How long without food

[Lisa T]

Hi to all!
I have a question about a non feeding corn. She is 20cm long (I'm no good in inches) and does not whant to eat...I have tried everything and had to have her force fed after I took her to a breader and he saw that she was verry thin.

After that one pinky she is looking a bit better but still refuses, it seems she dislikes the pinky's sent and I am looking for a lizzard to sent one and see if she will take that...

My question...do difficult eaters ever arrive to starv themselves to death? Or dose survival instincts come to them sooner or later?

I wish to not have to force feed her again, it is not plesent for her and I have herd it is risky...

Thanks for any answers...I'm a bit worried.

Lisa

[Joe]

lots of snakes will starve themselves to death, in our opinion you should keep force feeding for at least a few more feedings just to get some weight on it, then after she is looking healthy again stop forcing for a few weeks and try her on live pinkies
even try putting her in a small deli cup in the dark with it for a couple hours.
hope this helps
good luck

[Tim_Cranwill]

Yeah, like Joe and Melissa said, just try to keep her healthy/alive until she decides to eat on her own. There are a number of informative posts on this subject in the "Food for thought" forum.

I'd definetly try putting her in a small, ventilated container over night with a live pinky and the lights out. I'd also avoid handling her until the eating situation gets under control. Check the following as well, enclosure size (don't want it too, too big as it may be stressing her out), temperature gradiant, suitable hides and possibly internal or external parasites. Any or all may be a factor.

Good luck and keep posting updates. I'm sure the people around here can give you a few more tips. :)

[Pixie]

I have a pretty fussy corn, she wouldn't eat much if at all. Sometimes would go over a month without a meal.

Now I always put her in a deli cup in a dark area for at least 12 hours before a meal and she only takes live. At least she's started growing again and looks healthy but she's drive me mad at times. For my first snake I didn't know what I was doing wrong and why a corn would give me such a hard time but I guess I was a little unlucky in getting a picky one.

She eats more regularly now but I've tried everything to convert her to f/t and nada... The little misses doesn't want anything to do with them...

Good luck with your little one, hopefully she'll snap out of it soon

Pixie

[Vanan]

Yep yep! The deli cup trick works like a charm for me. I had about 10-15 non feeder corns and had to force feed them for about 2-3 weeks. Then all of a sudden I out em into deli cps and they start gulping the pinks down, one even took two pinks!