Reposting in “Corn snakes” because I posted in “All reptiles” because I’m a doofus.
Hello, all. My last topic was here, and now I have a big problem.
My corn snake will not eat. If you read the linked post, you’ll see that she was doing fine, but I was concerned that I might be underfeeding here. I switched from one hopper every seven days to one every five days. After a few at the five day interval, she has not eaten and will not eat. Prior to that, she was a hearty eater and never turned down food.
I got her on August 24. Her eating has gone like this:
8/28 - ate one hopper
9/4 - ate one hopper (7 days)
9/11 - ate one hopper (7 days)
9/18 - ate one hopper (7 days)
9/25 - ate one hopper (7 days)
9/30 - ate one hopper (7 days)
10/5 - ate one hooper (5 days)
10/10 - ate one hopper (5 days)
10/15 - started not eating
Been trying every three or four days since, but she won’t eat. It is now getting close to three weeks off food. Completely disinterested in the mouse. I have tried wiggling and also letting it lay in the cage for awhile. Now I have thrown four of them away.
She is under two years old, so it doesn’t seem to be a “mating” or “egg laying” thing. In fact, over the last month, in parallel with the not eating, she has become much more active and is constantly exploring her cage and always looking for ways out.
I really don’t know what to do. If anyone has had a similar experience and worked through it, please let me know. Thank you.
She looked pretty healthy already in your original post. I think what may be going on is she’s trying to regulate herself and possibly going into shed.
If you upped the feeder size and then lowered the interval some snakes will stop eating so they don’t become overweight. And if she was going into shed now that’s an added reason because many snakes will skip a meal when going blue.
Has the temps in the cage or the area she’s in changed? It’s getting cooler at night where I am in California so I can only imagine some of the wild temp shifts other areas are getting. That can also be a factor with her food. If it’s getting chilly she may be looking to brumate. And eating is something that would want to be avoided.
I’m sure one of the cornsnake breeders will pop in soon with more ideas and info. That’s just a few thoughts I can give off the top of my head.
3 weeks on a snake looking as good as yours should not be too much of an issue though so I wouldn’t panic yet. Any info on possible changes aside from the food schedule can also help
Can you post a picture of her? And can you weigh her on a gram scale? If she shed in September and you’ve upped the food frequency, it’s possible she’s going blue again soon and doesn’t want to eat.
I really wouldn’t be worried yet. I’d stop offering food so often, and just stick with once a week for now. If she’s not in blue, and your temps are good, you can try downsizing the prey and heating it up extra hot to help entice her.
You don’t need to worry really unless she quickly starts dropping a bunch of weight, starts becoming noticeably thin, or her behavior changes. My suggestion is wait at least a week before offering food again. Every 3-4 days is too often to attempt, you’re likely stressing her out. Also, every five days is too often for hoppers, should be 8-10 at that feeder size. As @solarserpents mentioned, you can also size down at the next feeding attempt and see if she takes it.
I also expect that she’s going into a shed. Given your feeding schedule plus the fact that she shed in September and it’s now the end of October, that’s to be expected.
When they refuse a meal, unless you know for certain they did this because they were disturbed or something specific put them off feeding, it’s usually best to just wait until their next regularly scheduled meal. Offering too frequently can actually cause them to refuse. It stresses some much more than you’d think.
Absent a change in her enclosure, temps, etc., her increased activity may be caused by her getting agitated about all the unusually frequent feeding efforts. A healthy subadult can go for a couple months without meals and not lose condition. Try and relax. Everybody will benefit.
Is she kept in a room without supplemental light? If so, despite temperatures being consistant, she may be instictively readying for winter.
I have a couple N.A. snakes and they started refusing food at the beginning of Oct. So, into the veggie crisper they went. 10°c. I usually leave them there until after the winter solstice at least (Christmas).
However, they are not corns whose family has been in captivity for many generations but F1 from wc parents.And, their natural range is very much further north than where corns are native.
Just a thought.
For some odd reason I have never kept corns so I may be off base.
I have a UVB and a heat light, both on timers to simulate day and night.
It has now been 23 days since she ate. I tried again Saturday night. She smelled the food, looked at it, got into a potential strike pose, then just lost interest. I left the mouse in the cage overnight, and removed it in the morning.
No sign of going into a shed: not pale, no eye covering. And last time she shed, she kept eating. This is a snake that ate regularly until I changed up the frequency, and now won’t eat at all.
As long as she’s maintaining condition, all is well with her body even though she’s causing you a lot of stress. They can go a really long while without eating and stay healthy. For her next offering, I would try putting her in a container with her intended meal, put the container back on the cool side of her enclosure, and leave the room completely for 2 hours. If she didn’t eat after you return, I’d leave her in the container, reheat the meal, the give it back. Cover it with a towel or put it in a brown paper bag, put her backin the enclosure and leave her alone overnight.
It seems unlikely to me. I’ve never had one stop eating because of the changing light signals without also cutting the temps down. I think she got stressed out by the frequency of feeding attempts and/or something in the environment and she’s in need of time to recalibrate and feel safe again.
I discovered that the under-the-enclosure stick-on heating pad is not working. I had it on a thermostat, and it was room temperature. So I pulled it out of the thermostat and plugged it directly into the wall. It never got hot.
I ordered an Ultratherm and it is due to arrive tomorrow. I didn’t notice the heating pad being off because the air temperature is staying the same. But the substrate temperature must be a good bit cooler.
On Saturday, I am going to do a full cage cleaning and install the new one, make sure it’s working. I am also going to only put a thin layer of substrate. I currently have it about 3" thick because she used to like to bury herself in it. But she doesn’t do that any more. And Ultratherm’s FAQ said that thick layers of substrate can cause heaters to burn out.
