New baby snake wont eat and starting to get concerned

[Mikeyv2009]

I recently just got my first ever snake about two weeks ago. A baby thayeri kingsnake. When I asked the breeder if she had been eating he said yes and that snake had eaten just shy of a week before I had bought her so he said to feed her in a couple days. I did and no luck . I put a small live pinky in a small deli dish with the snake and left it for a couple hours in a dark place like he instructed, and no luck . I left the snake for the next 5 days to let it settle in to the new enclosure before attempting to feed again. That was this past Friday, so this time I bought a frozen pinky thawed it out and dipped it in tuna juice as I read the smell of fish can entice a snake to eat. I then placed the snake with the pinky in the deli dish again and left it overnight in a dark place and still no luck . So now I'm going on basically two weeks and can not get the snake to eat . I'm worried that I won't be successful in getting her to eat she will get sick or worse . I'm very new to all of this and have no idea what to do .
I have her in a ten gallon tank with aslen bedding , a heat mat underneath the tank set to 88,° and my digital thermometer is showing 74-77° air temp in the tank and it's the same temp on the cool side . And there are two hides with a water dish. Any ideas on how to get her to eat would be amazing .

[TRD]

Try and leave the snake alone for a couple of days (2-3) then put a ft pinky inside his enclosure on top of his hide, not on a foreign object.

you can up your air temp also a little... maybe add a 25W overhead heat light in 1 corner/side. If you have a screen top, you won't need a thermostat for a 25W in a 10 gal tank (if it's 13" high) unless it's very hot in that room... which by you ambient temps it probably isn't. See if you can up the temps on one side of the place to 80-82 F air temp.

Kingsnakes brumate during the winter, provided cooler temps they will stop eating to empty their gut. Then spend until spring in brumation without eating, but will drink (ie- not to confuse with hibernation, brumation is just an extremely lowered activity level but is not sleep). Brumation takes place at much cooler temps that your 72-74 F though, so in the longer run, preparing for brumation while not being let to brumate, will starve the snake.

Most important is to not disturb though, and getting the temperature range good. UTH (under tank heater / heat mat) doesn't warm up the air inside or the temperature above the substrate. Ie- temps dropping to the low 70s in daytime may trigger the snake to prepare for brumation and take in less food/decline food entirely.

[Mikeyv2009]

Try and leave the snake alone for a couple of days (2-3) then put a ft pinky inside his enclosure on top of his hide, not on a foreign object.

you can up your air temp also a little... maybe add a 25W overhead heat light in 1 corner/side. If you have a screen top, you won't need a thermostat for a 25W in a 10 gal tank (if it's 13" high) unless it's very hot in that room... which by you ambient temps it probably isn't. See if you can up the temps on one side of the place to 80-82 F air temp.

Kingsnakes brumate during the winter, provided cooler temps they will stop eating to empty their gut. Then spend until spring in brumation without eating, but will drink (ie- not to confuse with hibernation, brumation is just an extremely lowered activity level but is not sleep). Brumation takes place at much cooler temps that your 72-74 F though, so in the longer run, preparing for brumation while not being let to brumate, will starve the snake.

Most important is to not disturb though, and getting the temperature range good. UTH (under tank heater / heat mat) doesn't warm up the air inside or the temperature above the substrate. Ie- temps dropping to the low 70s in daytime may trigger the snake to prepare for brumation and take in less food/decline food entirely.


Ok I will definitely try the changes you suggest ..is the 25watt your referring to a red infared bulb or just a regular incadescent house light bulb ?

[TRD]

Just a regular light bulb, something around 2700 Kelvin is great which are most household bulbs.