will feed it to them.
I figure as long as they hold the food down, continue to grow and shed then I will keep trying to bring them around.
Also, keep going through all the tricks. Something might trigger a feeding response.
A trick that worked for me...After the non feeders shed I waited two weeks to feed them. Since they never actually shed on feeding day this basically ended up being three total weeks between feedings. This seemed to do the trick. Well, at least four out of eight.
I will be trying this again when the current non-feeders shed the next time.
good luck and feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions.
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Remember, My posts are MY opinion only!
Jimmy (draybar)

I agree with Jimmy...Always try to let the snake eat on its own first. My favorite method with problem feeders is the headless pinky. I will put the snake in a deli cup with the decapitated pink AND the head, having squeezed the head with my hemostats just enough to get a little brain-juice coming out the back (YUM!)....... That way, the snake can eat the head, the body, or both. A few rounds of that gets most of my hard-cases feeding on their own. Good luck with your unique new corn.

Is one that is eating on his own that little anery? I hope so. Well jimmy just to let you know the beardie eggs are getting bigger everyday. and that modular caging i have been telling you about is close to a reality, i need some dimensiopns off of you though, but i will get to you closer to the time.

ken
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0.1 Albino Cal. King (Fokker)
1.0 Reverse Okeetee Corn (trouble)
0.1 Creamsicle Corn (Spot)
1.1 Bearded Dragons (Bob & Margret)
1.1 Dogs(George and Ladybird) they are rescues.
1.0 Betta
0.1 Wife
0.1 Kid

>>Is one that is eating on his own that little anery? I hope so. Well jimmy just to let you know the beardie eggs are getting bigger everyday. and that modular caging i have been telling you about is close to a reality, i need some dimensiopns off of you though, but i will get to you closer to the time.
>>
>>
>>ken

Yes Ken,
"your" little anery is one of those.
He ate again last night..whoo whoo.
He shed Thursday so that would explain why he didn't eat last Saturday.
He should be ready to go in a few days !!!!
Jimmy
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Remember, My posts are MY opinion only!
Jimmy (draybar)

Awesome cant wait to see him. just hope UPS does there job this time.

ken
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0.1 Albino Cal. King (Fokker)
1.0 Reverse Okeetee Corn (trouble)
0.1 Creamsicle Corn (Spot)
1.1 Bearded Dragons (Bob & Margret)
1.1 Dogs(George and Ladybird) they are rescues.
1.0 Betta
0.1 Wife
0.1 Kid

When I had to force feed baby snakes, I would do it every 10 days and attempt regular feedings every 7. For instance, if I force fed a snake today, in 7 days I would offer it food to see if it eats voluntarily. If not, then I would force feed it 3 days later (10 days from the last force feeding). I don't like to force feed any sooner than every 10 days simply b/c it puts tremendous stress on an animal and can often drive it to refuse food longer. If the snake appeared to be in good health initially, I will be more conservative and wait longer between force feedings with more attempts in between for getting them to eat on their own.

In some cases, depending on the size of the baby, I force feed 2-3 pinkie heads at a time since its often hard to do so with a whole pinkie. However, my other snakes get upset since they lose out on the heads.j/k. Anyway, I don't know about the pinkie pump but that may be an option as well. I have a pair of plastic tweezers that I got from a biological supply company and they work great for me. Also, I always try to 'assist' feed vs. 'force' feed b/c sometimes it helps to trigger an eating response. Basically it means I don't shove the food all the way down a snake's throat...I leave a little hanging out of the mouth so that the snake has to do some work to swallow it down.

I currently have one ball python baby that simply does not want to eat on her own so I am currently in a similar boat. It takes SO much time away from the rest of my collection. I spend less time handling my other snakes and now they are literally becoming harder to hold with more risk of getting bitten. I had a gray banded kingsnake that was THE WORST with force feeding and I had to sell it b/c I spent way too much time working with him. The person that bought him has since gotten him to feed voluntarily through scenting, which I am a BIG hater of since I have YET to get scenting to work for me with ANY snake. Well, before freezing you may want to offer him up 'free to a good home' with a full disclosure and records of all you have done with it simply b/c there may be someone else out there without more time and experience to devote to them.

