Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I had a cluch hatch in mid july.
One of the babies ate on his own 2 times, and then stopped eating totally.

I have managed to force a few mouse tails and a pinkie in him over the past weeks since he stopped eating, and have tried many ways of feeding (braining, live, alone in a paper bag, day, night)

His temps are fine (83-85 hot spot, 74-77 cool spot hides on both sides) Is there anything else I can do to try to get this guy to eat on his own. He is not getting skinny and is very active still, but im worried about nutrition with only mousetails being his staple diet right now.

I have heard of some venomous keepers using baby food and a feeding tube to give the propper nutrition.

I have used a feeding tube before (used to volunteer at a animal shelter)

What else can I try, I dont want this guy to die nor do I want to have to Euthinize him.

well have you tried anything besides mice. some corns love lizards...and I had a non eating texas bairdi and I scented his live pinky to a gecko, and he gobbled it right up! You may want to try crickets, meal worms, or maybe even a small lizard (even though that would be expensive). I force fed him a tail once, but it didnt do any good...that doesnt seem to help at all. Just stresed him out more.

What environment are you keeping him in? You need to make sure he's by himself, and away from a lot of vibrations and such (mine are on top of my computer hutch, but i put a piece of 3 inch foam under the tank to help with vibrations.

You also want to make sure he feels secure. 2 hides, short enough that it will touch his back. aspen substrate is great also, because he can hide in it easily, if your hides are not to his liking. If you look at the pic below, the tank on the left is the one with the one thats getting hard to feed.

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The reason mainstream thought is thought of as a stream is because it's so shallow. -George Carlin

A fool doesn't learn. A smart man learns from his mistakes. A wise man learns from the mistakes of others. Which one are you?

My Website
Rat/Corn snake care sheet I wrote

Current snakes:
0.1 Licorice Stick Black Rat (Lola)
1.0 Neonate Black Rat (het for Lic Stk's) (Frankie)
1.1 Texas Bairds (Jose and Rosa)
0.1 Blue Beauty (Brunhilde)

i had a troubled feeder snow once. what i did was bought an anole. i froze the anole.
first, i feed the tail of the anole to the snake. she ate that real fast.
then, after a few days of letting her digest, i cut a foot off the anole and stuffed it in a frozen/thawed pinks mouth. she ate that mouse fast.

she seemed to want lizards.

she ended up not making it...but i think it was due to other things. she was a "aww..i feel bad that she is the last one left at petco" buy...and it was a poor decision.

try lizards before you give up.
parts of lizards, then scenting, then see if she'll take unscented pinks. that USUALLY works.

what IS an anole?
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The reason mainstream thought is thought of as a stream is because it's so shallow. -George Carlin

A fool doesn't learn. A smart man learns from his mistakes. A wise man learns from the mistakes of others. Which one are you?

My Website
Rat/Corn snake care sheet I wrote

Current snakes:
0.1 Licorice Stick Black Rat (Lola)
1.0 Neonate Black Rat (het for Lic Stk's) (Frankie)
1.1 Texas Bairds (Jose and Rosa)
0.1 Blue Beauty (Brunhilde)

anoles are little green/brown lizards. you can buy them at most pet stores for like, $5.99.
to some they are great lizards. to me, they are not all that special...
different opinions for different people. i am a snake man mostly.

freezing them makes sure they don't have parasites, and makes cutting off the body parts alot more humane and much less messy.
(no, i have never cut the tail off of anything alive)