Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well, out of my 24 hatchlings only 6 are eating. They hatched a little over a month ago and I've tried everything I can think of to get the others to eat on their own. How long or much longer can they go before they will be in danger of starving? This is my 3rd time mating my snakes and every other time all have been voracious eaters; only two or three that didnt eat. So I have no idea what went wrong here. Also, any suggestions for getting them to eat. I've tried live pinkies, frozen pinkies, deli cups overnight and still 18 aren't eating? Thanks for any replies.
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1.2 Normal Cornsnakes
1.0 Snow Cornsnake
0.0.14 Normal Hatchlings
0.0.14 Anerythristic A Hatchlings

try dipping the pinkies in the juice from a can of tuna and then leaving them in the deli overnite or making them "dance" for the snake by holding it with a pair of tongs and wriggling it. Also make sure the pinkies are really good and warm and totally thawed. Your snakes may need to sense that heat to get the urge to strike. With some of my neonates i've had to resort to live just-born, still-bloody pinkies. You can try braining the pinky first by crushing its head or if it comes down to it, hold the snake and wriggle the nose of the pinky into its mouth. They will usually take it from there. The last resorts are force feeding or pinky pumping. or sometimes i just mess with the snake till its mad enough to strike and then stick the pinky in its face so it bites it instead. this can take a long time but it usually works. good luck. sera
Link

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3.6 ball pythons
1.2 king snakes (1 chocolate, 2 albino)
1.0 columbian red tail boa
1.1 pueblan milksnakes
2.2 african house snakes
2.2 striped albino applegate gophers
1.0 watersnake
1.2 burmese pythons (1 albino, 2 hets)
2.1 pygmy rattlesnakes
1.1 dumeril's boas
3.3 corns (miami, okatee, snow, caramel, 2 creamsicle)
1.1 jungle corns

For the "what it's worth" category I had two clutches this year. One ate voraciously while the other clutch was stubborn. No clue as to why especially since this was my females third year having babies and both prior years they were voracious eaters too. Go figure?

Anyway, the other poster had some good suggestions, I also heard dipping in either chicken broth or egg yolks would also entice a stubborn corn to feed. Never actually tried those methods yet.

In the past the methods that worked for me are braining, forcing tails and sometimes just waiting until they're good and hungry.

Personally, I usually don't try forcing until it's a last ditch effort but right around 2 months I start thinking about forcing tails so you still have some time.
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Ken Roshak
BlackSwampSerpents@toast.net