GOOD LUCK with everything and keep us posted.
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Sincerely,
Jason
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Just to clarify, the one I'm force feeding is not the one I'm thinking of Euthenizing. That's his brother. His brother has a really bad deformed jaw, is missing a nostril, one eye is small and deformed, has kinks down his whole spine, and his belly has caved in. He can't crawl right, kind of throws himself around. I took him to the vet who agreed his chances of survival are slim to none.

The one I'm trying to save only has the two problems that I know of, the missing eye which should cause no problems at all. And the one kink in the spine which may or may not cause problems, not sure how easy it will be for him to get food past it. The pinkie head seemed to go right by that area with no problem, but not sure with bigger food, so will have to keep an eye on it.

As for different methods to get them to eat... Yup, been there done that. I have done whole but brained, beheaded, mouse maker drops, different feeding containers, leaving in overnight, I have not tried lizard scenting. I do not have a lizard. I've tried it in the past with other stubborn eaters and it never worked.

I worry if I've left him overnight that the mouse might not be so good in the AM to force feed. I think I'll try the 7, 10 day thing that was suggested and just toss the uneaten one and give him a fresh one a few days later. Maybe bumping to 2 or 3 heads. I was using day old pinks cuz they were smaller, but if just the heads then I could probably do larger pinks. I breed my own so can euthenize/freeze the pinks at various sizes to suite my needs.

I really want this guy to live. I was honored when the breeder offered them to me thinking I could save them. She didn't do it to "dump" them on me, she really wanted them to live and knew I would do everything in my power to save them. I already told her I think the one will have to be euthenized. With that one, would it be best to just let him go? Or is it kinder to freeze? Do you know how long he'd be suffering for in the freezer?

On a happy note, I'm about crawling out of my skin right now. I'm getting my first Iguana today. A 6' long 5 year old male who has not been handled in a long time but is friendly as far as her current owner can pet him in the enclosure. They are driving 2 hours with him and his enclosure, 4 people and 2 vehicles. Should be here about 2pm. So 5 1/2 long hours left!!! I've been wanting to adopt an Iggy for a while, there are so many in need of homes every time you visit the rescue sites. I wish I could adopt them all, but space is a bit of an issue, they need minimum of 9 foot long by 6 foot tall by 3 foot deep enclosures. Can't fit many of them in my Reptile room!!!

"Norbert"

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Lyns Lair
Frogwatch USA
WNY Herpetological Society

0.1 Cat (Mia)
4.2 Ferrets (Wolf, Shadow, Verdell, Sullivan, Boo, Peach)
1.0 Carpet Python (Bear)
1.0 Malagasy Blonde Hognose Snake (Wilbur)
1.0 Yellow / Everglades Rat Snake (Pumpkin)
1.0 Russian Sand Boa (Fang)
0.1 Normal Corn Snake (Mysty)
1.0 Anery Corn Snakes (Suezo)
1.0 Banded Water Snake (Ripley)
0.1 Golden Greek Tortoise (Sunshine)
1.0 Green Iguana (Norbert)
1.0 Whites Tree Frog (Trevor)
2.0 Solomon Island Eyelash Frogs (Chompy & Gimli)
1.0 AFT Gecko (Cocoa)
5.5 Leopard Geckos (Trouble, Scooter, Simba, Firenze, Teddy, Mystique, Freckles, Dotty, Zipper, Twister)

>Way to go Lyn.
The rescues or adopties from Florida were sent to me because she felt I would do everything in my power to get them feeding.
I did get the one everglades to start eating so all I need to do now is get the other everglades and the butter to eat and that will take care of the rescues. I was given a nice "eating" everglades sibling and a yellow rat as kind of a bribe to take the non-feeders but my friend in Florida knew I would have done it for nothing.
I have adopted several animals from her over the years. I am kind of her dumping station....LOL
If that is the iguana your are adopting, it is a beauty.
Good luck with it and your cute little "popeye" anery.
and all of your other animals!
Jimmy

I recieved this info on the hogg nose forum...and it worked like a charm on two consecutive hogg nose snakes that were sold to me as NON eaters..Take a can of tuna in WATER...drain the water into a container to save it. (eat the tuna yourself) thaw out your pinkie or head and drop it into room temp tuna water..remove with tongs and put in your container, deli cup or whatever you feed in...I think small babies really like the "fishy" smell. Keep the water in the fridge and heat it up by setting it in hot water for the next time.
Nancy
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Some of my best friends are snakes
Snakes Rule

>>I will try anything.
thanks
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Remember, My posts are MY opinion only!
Jimmy (draybar)