Hatchlings at work

Do you guys have any Anoles at your store? If you have some little lizards, maybe you could try "scenting" the thawed pinks in their tank. Baby Corns really seem to like this smell. You could also try "braining" the pink....as the scent of the brain matter is also enticing to them. Hope something works for the poor little guys. Good luck!

An update on these two hatchlings. I talked with the pet care manager and he says as much as he'd like to change how they are fed, there was not much I could do. We had to follow the rules, so I took the corn snakes out of their main cage and put them in separate kritter keepers like they normally do but I did a few things differently. I filled the two kritter keepers with balled up paper and put them in the new animal room with the lights off. I also thawed out the pinkies and put them on the lids of the kritter keepers to scent the enclosures. Then after about 20-30 min of this, I offered the pinkies. Neither took them, so I put the pinkies in the kritter keepers and left them alone with them with the lights off. The larger of the two ate, but the smaller one still refuses. But I at least got one to eat. I'm going to try again soon. The rules allow for feeding young snakes 2x per week, so I was thinking of trying again in 4 days or so. I'm trying the ball pythons tomorrow.

At petsmart, if I snake refuses you can try again 3 days later. Also, try using one of the specimen containers instead because they are smaller and cover them. Put some of the bedding from one of the lizard cages in the bottom also helps. Petsmart also has a regional reptile vet (contact info is on the computer). If you email him he can give you a waiver to try different feeding techniques. Good luck.

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Originally Posted by Jay_Bunny

Petsmart is against live feeding of any animal other than insects and fish so I could try and sneak some live pinkies to them but I don't want to risk getting fired.

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This is one policy from Petsmart I DO NOT like at all. If you have a non-eater that may just only take live, then is the company just going to make the poor snake starve because it won't eat f/t? I could never figure that one out.....

I'm not sure if they'd let it starve or not. The smallest corn has flat out refused both times I've tried to feed it. I'm going to try again the next time I'm at work and it the little corn does not eat, I'm going to approach the store manager about it. If he doesn't let me try another feeding technique, I'm going to ask him if I can pull the snake to the back since it is obviously "not well" and it will go to the sick room where I can feed it the way I want to.

Thanks for all your help :).

Oh and about the regional reptile vet. Am I allowed to contact them, or does it have to be a manager? My goal is to become pet care manager later on but I've only been at this job for a few weeks.

Unfortunately the manager has to contact the veg but all the info is on fetch.

If the whole pinkie is too big, can you just lop off the head and see if the small one will eat that? I imagine that's against the rules too though...

No that is not against the rules but I doubt anyone but me and the pet care manager would be willing to do it. I go into work tonight so I'm going to try and see if I can't get the smaller one to eat.

Thanks for the advice everyone!