Most snakes eat rodents, and most of us try to get them to take frozen/thawed rodents, but sometimes it’s a real struggle.
What’s your best-result method that has worked for you? Have you ever had a snake who just won’t eat? Or a snake who was eating and went on strike… instead of striking? (I crack myself up, yes) Did you ever have a snake with a WEIRD special preference, like only black gerbils, or the right kind of wiggle with the tongs?
Feeding tricks will vary somewhat based on what species you’re working with, but last year, I picked 7 non-feeder baby corns because I have some experience with picky babies and I love a challenge. All 7 ate lizard scented for me right off the bat. A few of them ended up being very difficult to get eating regularly, but most of them did great after weaning them off of lizard scented pinkies and onto unscented pinkies. I still have one who randomly decides she will only accept lizard scented (she’ll be doing great for like a month at a time and then start refusing again unless I scent it). Some of the other things I’ve had success with are braining, boiling, and feeding in the evening in a small container in a dark, quiet place. I also tried a bunch of different scents (rat, gecko shed, chicken, tuna, and even bacon) as well as washing the pinkies with dawn dish soap to remove any scents, but none of those worked for this group of babies. Lizard makes a lot of sense for baby corns, since that is one of their primary prey types in the wild. I’ll always make sure to have a lizard in the freezer around hatching season.
And as far as weird feeding preferences, nothing too weird, but I do have one snake who is an extremely polite eater who is offended by the very notion of tong feeding, so he likes to take his time and thoroughly examine the mouse before eating it.
I’ve had a lot of success with picky/non-feeding baby corns. I’m like Olivia (@solarserpents), I enjoy a challenge. I’ve taken on a number of nonfeeders from other breeders, as well as having hatched some of my own who didn’t initially appreciate mouse on the menu. I think I’ve tried all of the tricks at some point, and most of them worked at some point. In my experience, lizard scenting is the most successful.
There are abundant, invasive geckos where I live. When working with picky babies, I generally go out at night with a flashlight and “harvest” a few gecko tails for scenting. I keep those in the freezer to have when needed. And since you asked for stories, @athleticshoelace …
Back in 2010, before I discovered our nocturnal gecko population, I thought my very first, long awaited, precious and beloved “only child” hatchling was going to starve herself to death. I tried reheating, washing, braining, boiling, hot dogs, chicken, tuna, catfish, dirty mouse/gerbil/hamster bedding. Tried offering meals at sunset, at dawn, at midnight. Tried tongs, tease feeding, and leaving her alone with food. She just wasn’t interested. I was ready to try almost anything.
Then I came home in the dark one night and saw a gecko high on the carport wall. I made a lucky grab and caught its tail. (I was surprised at how hard the tail tried to escape, lol.) Froze it for 24h in case of blood-borne pathogens. The next evening, I thawed the tail, said another prayer and put it in a deli cup for Dazzler. I got her from her viv, and as soon as she noticed that tail she fixed it with the focused look they get for prey, opened her mouth and started to eat. She wasn’t even out of my hand yet. It was as if she was saying, “Finally, some actual food!”
That nearly echos my first non-feeder experience. I hatched out this tiny 4 gram fire tessera (of course, the prettiest and most high value baby in the clutch!). He was just not interested in eating. I tried every trick. Then one day, a tiny baby fence lizard was trapped between the screen and glass of my patio door. I caught him, and although I would never recommend casually feeding wild caught prey to your snake, at this point it was do or die. I put it in with him and he put on a great display of striking and coiling. I was able to catch one more a few days later that was appropriately sized. But once I knew his trigger, it was not too difficult to switch to scenting. He ended up doing wonderfully after that.
My sand boa, Phoebe, came to me as a 9-year-old adult who had only ever been fed live. I greatly dislike feeding live (I’ll do it if it’s absolutely necessary, but it’s definitely a last resort for me), so I was determined to get her on f/t. I always made sure they were nice and warm, tried my best zombie mouse dance, tried leaving it in her tank overnight, tried feeding in a small container…no joy. Finally I decided I’d try braining the mouse, and if that didn’t work, I was ready to break down and give her a live mouse. After warming up her mouse, I used a sewing pin to poke a few holes in the skull and squeezed out some of that delicious brain juice. She still wouldn’t strike it on the tongs, so I left it on a paper towel in her enclosure …and as soon as I closed the enclosure, she immediately grabbed it and started swallowing it.
She’s mostly been a great eater for me since then, although occasionally she’ll refuse, and I’ll have to either poke holes in the mouse’s skull or split it open with a scalpel to get her feeding again.
I have one I still haven’t fixed he strikes bites and then if then he lets go when the rat try’s to move he’s not at all interested in frozen and isn’t defensive
Maybe you could try some of the techniques mentioned in this thread! What kind of snake is it?
I did hope getting these tips together in one spot would be helpful as a resource, as well as just being a fun collection of stories about our weirdo noodles. My own is currently on strike and we’re working down a list of things to try.
It’s a ball python
I currently have a pretty picky ball python. I bought him and didn’t realize he was a mouser until afterwards when I rechecked his ad after he refused to eat rats (I did look at it when I bought him, but I thought that it just wasn’t updated since his ad had been up for a while), but even when I try to give him mice he will still refuse to eat half the time. He will eat when he wants to thankfully but it’s quite frustrating, especially since I have a specific pairing in mind for him and he’s close to being a good breeding size, but he needs to get a touch more weight on him first.
