funny little worms lol

[BFE Pets]

ok so I posted last week that the wife convinced me to get some corns at the last cleveland expo. Well all but one voluntarily ate. after offering food every three days and it never eating the wife decided to assist feed it. now ive heard and seen hognose play dead but never a corn. lol She picked it up held it by the jaw and tried to put the pinkie to its mouth. The little thing went completely limp. she paniced and thought "oh no I killed the little thing holding it to tight." Soon as she loosened her grip to examine it, it sprang into action and darted away into its house. lmao. about gave her heart failure. I have assist fed balls before and she has helped. I was at work when she decided to try it. I had told her to try scenting it with canned salmon or tuna or braining one and she said none of that had worked so far. So guess my question is... What other methods could we try before attempting to assist feding again. It did take the pinkie on the third try but i'd rater exhaust all other options before doing that again. Thanks

[BHReptiles]

put the snake in a small deli cup with a LIVE pinky overnight. You can also put them in a paper bag (like one of those paper lunch bags) with a live pinky and leave it in overnight.

The Miami phase corn I have now won't eat frozen. She refused every time. The second I put her in a deli cup with a live pinky, she gobbled it down no problem.

[BFE Pets]

Thanks bhreptiles. I already had her try that also. But the delicup and live is what we will try every time until it eats on its own.Ill try scenting with different things also if it continues to refuse.

[Andrew21]

Assist feeding like that is, in my opinion, only for bp's and the like. With most colubrids I have always read and seen that it is more effective to "tease feed". (BHB has a video that states that, as well as my readings on cornsnakes.com) You take the snake and hold about a third of the way down it's body from the head, then tap it's side with a frozen thawed pinky to aggitate it. Then they will bite it, cause that's what snakes do. Lol. Then if you hold real still they are supposed to get the idea and actually eat it. Now, I've never had to do that, or felt that it was neccesary, so take this info at face value.

Also, a woman from said website, found out that if you boil frozen thawed pinkies, corns usually will go for it. Also, scenting is a good idea, and one that works is washing the pinky in Ivory dish soap. Obviously clean off the soap. I would do any of those things in a deli cup of some sort. I have a butter motley who is just too distracted to eat from my hand, so he always goes into a cup, so he can focus. Lol

[SylverTears]

I agree with Andrew21. Assist feeding cornsnakes, espeically babies, can be dangerous and their tiny little jaws can be injured easier then balls. I've heard scenting with a lizard works well, I don't like feeding my animals love but a live pinky can jump start a picky corn. Another good (but rather gruesome for some) technique is cutting open the pinky's head. Is called Braining and I've heard good results from it.
-A

[BFE Pets]

Thank you all for the input. Just to let everyone know he has now eaten 2x on his own with no problems. 1x live in a delicup and the 2nd time was a ft pink mouse right out of my fingers in his own house.