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Hi all, I'm a new corn snake owner whose snake hasn't fed since I got it 5 weeks ago. This is my first reptile. She is a 3 year old female corn snake. I'm also a bit exhausted from all the conflicting advice I've been given, so I thought what better way to deal with this than post my questions in a different forum to receive yet more advice! I purchased the snake and all the setup from a well respected local reptile store. Here is the care sheet they provided, straight from their website: http://www.reptilesplus.co.uk/docs/snakecs.pdf I initially followed the setup exactly as printed on page 3, except with a smaller water bowl (recommended by the shop), and with the bulb stat probe at the back middle of the viv, resting on the aspen (also recommended by the shop) - as supposed to in the very middle. So, following instructions exactly, I had a 50w green incandescent bulb statted at 82 degrees, with the stat probe in the back centre, and an unstatted heat mat covering the right hand third of the viv. Here is what it looked like after initital setup:  A cheap dial thermometer the pet shop gave me, resting in the middle of the cork bark in the above picture read at 82 degrees, which makes sense as the stat probe for the bulb was just behind it - so feeling secure in the knowledge that'd I'd done exactly what the shop told me to do, in went the snake, where it immediately went and buried itself in the aspen on the left and hid. Not unusual behaviour for a new snake so not too worried - I left it alone, only changing the water - didn't see the snake come out at all during this time - then after 10 days, dropped a large defrosted mouse in the cold side (probably on the snake as I had no idea where it was). I was informed the snake was an established feeder and was drop fed (like all the snakes) at the pet store. The snake didn't come out that night before I went to bed, and the mouse was still there in the morning so as instructed, I removed it. Later that day when I came back from work the snake was out and about (for the first time), climbing around, flicking tongue, very active (looking for the mouse?), very encouraging to see but as we'd been told to wait a week after a refused feed, we left it and eventually she went and hid again. After a week we tried again but still the mouse was still there the morning after. I did some research / got some advice at this point and people seemed surprised I had an unstatted mat (which I now know is not good) AND was using a statted bulb as well - I was told this seemed like overkill (and that I should get a mat stat asap). I was also told I should put down more hides, which is fair enough. I had thought the mat was getting far too hot, by digging a little hole in the aspen and touching my finger to the mat it was uncomfortably hot to the touch! I purchased a digital thermometer with probe and placed it on the aspen just below the bulb / above the mat, it easily reached 140 degrees. This is one thing that I found really confusing, everything I've read says that a spot that hot in the viv is a terrible idea, but with the relatively small distance between the bulb and the floor of the viv, if the bulb has to work hard enough to get the centre of the viv up to 82 degrees, surely it's always going to result in a really hot spot just below? Anyway I was worried about how hot the mat was to the touch, so at this point I purchased a stat for the mat and set it to around 30 degrees, with the mat stat probe touching the surface of the mat, under the aspen itself - I was also told by many people that the bulb wasn't required at all, so I turned it off. So at this point I have no bulb and a mat that feels only warm to the touch rather than almost painfully hot for my fingers - seems like a pretty huge deviation compared to what I was told to do by the pet shop! I even spoke to them about how hot the mat felt and was just told that it was ok because 'they bask on very hot rocks in the wild'. Throughout all this we kept attempting weekly feeds with large mice, I've tried warming / braining / warming & braining / warming & braining & offering with tongs. I've got interest with movement towards the prey item, whether it's sat on the ground / a plate or I'm holding it, but no actual attempt to strike or eat. So since the initial setup the following changes had been made: - bulb switched off - mat statted at 86 - placed more hides - thinned out aspen over the mat Resulting in this:  After making these changes she's been using her hides more rather than burrowing, I spotted her in the hide on the right over the mat once, and quite often in the middle hide. This was the setup the snake was left with over the christmas period while we went away for two weeks. We had people come in to change the water and I set the central heating to come on a few times a day to warm the room. I left the thermometer probe inside the hide on the