Corn KingSnake - Help.

[saven]

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/in...6195059AAdwWUq


So i've looked into this answers for yahoo Corn Kingsnakes. If anyone is familiar with them or just a snake you've had for almost 4 months now - won't eat. Which should I try out to try to get him to eat cause' i'm worried about him.

A. Cutting apart the head of the mouse and try a smaller size object so he might eat.

B. Letting the pinky (thats what they are) over night and see if he takes it. Bad Idea to leave it there in case it spoils? I dunno.

C. It's sick snake. I got it shipped from NY big apple co. and maybe it was already in bad shape?

D. Your response. Thanks.

[Dagren]

Try live food, worked for me when my ball python didn't want to eat frozen food.

[saven]

I forgot to mention its still a baby. Pinkies are the smallest it needs to feed on for now. Its what it needs to ..or should HAVE ate since I got it.

[mallister]

need more information. are you keeping the snake at adequate temperatures? does he have a hide box? is he drinking water? the live food suggestion is your best bet. baby corns can be finiky sometimes.

[saven]

Temp is around 85 degrees. Tank is 30 gallons. Water is there with special reptile blue juice stuff to get out all the nasty jujus in it. Humidity and fixed by squirting water in around but not on the snake. Also have Moss to keep hum at 40-60% hum. Snake seems to be healthy. No mites or anything. Shedded about a month ago. Then again its still end winter phase so that might be it too.

[Ace-o-fire]

I use to have one (Simon died 4 days ago) mine would go through phases where it wouldn't eat for 2-3 months then eat every other week.

You best bet is leaving your pinky in a dish overnight. I wouldn't go the live food route just because it'll get use to biting at something that moves so it's better to train him not to eat like that so he doesn't bite when you play with him.

[miokomioko]

It's also not entirely uncommon for a young snake to refuse food in captivity and end up starving to death. Primarily from stress.

[FNH]

never feed it live food. I had a pet rat once i got from a clinic that had eaten it's way out of a python. A python that stayed in a wading pool.

[Titanss]

never feed it live food. I had a pet rat once i got from a clinic that had eaten it's way out of a python. A python that stayed in a wading pool.

that's p. cool if true story

[saven]

Come payday i am gonna revamp his cage more. So its okay to leave a thawed out pinky over night for him? Snakes eat dead animals sometimes if they have to, right? I dunno. Thanks for all the responses too.

[Salodin]

My ball python is the same as your corn snake in that it's picky with frozen food. Try as I might, he won't take to f/t. I'll try again in the future, but till then I'm forced to feed it live mice and supervise the process to make sure it isn't injured in the process. It's simple really, just make sure you pay attention to the head to make sure it doesn't try biting the snake. Working well for me right now with old fuzzies/young hoppers. As for the rat eating it's way out of a snake, I question that lol, but if it's true then just make sure the mouse is dead before your snake tries to eat it. If you still want to give frozen food a try before resorting to live food, try asking the pet store for a little of it's mice's bedding. Put the f/t food in a small bag with the bedding, shake it around a bit, and try giving it to your snake; the scent might help entice your snake. Failed for me but I hear it works well for others.

Dispel the illusion that your snake becomes more aggressive to hand movements from live food, that's isn't particularly true. What will do that however is feeding the pet in the same place it lives. Make sure you get yourself a separate enclosure for feeding time, and a separate one for living in. It doesn't have to be anything fancy, I just got a very large under-the-bed box from work for like 15 bucks. No extra bedding, and a towel to hide under for now (it's still a baby and doesn't like being in the open much). After a month I've already noticed it gets more aggressive and active when inside it's feeding box as opposed to when it's in it's cage, which is exactly what you want. Even if you get frozen food to work, I still recommend doing this. What works for me is putting the snake in it's feeding box 30min prior to feeding time, let it get used to it's box again, then put the mouse with head facing the snake. My snake pretty much jumps at it as soon as I move my hand away, and I've learned that putting it's head toward the snake usually results in my snake wrapping around it in a way that let's me get access to the head in case I see a commando mouse take a shot at my pet. Hasn't happened yet, but at least I'm ready for it.

50-60% also seems like a little too high in humidity imo. Ball pythons might be different as far as corn snake habitats go, but I try to keep mine around 30-40%, and won't raise it past that until shedding time. Then again, corn snakes might be different idk. I can't think of anything else other then making the snake feel secure. My python doesn't like hiding houses, but it loves to burrow under it's substrate. I added another inch to the substrate so that it was more successful in this.

edit: oh forgot to add, if you feed it in another container, make sure you leave it in there for 30min-1hr at the very least after the meal to make sure it doesn't reject the food from your handling.

