Skinny Rescue Corn

So my cousin's friend asked me to take his baby corn snake since he wasn't taking good care of it, so I did. From what I can tell is the biggest issue is the baby is really skinny, he still has muscle mass and is alert and curious, just hasn't eaten in a while. I don't know if this is because he wasn't offered food or if it's because of refusals, but I do know when he did eat it was only every other week. I've been told he was eating pre killed pinkies, when he was eating.

I got him home and set up yesterday, he weighed in at 27g. Just because it happened to be feeding day I offered a pinkie today that he looked and followed around for a bit but did not eat. I think it was a little big, so I'll try smaller next week and live if I need to,

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, since I'm a corn snake newly at best.http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...fc6a7aad1d.jpg




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My first snake was a corn...compared to the balls he was a breeze to feed...I could literally leave 1-2 f/t in his enclosure and he would gobble them up at his leisure...try just leaving the pinkie in there for him.

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That doesn't look like a corn snake to me.
Pittuophis morph?

Try scenting with tuna? Honestly, I'm terrible at getting babies to eat. Good luck. Beautiful animal, but I don't think it is a corn.

I agree...not a corn. Looks like a Rat snake to me. Really pretty!! I would leave him alone for a week and let him de-stress and then try again.

All I was told was albino corn lol I thought he looked off. Honestly I think this was a case of they got a pet they didn't know how to care for, possibly from petco.

I'll try the tuna thing next week then attempt live the following if that doesn't work. They didn't have any heat on him either, so he was a little sluggish at first.


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Pits seem to have coarser and more defined scales on the head. Also, there usually is that badass Drymarchion *eye brow* ridge over the eye, giving kind of a hawk like appearance. Pit patterns tend to form a chain link to my eye.

The closest snake I've seen to yours was advertised on Kingsnake.com several months ago. I found it astonishing - that same almost metallic *gold,* on a white ground, and pit defined chain-link pattern down the center back. I looked today, but couldn't find any similar.

That snake is very beautiful!

Care should basically be like a corn. I'd try the bare shoe box sized tub and paper towel substrate. That makes the pinky easy to find, and the only distraction.

Give him a week to settle in, and access to plenty of water because he's dehydrated in the photo provided. I'm thinking that this looks like an albino gopher snake and is definitely not a corn snake. After the week of being mostly left alone, offer him a large f/t pinky and try dunking the thawed pinky in boiling water for a few seconds so it turns white and rubbery, then immediately place it in with your new snake and leave him completely alone and in the dark for 24 hours. I've had excellent luck with boiled f/t pinks. Live is definitely also an option for this kiddo. Do not offer food more than every 3 days until he starts eating, at which point you should then feed every 5 days until he's no longer underweight. Then drop to every 7 days.

If that is a Pit, it's going to be a lot bigger than a corn, lol! I love it!

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Originally Posted by Spiritserpents

Give him a week to settle in, and access to plenty of water because he's dehydrated in the photo provided. I'm thinking that this looks like an albino gopher snake and is definitely not a corn snake. After the week of being mostly left alone, offer him a large f/t pinky and try dunking the thawed pinky in boiling water for a few seconds so it turns white and rubbery, then immediately place it in with your new snake and leave him completely alone and in the dark for 24 hours. I've had excellent luck with boiled f/t pinks. Live is definitely also an option for this kiddo. Do not offer food more than every 3 days until he starts eating, at which point you should then feed every 5 days until he's no longer underweight. Then drop to every 7 days.

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He's got a bowl that he's already found and sipped from. I'll try covering the sides of the enclosure when I feed next week. I only offered today because I happened to be picking up rodents for the ball pythons and boas. But so far he's fairly active and curious.


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Good job taking it in and congrats on the new pituophis! Looks like you scored a nice little albino annectens there. While it will get a good bit beefier than the average corn, they don't get much longer with most adults maxing out right around the 5 foot range.

I start most of my pits on f/t rat pinkies. Those that don't take the rats usually accept a f/t mouse fuzzy or hopper. In the rare occurrence of a hatchling not feeding on f/t straight out of the egg, an appropriately sized live mouse hasn't failed me yet.

I'm thinking it shouldn't be too tough to get him to eat, I think he just hasn't eaten recently because his owners didn't offer like they should, and didn't give him a hot spot. Now he's warming up, and at least showed interest in food, so hopefully his appetite should spark soon. Lucky for the little guy the owner realized they were not prepared to properly care for him before he got to the point of no return.


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Just a little update.

He's been with me for 6 days now and has been very curious and alert. He left me a very healthy looking irate yesterday, and will have a feeding attempt on Wednesday.


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that's a pretty snake. i thought it had a scaleless pattern along the back there but it's just white scales and really skinny that causes the yellow scales to jut out more. i can see a ridge along the side. poor baby.

anyway glad u found it and hope u give it some love and a nice life. :)

Last nights feeding was a refusal. Today I switched him off paper towel onto some aspen chips. He's urinating regularly now, and weighs 26g one gram less than last week. Next week I'll try live. He seems afraid of the screen on the tank moving...


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Final update. The little guy just got too skinny and he passed away in his sleep last night. I have a feeling his previous owner was not entirely truthful when he told me how long it had been since he had eaten. At least now he's not in pain and he's not starving anymore... I tried my best, but he was just too far gone when he came to me


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Originally Posted by gaitedappy

Final update. The little guy just got too skinny and he passed away in his sleep last night. I have a feeling his previous owner was not entirely truthful when he told me how long it had been since he had eaten. At least now he's not in pain and he's not starving anymore... I tried my best, but he was just too far gone when he came to me


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you tried your best and seemed to care for him dearly. condolences, i just hope the previous owner has learned a valuable lesson on caring for a life.

Sorry to hear that. He was a very pretty baby. And at least he got to go in comfortable surroundings.


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I'm sorry he didn't make it. You did good to try. Hugs.

I'm sorry. Thank you for being a good person.

Bummer, sorry for your loss.

awww. so sorry to hear that.

:(

My condolences.
RIP little snake.

Huge shame. Poor baby. Thank you for caring for him. I'm sure he was just too emaciated by the time you got him. At least you did the right thing and tried to help.