what to do if your baby corn snake wont eat
If you go on snakes for long enough, you'll undoubtedly notice that some individuals occasionally reject to eat.
Thankfully, most healthy individuals can skip the occasional meal without suffering any serious problems – but if they continue to reject food over time, fifty-fifty the healthiest snake in the globe will somewhen lose weight and become malnourished. Eventually, they may even starve.
This phenomenon is obviously difficult for the snakes, but it is likewise difficult for keepers to endure. Information technology tin make you feel guilty for your pet'southward suffering and doubt your skills equally a keeper.
Don't worry – there are a variety of things you tin can do to tempt reluctant feeders and convince them to brainstorm feeding usually once more.
We'll share some of the most helpful tips for doing so below, but outset, nosotros demand to explore some of the primary reasons that snakes may pass up food.
Figuring out Why You Ophidian Wont Eat
There are a number of common reasons that snakes refuse to eat, but we'll try to explain some of the nearly common examples below.
But note that in many cases, snakes will experience more one of these problems at a time, meaning that you'll have to correct several problems before your pet regains his appetite.
Stress
Stress is likely the well-nigh mutual reason that captive snakes reject food.
This stress often precipitates from things like the trauma involved with the capture and importation process, too as poor care at a retailer's facilities.
Fortunately, with fourth dimension and proper care, many snakes will eventually recover from these problems and resume feeding.
Merely while some sources of stress may have been present before you fifty-fifty purchased your pet, others may be the consequence of your husbandry practices.
Improper habitat design, for example, tin cause a snake to experience stress, every bit can things like being housed with other snakes, handled too ofttimes, or denied access to a secure hiding space.
Affliction or Injury
A variety of illnesses can crusade a snake to refuse food.
Respiratory infections are incredibly mutual illnesses among snakes and, given that humans rarely enjoy eating while battling respiratory infections, information technology isn't surprising that snakes often lose their appetites when contesting respiratory infections too.
Additionally, things like tumors may also crusade snakes to lose their appetites.
Injuries can also crusade a ophidian to refuse food. This non only includes internal injuries, such every bit abdominal perforations or cleaved teeth, but cuts and other external injuries likewise.
Parasites
Most wild fauna harbor some parasites, and snakes are no exception. However, in their natural habitats, parasites rarely reach problematic levels.
The parasites and snake live together in a roughly harmonious fashion.
However, one time captured, many of these snakes begin experiencing profound levels of stress.
This suppresses their immune system's response to the parasites, allowing these parasite populations to explode. This can make snakes feel pretty rotten and all but eliminate their appetite.
Information technology's likewise of import to note that many snakes are kept in communal enclosures at wholesaler and retailer facilities.
Often, these enclosures are filthy and cleaned quite infrequently (if always).
This exposes each individual animal to the parasites his cagemates are harboring, which exacerbates the trouble even further.
Improper Husbandry
Your snake depends on you to provide him with the blazon of habitat and climate he needs to thrive.
If you fail to do so, he'll undoubtedly go stressed and/or sick, and it may crusade him to start refusing food.
Nevertheless, species vary in their power to tolerate less-than-ideal enclosure design and husbandry procedures.
For instance, corn snakes are pretty hardy animals, who can oftentimes adapt to and overcome their keeper'due south missteps.
They probably won't continue to feed if provided with wildly improper temperatures, but they will probably proceed to eat if their keeper provides hide boxes that are too big, for case.
On the other manus, many other species have very specific habitat requirements, and they're unlikely to tolerate pregnant deviations from "perfect" habitat design and husbandry protocols.
Take dark-green tree pythons, for example. If kept at inadequate temperatures or not provided with suitably boiling air, they may not only fail to eat consistently, they may even succumb to stress or illness.
Seasonal Fasts or Reproductive Complications
I of the most common reasons some snakes refuse nutrient is completely normal and no cause for business.
This happens when snakes pass up nutrient considering their minds are focused on reproduction, rather than chow fourth dimension.
These periods in which snakes may decline nutrient are typically referred to as seasonal fasts.
Seasonal fasts are most mutual among males, but they can also occur among females. Fortunately, these periods in which a snake'southward appetite seems to disappear unremarkably stop on their own, and almost healthy snakes will endure them without trouble.
Notation that female person snakes volition often end feeding during different portions of the gestation procedure, every bit the developing ova or young take up infinite in the snake's trunk cavity.
