having problems switching from live to dead

[Nicky]

Its been about 3 weeks since i first tryed switching nicky( my female 2 year old corn) to dead adult mice all three attemps were unsuccesful and was wondering what i should try enxt any help appricated thanks
kayla

[m1k3_88]

waht have u tried to switch her over?

[BoidKeeper]

Try cooling her for a month. Then the first time you feed her try her with a frozen thawed inside a dark rubbermaid. Place the food item in the container then the sanke. Put on the lid and put it all back inside the cage. Do this after dark and do not disturb her until morning.
Good luck,
Trevor

[gonesnakee]

Don't feed it anything for a month or 2. Then try tease feeding it at night with a nicely warmed prey item. 9 times outta ten works every time. Once they are a little hungry they are far less picky about prey. Mark
P.S. there are tons of threads already out there concerning the same topic if you have a look ;)

[BoidKeeper]

Why starv it for 2 months Mark? I think a quick cool down will be easier on the snake then having a fast forced upon it. Also it's been shown lots of times that a short cooling is a great way to stimulate apetite.
In my opinion a cooling is a healthier aproach then a fast.
Trevor

[Nicky]

thx i'll read some of the other forum so far all ive tried is frozen thawed left over night with her in a rubbermaid and i tried moving it around too

[BoidKeeper]

Some times you have to go in steps. From live to stuned to freshly killed to frozen thawed. It's rare that a snake who's on live will just make the jump straight from live to frozen.
Good luck,
Trevor

[anaconda]

I'm still trying to figure out what 9 times out of 10, works eveytime means?

[m1k3_88]

. srry double post :rolleyes:

[m1k3_88]

it means that method works for almost all of his snakes, except 1 every so often.

[gonesnakee]

Ah but Trevor cooling it for a month is the same as "starving it" for a while is it not. The snake must not have eaten for 2-3 weeks before the "cooling" to have a "clean gut" before doing so safely & then a month of cooling. Sounds like a couple months no food still & the snake is still being "fasted" the whole time either way. The only difference is when being cooled the snakes metabolism is lower so it isn't using as much energy. Either way its still a couple months with no food. The cooling is a good idea based on the fact that its an older snake & will sometimes work with younger snakes as well, but it still involves no food for a month or 2.
In reguards to fasting in general, my adult breeders go 4-6 months of the year without feeding every year. I "clean em out" for 3-4 weeks & then around 3 months burmation, makes 4 months for the girls. The boys usually won't eat until they have been bred for a while & will go another month or 2 sometimes. Thus upto 6 months no food. They are offered but quite often won't eat. This is done yearly by breeders everywhere & the snakes are all very healthy & prolific every year. It happens naturally in the wild yearly also. Heck most baby snakes in the wild don't even have a meal until the spring quite often (thus the crappy survival rate compared to captivity) Not alot of the average Cornsnake owners realize this is just a natural yearly occurrence for them. They are just frustrated that their "stupid" lol snake won't eat. Cheers Mark

[BoidKeeper]

Ah Mark very good point, it has to be cleaned out first! I totally forgot about that. I guess I was thinking that the snakes wasn't eating at all or something. My logic was that by cooling it the snake is not using as much stored reserves as it would if it was maintained at normal temps with out food.
Your totally right, by the time the snake is ready to be cooled it would be about the same lenght of time anyway and probably would be hungry enough to eat.
Cheers,
Trevor