Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I bought a baby corn about three weeks ago from Petco.
I fed him about 3 days after getting him. He wouldn't eat at first, but eventually ate the live pinkie in his cage. I had tried putting him in a small paper bag with the pinkie but that didn't work. I tried feeding him a week later, another live pinkie and he wouldn't touch it. He actually licked it but didn't eat it. I tried feeding him again this weekend and he won't eat. It's a very small corn snake. One pinkie a week shouldn't be too much food, should it? Any suggestions?

This picture was taken a couple weeks ago after he ate.

He also lives on top of this branch and is never in his hide. Is this normal for a corn snake?

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Lisa

0.0.1 50/50 California Kingsnake
0.0.1 Candy Cane Kingsnake
0.1.0 W/C California Kingsnake
0.0.1 Normal Cornsnake
0.0.2 W/C Kingsnake Eggs (due to hatch around 8/8/04)

I bought my first corn at Petco. She is doing great and is year and half old now. could be alot of things...

how do you have him set up? should have temp gradiant, warm side, cool side. If you have the UTH and a light they should be on the same side. hiding places on both sides. Mine loved paper towels roll when they were little.

do you have temps right? Mine are in the 84 degree range warm side, about 76 cooler side.

if he won't go on bottom maybe its the substrate. could be irritating him. He/she looks scared in the photo.

Also where is the tank at in the house. they don't like high traffic areas.

A pinky a week sound right. My amel seemed hungry even after one pinkie so I was feeding her every 5-6 days. Now she is on adult mice every 10 days or so.

just some of my thoughts.

Hiya. I think you're right to be concerned that he's in a branch, pretty much in the open, all the time. This is very unusual for a hatchling (or a Corn of any age) as they normally prefer to be hidden away for most of the time, coming out mainly around dawn and dusk.

I agree with Janome - from what you've told us, it sounds like either he doesn't like his current substrate or there aren't enough hiding places on the ground for him to feel safe down there. Perhaps you should switch to a plain newspaper or paper towel substrate for a couple of weeks to see how that goes? Also, put lots of different sorts of hiding places on the ground e.g. crumpled newspaper, paper towel tubes, small cardboard boxes, dense plastic foliage etc. If he insists on staying in his "tree", you could try wrapping some plastic foliage around it, to give him more cover to hide in.

The fact that he he ate once and hasn't eaten since, might be a sign of stress. If he's too uncomfortable to spend time at ground level, then this could be what's causing the stress.

All the best - let us know how he does.

I have had my corn for going on three years now. He is a monster eater, will eat right out of my hand. He loves to sit up on his tree branch up against the screened top of his cage, spends the majority of his time there. He will also use his hide but mainly when he is going into shed. He is not shy at all. I think they are individuals and very different from each other. My corn also does not like his heat mat to be on. I know, I have tried many different times and each time I turn it on (temperature is correct, I test it to be sure) he abandons his hide for a different one. When I turn the heat off he goes back to his favorite hide. I now just do not use the heat mat and have not for well over a year now. He eats, sheds, defecates like a machine so I know he is in fine shape. He is very friendly, has never struck at any of us, actually crawls out of his cage when I open it up.

I bought my first corn from Petco and had a hard time getting her to thrive. I believe my temps were too warm and I initially used Reptibark on the recommendation of the Petco folks. I would recommend changing the substrate to aspen shavings or paper towels. If you have a heat mat, try turning it off and see if the little fella uses it's hides and begins to eat. I have heat lights that cycle on for several hours during the day and for several hours at night and quit using my under tank heat mats becasue I think my animals were too hot with it. They are both doing wonderful now. With that said, I do resume the under tank heating during the winter because we like it cool in the house.

I'm supprised no one mentioned, you might want to try feeding F/t, and never feed in the enclosure. What type of substrate are you using. It might be impacted from the first feeding if it got any of the substrate in its mouth. Try giving it a luke warm water soak. Has it deficated since your last feeding? I don;t mean to soound like a know it all, but I am just concerned for the animal. Let us know how it all works out.

Joe