In fact, many experienced breeders deliberately withhold food during these time periods, even if the ophidian displays a willingness to eat.
Improper Prey
It seems a chip obvious, simply if you desire your snake to eat, y'all accept to offer him prey that he recognizes and wants. In the case of opportunistic species, who are willing to swallow a wide multifariousness of prey items, this isn't difficult.
But some species take pretty specific dietary desires. This isn't ever a problem either – snakes who typically consume small-scale rodents in the wild volition often accept domestic mice or rats in captivity.
The problem occurs when a snake is either extraordinarily picky or wants a difficult-to-obtain casualty species.
For example, many popular snake species feed on lizards or frogs in the wild. And while y'all tin can occasionally observe feeder lizards or frogs, they often nowadays other problems.
Well-nigh frogs and lizards that are priced affordably plenty to serve as feeders are wild-caught animals, who are probable parasitized.
This means your snake may become infested with the aforementioned parasites if you feed one of these lizards or frogs to your pet.
Other snakes prefer dissimilar prey species, ranging from birds to bugs to other snakes. Some even prefer eating snails or slugs.
These species are ofttimes even more than challenging to source, and they present a variety of wellness risks to your ophidian as well.
There are ways of side-stepping these challenges, which nosotros'll discuss in a moment.
Improper Presentation
You non but need to select a prey species your snake will take, merely you as well demand to present it to him in the proper style.
This isn't always difficult for keepers who feed their pet live casualty items.
Feeding live prey certainly isn't advisable in most cases (it places your pet at risk and is incredibly traumatic for the prey animal), but the mouse, frog or cadger you offer will generally move effectually in a way your serpent finds tempting.
On the other manus, if y'all feed pre-killed or frozen-thawed prey, you'll oft need to "animate" the prey particular by wiggling information technology with tongs or tweezers.
This isn't always necessary, equally some snakes will find and consume dead prey items left on the enclosure floor.
But generally, you'll need to make the nutrient item appear alive to get your serpent to strike information technology.
Doing so in a convincing mode requires a bit of trial, mistake and practice.
Experienced keepers will often learn to do so over time, just it can be challenging for beginners to do and then. Ultimately, this tin can pb to refused food items and frustration.
Species-Specific Problems
In addition to the general causes of inappetence and food refusal discussed above, some species exhibit unique feeding challenges.
For case, wild-caught ball pythons often "banner" on the rodents they consume in the wild.
Once in captivity, they don't recognize domestic rodents as food or find them objectionable in some other style that we don't fully sympathize.
Similarly, some egg-eating species do non show involvement in clean eggs.
Instead, they adopt "dirty" eggs, which seem to be more reminiscent of the eggs they'd swallow in the wild.
Tips and Tricks: Getting Your Snake to Swallow Again
Now that you take a better understanding of some of the reasons snakes commonly decline to consume, nosotros tin can brainstorm discussing some of the all-time solutions to these problems.
Any of the tips or tricks discussed below may aid, just information technology is wise to try them in the order they're listed.
Reduce Your Snake's Stress Level
The nigh common cause of food refusal amongst pet snakes is likely stress.
When a snake is worried nearly its well-existence, prophylactic or survival, it usually results in a reduced ambition. Then, be sure to eliminate whatsoever and all sources of stress possible when dealing with a serpent that will not consume.
Amongst other things, this means refraining from excessive treatment and ensuring that your snake has at least ane (and preferably several) secure hiding spots.
Yous'll too want to be certain that he's not watching rowdy children walk by his habitat all 24-hour interval, nor is he being "stalked" past cats, dogs or other pets in your abode.
Visit Your Vet
The biggest mistake many new keepers make when trying to entice their pet to feed is neglecting to work with their veterinarian.
As discussed above, a variety of health problems can cause a serpent to lose interest in food.
Often, after simply rectifying these bug, you'll find that your snake volition begin demonstrating a ravenous appetite.
So, while you needn't visit the vet because your ophidian refused a meal or two, you should always make an date if your ophidian refuses several meals, and you can't figure out an obvious cause for the problem.
Review Your Ophidian's Habitat
Your serpent'south enclosure is his world, so it is vital that you ensure information technology is fix to provide him with a suitable home.
This means reviewing everything from the enclosure size to your selection of substrates.
Double-check the enclosure temperatures and humidity level and be sure that you're providing the types of hiding spaces, visual barriers and climbing branches your ophidian needs to feel comfy.