warm side, resting on the surface of the aspen. When we came back at the start of January we were greeted with what appears to be a complete shed, albeit in 3 parts (tail tip and eye caps on the shed seem present and correct). We were hoping this was the reason she hadn't been eating (it's hard to tell when your snake was about to shed when it's constantly hiding and you've been told to avoid handling it until it's successfully fed a few times), but a mouse offered last Friday was not taken either. I'm concerned I came on a bit strong when offering the food, I lifted up the hide she was under to get her attention (but I wasn't poking her with the mouse or anything!) and after a few seconds she approached the mouse with interest and a flicking tongue but then turned away. I'm also concerned it got a bit cold over the xmas period (I'm in the UK), I recorded a low of 61 degrees in the warm hide. I doubt it was that low for very long as the central heating would have come on after a bit - I think it's because I'd taped the mat stat probe down to the mat (covering the whole probe) which was confusing it into not working hard enough. I got rid of the tape (tape is a bad idea anyway, I now know!) and am just weighing the probe cable down and it seems to maintain mat surface temp better. Since Sunday the temps have been: - Under the hide on the right hand warm side, under the aspen, actually touching the mat surface - Low: 29.6, High: 30.6 - Under the hide on the right hand warm side, on the surface of the aspen (about 1.5cm depth of aspen here) - Low: 25.0, High: 26.7 - Next to the hide on the left hand cold side, on the surface of the aspen - Low: 18.1, High: 19.1 I realise I have a bulb I could use for extra heating, but I don't really understand how I can get any appreciable heat from the bulb that would reach the cold side, without creating a dangerously hot spot right below the bulb. I've tried putting the bulb stat right below the bulb and setting to 86 degrees, but this results in a very dim bulb which I can't imagine throws out a lot of heat to the rest of the viv. I'm a bit concerned she's been in the left hide way on the cold side since the attempted feeding on Friday (worried I freaked her out a bit by lifting the middle hide to feed - I'm hoping the urge to hide isn't overpowering the urge to self regulate). I'm sure I used to see more evidence of overnight activity, whether it be disturbed aspen or her being in a different position in the morning, but she's not moved for a few days as far as I can tell. This is concerning me that she's too cold - of course I can't guarantee she isn't just moving down well established channels in the aspen when I'm not looking, before putting herself right back where she was before, but I still find it a worry. She's never really out and about in the evening as I hear they often can be. Because she's a 'new' snake to me, I don't really know what 'normal' behaviour for her entails. I was going to try a smaller prey item later this week, I have a medium and a small mouse to try (I read somewhere sometimes something smaller gets them feeding again). Besides that, I guess I'm just looking for any advice with regards to getting her eating, or my setup, or anything really. I've been reassured by many that an adult corn can last for months and months without food, but as you can probably tell from my huge email, this is weighing on my mind a bit. I just want to be a good pet owner with a happy snake! As a reward for reading all of this, at least have this picture I took a couple of days ago. I had to very quickly lift the cold hide to take this (sorry snakey): 
Debuffed fucked around with this message at 20:53 on Jan 6, 2015 |
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Jan 6, 2015 16:52
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| # ¿ May 21, 2024 10:52 |
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Silver Nitrate posted:5 weeks isn't too long, especially this time of year. If I was in your position I would offer her a live pinkie and see if that triggers her feeding response. Feeding live has risks and not a lot of people do it, but that is what I would do because I have pinkies to try with. Alternatively, offer an appropriately size F/T rat, sometimes the different smell makes them want to eat more. Thanks - just as I was starting to get worried she came out and about of her own accord this evening and did laps of the vivarium a bit, drank some water, went to the toilet. She spent some time moving in and around the warm hide but didn't really settle in it, before heading back to the cold side, she was probably out and about for over an hour but constantly on the move. does thermo regulation just not take that long? I. E. Just moving over the heat for a while was enough? I thought she'd need a bit longer on the mat.
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Jan 7, 2015 02:46
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