I messed up, now he won't eat.

[Andrew21]

I bought a female charcoal and a male blizzard almost 3 weeks ago. I ordered them from bhb and when i got them home from the fedex location, i set them up in individual 10/5 gallon tanks. The exact same setup in each tank. That night one of my mice gave birth so i went ahead and gave them a live meal. The blizzard ate it right off the bat. The charcoal needed a deli cup but she ate it too.

Now here is where I messed up. I don't remember exact dates but it was probably the very next day i got them out and held them for less than 5 minutes each. Just to look at them. anyway, a few days later I tried to feed them again. The blizzard wouldn't eat. So i put him in a deli cup over night with a f/t pinkie. Still didn't eat. A day later, I found a regurgitated pinky. I actually don't know how long it was there. But that's when I found it. And now he will not eat to save his life.

i haven't been waiting as long as I should between tries, but it hasn't been too bad. I've tried,
Zombie dance
F/t pinkie in deli cup
F/t pinkie in cage
Live in deli cup
Live in cage
Brained pinky
Boiling hot pinky
Pinky dipped in tuna juice
And a pinky head in deli cup
I also blacked out his tank, but he is now in a new one.

My last attempt was 3 days ago. Right now he is in his tank with a live pinky. He has plenty of places to hide, water, heat, and everything the charcoal had, and she is doing great. He hasn't lost weight yet. Still 7 grams. She is 11-12 grams. Also, sometime in that time period I popped him for the first time. I had never popped a snake before but I don't think I hurt him. He's not bruised and nothing looks bad internally(he's pink, so you can see in him kind of)

Any ideas?

[WmHrbst]

I would give them some time and just leave them be. Handling to soon after a meal and constant food offerings can cause stress. I had a king snake years back and had the same thing happen, I waited a good two weeks before offering the next meal and things went fine.

[ChrisS]

Three weeks and you've tried all that? Give him a break, at least a couple weeks let him settle and get his digestive tract back in order.

[Andrew21]

Okay. I guess I'll try that. Maybe just 10 days. Cause that'll be past the 1 month mark. And then I'll really start to worry. Lol

[CCarr33]

I HAVE to wait 48 hours after feeding just to handle my BP or they regurge.

- CCarr33

[Andrew21]

Update-I had a gut feeling that if I moved him into my rack, he'd eat. I moved him into it 2 days ago and today I put a pinky in one of his hides with him. (they are the medium sized hides from rbi, so it wasn't shoved in his face.) 30 minutes later he was out and about so I grabbed the pinky and heated it back up, when I came back he was in the other hide, so I just put the pinky right in front of the hide. 15 minutes later and it's gone! I'm so relieved, it's been over a month and I was getting worried.

The tub was a 41 quart tub. I had a small fake vine in it but he chose the rbi hides instead. I guess I'm just saying that puting hatchlings in a big tub and having hides that are really big may not be that important. It took the exchange from a 5 gallon tank to a 41 quart tub to get my 7 gram hatchling to eat.

[gsarchie]

Just because he ate after you moved him doesn't mean that he ate because you moved him. A 41 QT tub is huge for a baby corn but if it works it works. I'm glad that you got him to take a meal

[Andrew21]

I've read other stories where they've had a stubborn feeder go on strike for more than a month, and they moved it from the top level of a rack, to the bottom and then it ate no problem.

I just think that maybe people blow the whole "don't put your snake in a big cage" thing out of proportion. I think it is species-specific. Maybe balls don't do well in one of those situations, but i've had 3 hatchling corns in either a 40 gallon, or 41 quart tubs, and they did/are doing great. Just my opinion.