What NOW?

My corn spent a night and half a day with the live pinky, and it didn't even strike, I'm assuming since the pinky was still alive when I took the snake out of the deli cup this morning. When do we "pull the plug" so to speak? The corn hasn't eaten since it hatched, apparently. I don't want to starve the little guy to death. :tears: We have tried EVERYTHING. Is there a step that doesn't involve the freezer?

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Originally Posted by jorgasm

My corn spent a night and half a day with the live pinky, and it didn't even strike, I'm assuming since the pinky was still alive when I took the snake out of the deli cup this morning. When do we "pull the plug" so to speak? The corn hasn't eaten since it hatched, apparently. I don't want to starve the little guy to death. :tears: We have tried EVERYTHING. Is there a step that doesn't involve the freezer?

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Force/assist feeding is the last option after EVERYTHING.
But lets make sure you have gotten everything.

How old is it and how much does it weigh now?

Have you brained?

The snake is about 5 months old, and I don't know how much it weighs, but it is definitely thinner than a #2 pencil. We haven't tried force feeding, because I will not try that on a snake who's head is smaller than my pupil. We could try finding someone who knew how to force feed baby snakes though. I really would like to try EVERYTHING before we chill it. ):
...we've brained.
...poked with needles and squeezed.
...warmed in chicken brother.
...rubbed an anole lizard on it.
...rubbed a live mouse up against it.
What else is there?! And how long is too long to make the snake starve??

Well, this snake may not be able to survive. Some baby corns just don't make it because they never eat.

The only thing I can think of is finding a good herp vet and taking it to them to try to force feed it under a professionals hands.

You could try tease feeding. It probably won't work since some of the the things you've tried I personally consider more desperate than tease feeding.

But it might be worth a shot. What you do is you grab the snake by its neck between your thumb and index finger and support its body with the rest of its hand. You want to restrain it so that ~1-1.5 inches of the head and neck is free. Then you grab a pinky mouse (live, f/t, tuna scent, etc, doesn't matter) and dangle it infront of the snake with your other hand. Just remember to keep him gently restrained so that he is forced to pay attention to the mouse. Most will strike at it. And of those many will latch on. If he doesn't strike or latch on try rubbing the mouse under his chin to try and provoke him into striking it.

If he does strike it and latch on, just hold him there with the mouse in your other hand and don't move him or anything else. Often they'll sit there with a mouse in their mouth and think it over. Any sudden moves could startle him. He should eventually start to eat it. If he does, just keep him in your hand but you can gently release your grasp of him. Again, no sudden moves or anything that could spook him.

I doubt it will work, but its worth a shot. As for the culling aspect of it. I personally never ever force feed any of my snakes. Not all of them are destined to make it. And for me I don't want to put poor feeders into the gene pool. Even if I gave them away as poor feeders, once they leave my possession, someone may still breed them.

It sucks big time. Heck, this year I ended up culling two anery lavender motleys because one had a couple of kinks and the other wouldn't eat and was getting bone thin. As a breeder, I don't want to pollute the gene pool with animals with weak genes. But that's just me.