[Kerberoz]

Are you warming the prey up to body temp?

There's also a third option between live and dead prey: recently-live prey. Just smash its skull with a hammer&spike then throw it to the snake while it's still twitching.

[zoobernut]

First off I would like to point out that a corn snake is not a kingsnake. Which one do you have? A corn snake is a type of rat snake. Complete different species with different requirements. Knowing exactly which type of snake you have will really help you find answers easier.

Stress could very well be the cause of this. When an animal is shipped they get stressed, when they get stressed they won't eat. The other thing that might be going on is the temp of the food, if you don't warm up the pinky they won't be interested because snakes eat live food and if it isn't warm and moving then it isn't alive and they won't eat it.

Did you try warming up the pinky with water and then wiggling it around in front of the snake with tongs? This will sometimes work. The other thing is that snakes actually have to be trained to eat already dead mice. There are lots of tricks on the internet on how to get your snake to eat already dead mice.

Also at the pinky stage the mice are not dangerous enough to require pre-kiled prey. You can put a live pinky in there and let it eat that. Just stick around and watch it to make sure that the live pinky doesn't sit around in the cage too long if the snake isn't interested.

How is your tank set up? Do you have a warm side and a cool side? You should have around a 10 degree swing between the hot side (which should be around 85 degrees) and the cool side (which should be around 70-75 degrees). If you do have your tank set up like that does the snake hang out all the time on one side or the other? If the snake is always in the cool side then your tank could be too hot. If the snake always hangs out under the heat lamp on the hot side and never moves your tank could be on the cool side.

Is the snake currently shedding? Snakes stop or slow down on eating when they are shedding. You can tell if they are shedding by if their eyes are cloudy or not.

Kerb is right too another option is to feed it really fresh killed mice, which is a better option when you start feeding it large mice instead of pinky's. This means they will be "alive" temp and possibly twitching which makes them more alluring to the snake.

Also don't press your face up against the tank when you feed the snake, your movement and presence can distract the snake and keep them from feeding. When I fed my snake I would drop the food in and then go sit in a chair a little ways away from the tank so I could watch but the snake couldn't see me.

Hope these suggestions help.


To reiterate, corn snakes DO NOT eat dead animals. You have to trick them into eating pre-killed prey if that is the rout you want to take. Live pinky's are not necessarily dangerous to feed your snake until they open their eyes and grow teeth. You have to train your snake into eating the pre-killed prey with several tricks.



Edit: The milksnake is a common pet snake species sold in pet stores and it is a type of kingsnake, do you have a milksnake?

[Ace-o-fire]

To reiterate, corn snakes DO NOT eat dead animals. You have to trick them into eating pre-killed prey if that is the rout you want to take. Live pinky's are not necessarily dangerous to feed your snake until they open their eyes and grow teeth. You have to train your snake into eating the pre-killed prey with several tricks.

thats so odd cuz i use to have a reverse okeetee corn that only ate the frozen ones.

[zoobernut]

thats so odd cuz i use to have a reverse okeetee corn that only ate the frozen ones.

Well I did specify that you can train them to eat frozen. I was referring to snakes in the wild and untrained pet snakes. It is not typical for a snake to go for any sort of carrion (dead animal) they attack live prey, some snakes though enjoy eating eggs.

[Salodin]

Also, I just remembered some people have luck with gerbils instead of mice for some reason. Maybe you can try those instead.

[FNH]

that's p. cool if true story

It was true, happened when I was in middle school. Mom brought home the Polaroids with the rat, but it's been a long time since I've had either.

[saven]

http://www.bigappleherp.com/Mex-Mex-...category=13671

This is the one I got from them. Its still a baby. About 5-6 inch long by looking at it. So far I have put him in another tank for now with a de-thawed pinky. I also put a blanket over the cage to give him privacy.

[saven]

I think I just might take him in to some professionals I know and see what they can do for me. Maybe they can learn me something or correct something I am doing way wrong.

[mallister]

sounds like you have the basics covered. baby corns are sometimes finicky, it's just something you'll have to deal with till you get them past the early stages. don't worry about feeding live at this stage, try everything. live, fresh killed, frozen then thawed. it's a pinky mouse folks, it's not going to be chewing anything. trying gerbil or hamster pups is a good idea. if you have access to skinks or baby anoles that can work sometimes as well but corns generally go for mammals. seeking help from someone more experienced locally is probably your best bet. good luck!