Corn snake refusing to eat.

[Chris06]

Hello,

I'm hoping someone here can help me out.
We have a 5 year old corn snake that we bought at the pet store when it was a baby.

I've been feeding her 3 fuzzy mice every two weeks for years. She's usually hungry and snaps at the first one every time. The last time I fed her she didn't seem interested which was really unusual. She did end up eating all three mice though.

This time I could not get her to eat and it's been 2 1/2 weeks now. I'm going out of town for a week and if she doesn't eat before I go it will be the longest she has ever gone between meals.

She doesn't usually want to eat if she's about to shed, but she did that last week. She looks and seems perfectly healthy otherwise. I read online that corn snakes can go several months without eating so I probably shouldn't worry. She's just never acted like this before.

I'm curious what you guys think. Thanks!

[chairman]

How large is your snake? A typical adult corn snake should be eating two adult nice our one jumbo mouse every two weeks. I once had a breeding female that would take six mice a week when recovering from laying eggs.

You are correct that a well fed snake can go months without food. Mine typically only quit eating for about two months a year. That voracious female I mentioned would typically fast for at least four months.

I'd try offering an adult mouse to see if the snake just wants bigger prey.

[Chris06]

Thanks for your reply!

I haven't measured her but I'm guessing she's between 3 and 4 feet long. Her head is about the same size as a fuzzy mouse. I've had gopher snakes about her size that could eat a full size mouse no problem, but this snake seems to struggle with some of the larger fuzzies so I figure I'd just give her 3 of them which seems to satisfice her.

I left on my trip so I'll try feeding her again when I get home and see how it goes.

Off topic, but...
When this snake sheds her skin she likes to crawl back inside it like she's trying to put it back on. It seems to entertain her and is funny to watch. It this a normal thing snakes do or is mine just a spaz?