Hi,

I'm writing on behalf of my friend's 10 yr old daughter who has a one month old corn snake. Prior to this week, he (they think it's a male) had been eating one pinkie every 2nd or 3rd day. Now, it's been 6 days since he last ate. She said he just finished and I notice very faint remnants of the shed on him still. He seems to have a normal amount of energy when I hold him, but he spends all his enclosure time in his little box. She said he used to be out and about around the cage a little more. He's in a 20 gallon tall with a little wooden box in the middle to hide in, and a couple long branches, with something like hay as a substrate. There is also a decent sized water dish, and some sort of clear, flat rock to scratch up against. Finally, there's a heating pad underneath, and a long 20W AquaGlo bulb in the hood.

So, what's your take on it?

Jennifer

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When people have called me asking why their baby corns dont eat, Its usually a heat issue. Maybe talk to her a little more and see what her hot and cool temps are. Or it just may be that he isnt hungry. Id give it a week or so, and if he doesnt eat have them take it to the vet. Sorry I cant give ya any better advice!

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"We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." ~ Immanual Kant

"Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened." ~ Anatole France

We need to know a bit more. Specificlly the temperature in the cage.
Feeding every 2-3 days is excessive.
It could be that the snake just isn't hungry.

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

i would probably feed a pinky every week instead of 2 or 3 days or you could have bigger problems.

Another thing that could be a possibility is the weather. This week in a 6 hour period we dropped from 57 almost 60 degress to 12. That will also play in too. Animals can sense the pressure change and such.

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Knowing the temps would help a lot, as Merlin says, and feeding every 2nd or 3rd day is far too frequent. Once a week is all they need. So part of the snake's refusal to eat may just be that he's not hungry. He may stay holed up more just because he's constantly trying to digest all that food.

Also, since you shouldn't handle corns for a couple of days after they've eaten, feeding every 3 or 3 days wouldn't allow any handling time at all. Feeding once a week, you can let them sit and digest for a couple of days, and then you have the rest of the week to hold and enjoy them.

In addition, sometimes a snake will just refuse to eat for a while for a number of reasons (some known only to the snake). My daughter's corn once went for a month without eating, and we just couldn't figure out why. My other corns never did that, but her corn was likely to skip a week or two (or four) once in a while.

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~Juliane~