You'll frequently detect that by tweaking your ophidian'south enclosure slightly, he'll begin exhibiting less stress, he'll start to feel more comfy and confident, and oftentimes, he'll resume feeding ordinarily again.
Consider Your Husbandry Protocols
In addition to your snake's home, it is also vital that you lot assess the steps you lot take to maintain it.
This includes things like the frequency with which you clean the habitat, refill his water dish and supplant substrates, as well as the products yous use to clean the enclosure.
The details surrounding these procedures may seem insignificant, but they're ofttimes quite important to your snake'southward wellness, stress level and, ultimately, his ambition and willingness to eat.
Experiment with Different Casualty Species
In some cases, information technology won't make much sense to try alternative casualty species.
Many common king snakes, for instance, may prefer lizards or snakes as casualty, but they'll gladly consume rodents or birds when the opportunity arises. Then, changing food sources is not terribly likely to yield successful results.
On the other hand, some snakes oft respond remarkably well to changes in the casualty species you offer.
For example, wild-caught light-green tree pythons may turn down rodents (despite readily feeding on them in the wild). Just, if offered a bird or cadger, formerly finicky individuals may brainstorm feeding readily.
Use Scent-Transfer Techniques
If you are having trouble coaxing your serpent into eating a readily available nutrient source, such as mice, information technology may be helpful to try to change the odor of the mouse.
Specifically, y'all may want to make the mouse odor like a fish, frog, bird or another snake.
This is a common strategy amidst experienced keepers, and – considering snakes primarily rely on their sense of smell to detect food – it is often quite successful.
Scent-transfer techniques are frequently easiest to attain (and often virtually effective) with young rodents, who don't have very much torso hair.
Get-go by rinsing off a pre-killed or frozen-thawed rodent in warm water. Some keepers use lather during the process; merely make sure you rinse the brute off completely if you lot choose to do so.
And so, with squeaky clean rodent in paw, gently rub it on the animal you want it to smell like.
In some cases, you lot'll find that cage litter, shed skin or feathers will achieve the aforementioned effect. In other words, if you lot are trying to brand a rodent smell like a ophidian, just stick a slice of shed skin on a freshly washed pinky mouse.
Conversely, if you are trying to make a pinky mouse smell like a hamster, launder it off and and then roll it effectually in some used hamster bedding (try to keep it free of feces in the procedure).
Alter the Fourth dimension of Day You Offering Food
As elementary as information technology sounds, changing the time of day in which you feed your pet can oft alter the response yous get from him.
Ball pythons, for example, are often much more probable to eat at night than they are during the day.
The same holds true of many other nocturnal species, including green tree pythons, gray-banded kingsnakes, and blood pythons.
Conversely, some snakes become largely inactive at night. This would include about fast-moving, lizard-eating species like black racers and coachwhips.
So, if you lot are faced with a diurnal snake that won't eat when yous get abode after work, consider trying to feed him during the eye of the day (perhaps on a weekend, when you lot're dwelling).
Experiment with Different Presentation Strategies
In some cases, you needn't have any desperate steps to convince your serpent to eat again – you simply need to tweak your presentation strategy to make the casualty item seem more appealing.
For instance, you may need to add more than movement to the rodent you're offering your snake or whip information technology effectually chop-chop in front of the snake's face.
On the other manus, some snakes are easily intimidated by excessive movement. These individuals may be more probable to consume if you merely lay a pre-killed rodent on the enclosure flooring, and let your snake find and consume it at his leisure.
Information technology is also of import to note that some techniques are typically more than successful with some species than with others.
Amazon tree boas, for instance, are often extremely defensive snakes, who'll gladly strike annihilation and everything that gets within a few feet of their bodies. So, it is often easy to "play a joke on" them into eating by presenting a warm, pre-killed rodent to them.
They'll usually strike information technology defensively, only once they feel the prey particular in their mouth, they'll often constrict and consume it.
Other snakes answer well when tapped on the body with the food item. They'll frequently turn and look to see what threat touched them, which will cause them to strike and tuck the offending item.
Conclusion
Food refusal is certainly a frustrating problem to deal with, just most snake keepers volition feel the issue at some point in time.
Just be certain to brainstorm by ensuring your snake is as stress-costless and good for you as possible, and then work through the other tips provided in a higher place.
With perseverance, careful assay of the situation and a bit of luck, you should be able to become your snake to resume feeding normally again.
Source: https://www.reptileadvisor.com/snake-wont-eat/
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