@lokibp have you tried using a smaller prey item, like either a smaller sized rat or a mouse? I’ve had a few nervous ball pythons that didn’t like to eat larger rats even if they are appropriately sized, but giving them a smaller one usually gets them eating for me.
How long have you had this snake, @lokibp? How old is it? I’m not a ball python keeper but I know that healthy adult BPs can go on feeding strike for months without ill effect. Adult males of many species do this in the spring and early summer. I’ve got a male corn snake who’s still looking for love rather than supper, lol.
The wisdom is that if it ate before, it’ll eat again. There is a big difference between a baby who has never eaten or isn’t eating, There are lots of BP-specific things to do. (Dark, small viv, lots of ground clutter, much more.) There are a number of threads about it on MM. I know that there are also lots of BP people willing to help. They’ll ask more specific questions about your setup and what has been tried.
Haha, both my snakes are like that. My sand boa usually won’t even flick her tongue until I set down the mouse and close her enclosure. As soon as I get the enclosure closed, she’ll start flicking her tongue like mad and then will pick up her mouse very gently and gingerly while she gets it positioned for swallowing. I’ve never seen her strike or constrict. She knows full well it’s already dead, and completely ignores me when I try to wiggle a mouse with the tongs. She is decidedly unimpressed by the zombie mouse dance. 
My blood python will lift her head and flick her tongue when I wiggle her prey, but she won’t actually move towards it until I leave it on a paper towel and close up her tub.
I’m honestly a little disappointed that I haven’t been able to get either of my girls to strike feed for me, because both species have pretty cool striking behaviour. Sand boas because they strike sideways, and blood pythons because they just have lightening-fast strikes (some say the fastest strike of any non-venomous snake). It’d be cool to see that behaviour in action when it’s not being aimed at one of my own body parts, haha. I mean, ultimately I’m just happy that they’re eating at all, but one of these days I’d like to have at least one snake that will strike feed off the tongs.
Sorry to hear your little noodle is on hunger strike, I know that’s always stressful. Has he eaten for you at all since you got him?
Not yet but we’re close, I feel. He’s got a warmer hotspot, more hides- which he loves, a lot more cover and clutter in his bin, and I got him very interested in the last pinkie by slicing it a little to make it very smelly.
If you haven’t already, you might try putting him in a small empty container with the pinkie. For a snake as tiny as yours, “small container” would probably be something like a deli cup. The idea is to make it so it’s basically impossible for them to ignore the feeder, because the container is so small that they’ll be constantly bumping into it.
That technique didn’t work with my sand boa, but I know a lot of people have had success using it to get stubborn snakes feeding, especially with small/young snakes. House snakes are nocturnal, if I’m remembering correctly, so I’d recommend doing it at night and then turning out the lights and leaving him in the dark in the container with the pinkie for a while.
Trying to ‘break’ a hunger strike in a ball python is basically ignoring the will/desire of the animal. Why do ball pythons have to eat on a human derived schedule? What do you know about their current condition that they don’t?
Most colubrids aren’t picky about food, they just don’t naturally start on rodents. Again, it’s a factor or human convenience or desire. Alterna are known as being incredibly difficult to start, except when you feed them lizards. So is it a problem with the animal in that case or is it the method?
Thanks, I am thinking to try that with a brained pinkie next. I’ve got a Noodles & Co. deli container that’s black and the right size, so that’s gonna get lid holes today and on Friday we’ll try feeding again.
This little guy (House Snake) is from a species that is an opportunist feeder of anything small and wriggly in the undergrowth, so I have offered him snail, earthworm, silkworm pupae, frog scented pinkie, and frog sausage links, in case he’d prefer something other than rodent. But the seller had him onto F/T pinkies, so I figure he’s had them before, and once he’s hungry enough, he’ll take them again.
It’s a balance between him not being ready to eat, in which case I’ll let him wait, and him needing to eat soon or his body condition will being to take loss.
Ball pythons, it seems are notorious for just doing months and months without food just fine, so while that feels worrying it appears to be typical behavior and so long as it isn’t harming their health, I’d say they’re probably fine doing it. If your non-feeding snake is a BP, you probably have nothing to worry about so long as it is otherwise healthy and you’ve checked and tested husbandry parameters.
He’s a year old I’ve had him for about 2months so this could have somthing to do with looking for love but he just seems intimidated by the mouse I’ve been attempting a hoper to super small adult rat every 2 weeks but not change
This is exactly why I have never considered a baby corn who doesn’t immediately accept an unscented f/t pinky mouse to be a “problem feeder.” Don’t get me wrong, that’s what I try first. Most of them do actually accept it. And it’s what they need to be eating consistently before they go to another home. Just as I expect a dog, cat, rabbit or horse to display some behavior modification in return for free food, lodging and care, I expect my snakes to eat what’s on offer from humans. Human convenience/desire does matter, and that’s fine.
My oldest female Ball Python will eat maybe once a month and only certain color rats. Another one just came off a 6 month hunger strike and has eaten everything offered for the past couple months. I have a Boa Constrictor that would not eat for a few months then I tried killing the rat so I could leave it longer. He ended up eating it shortly after. Now he will eat every time but only is I kill it first.