Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I recently bought a corn snake baby from the local petstore, and he wont eat I have had him for 2 weeks now, I left him for a week, and then I have tried twice to no avail. to get him to eat, I tried the deli cup, and the paper bag, neither worked. I have heard that you need to kill the pinkie and smear he blood on the mouses nose, does this usually work. Is there anything that I can due if this doesnt work? Getting a little desparate, he is very small, probably wont last much longer.

What works better in everyones opinion anoles blood or brained pinkies?

that would be the next step, in my opinion.

BUT, you need to make sure that all your husbandry is absolutely correct, first.

How often are you trying to feed? No more than once every four days would seem to be good. If you try too often, the snake will be stressed out.

Is the snake housed alone? If not, then make it so.

What are your actual floor temps in the cage? Make sure to use a good thermometer (not one of those fish tank strips or one of the round clock looking ones). Get a digital one from Radio Shack or use a temperature gun.

Do you have the right number of small hides, one on the cool side and one on the warm side? The snake needs to feel secure.

Are you handling the snake at all? If so, STOP! until you get him feeding on a regular schedule.

Hope this helps.
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phflame

Actually I never tried F/T it was easier to go get a live day old pinkie. I let him sit for a week without bothering him he has hides on both sides and pretty close to 2 inches of aspen as a substrate, always seems to work like one big hide. Temps seem fine same setup as rest of my corns and he's alone. One thing that it could be is stress from feeding, like you said. I have tried a deli cup over night, then waited one day tried paper bag thing overnight, waited a day now I wanted to try something else. My little corn is right at six inches, only a few weeks old I am guessing, dont know how long he can go w/o eating. So the longer we go the more frantic I get, probably wrong thing to do though.

the hatchling corn is only 6"? seems very small for a hatchling, aren't they normally over 8" at birth? Had it ever eaten for the breeder? If I recall correctly, newly hatched cornsnakes won't eat till after their first shed.

Other than that possibility, Iwould not try and feed her for another 4 or 5 days, then over a pinky mouse (maybe scented with lizard scent).