young corn doesn't want to eat!

[snakelove]

I just got 2 of my corns on Wednesday. My female ghost and my male snow.
They were fed on the saturday before they were shipped, and the ghost ate friday. the snow still hasn't eaten and this will be the 8th day he has not eaten. should I be concerned?

[wiseman001]

NO... if u just got them... leave them alone for 2 weeks of so.. not goin to kill them .. are they goin into shed? whats the temp in the tank? Larger corns are good when it comes to being hungry.. and Not as active when shed time comes corns are good for 10 day intervals..I had a 4 foot corn he was a pig at times.. and times he didn't eat for 3-4 weeks at a time.. sometimes went a month...he was fussy sometimes i think he was hittin matureity and wanted a mate...

my suggestion.. give it a lil longer feeding periods.. 10 days or so.. see if that helps

[Tim_Cranwill]

Nope. That's nothing to worry about. Just keep trying.

You might want to contact the supplier to see what methods they were using to feed and what type of feeder, i.e. live, f/k or f/t.

I wouldn't worry until a month or so or until the snake starts to look in poor health. :)

Good luck!

[snakelove]

The breeder said she was using small f/t pinkies. they are really small yet. The ghost is about 5 months old and is around 12 inches long. the snow is about 8 months old and is somewhere around 14 inches long. the snow acted like he was going to eat but then didn't.
Is there a limit to how many times you can thaw and refreeze a pinkie?

[snakelove]

I don't think they are going to shed. they don't look like it at least. but, I didn't know my albino motley, Damien, was going to shed either, until I found the skin in the tank.

[Tim_Cranwill]

For the cost of pinkies, I wouldn't bother refreezing them. Just thaw one and offer it to the problem feeder. If it eats the pinkie, thaw another. If it doesn't, feed it to the better feeder. Easy. :)

[snakelove]

here the pinkies cost just about what an adult mouse would. i have to pay a little over a dollar for each pinkie-at our local petstore. I really don't want to have mice shipped in though.

[Auskan]

How are you heating? What are you temps? How are you regulating the temps? You didn't mention any of these factors in your original post. First make sure conditions are optimum before you worry too much about feeding.

Don't attempt to feed again for a week or so (and don't ever attempt it every day, or you'll stress the snake out). What worked for me with my baby corns that were problem feeders, was to put them in a small deli dish (punch a few small air holes in it) with the pinkie and leave them for about an hour without checking on them at all. Usually by the time I checked, the pinkie was gone. If not, I put the snake back in the enclosure, disposed of the pinkie and tried again a week later. Just make sure he has access to fresh drinking water all the time, and has a hide on the warm end of the enclosure and another on the cool end.

[snakelove]

each snake has a heating pad under one side of the tank. each is in a 10 gallon. their breeder told me to just put a reptile heating pad under one side of the tank, set on low so that is what I did. I am not sure what the temps are, there is no thermometer in the tanks. they seem to be comfortable though, and they are fairly active and interested in their surroundings. they are definitely not cold, or too hot.......
the breeder fed them by putting them in those deli cups, and that is the same thing she shipped them in-that was what we tried when we were feeding them, and he must not have been hungry.
He was the only one who didn't seem hungry enough at the time, so I will just try later.

[Auskan]

It would be a good idea to invest in a way of measuring the temps. They may seem "comfortable enough" but what if they're not? Its not like they can get out and go and make themselves comfortable. Do they also have a hide on each end of the tank?

[snakelove]

yes each one has a small half log, and a rock cave to hide in. our local pet store has reptile thermometers, so I will pick up a few next time we go. I had been considering getting a heat rock for each one, but I didn't know if they were dangerous for snakes like they are for other reptiles.

[Ducksarefun]

Don't get a heat rock. They are not safe because they can get too hot and burn your snakes. If you spend enough time researching on the web, you'll realize that noone condones using one. Also, a digital thermometer is better than those dial ones at the pet store. And, since you need to know the temperature at both ends, I'd recommend going to Walmart or Canadian Tire or RadioShack and buying an indoor/outdoor digital thermometer. They aren't expensive. Then you put the thermometer at one end of the tank, and the probe for the "outside" temperature at the other end.

[snakelove]

ok. I don't think our pet store carries the dial thermometers-at least all I have ever seen were the digital ones........
Our petstore is in the same town that our Walmart is, so I will go to both places.