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#2080326

Houdina mom
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Baby Fox Snake Won’t Eat - Help?

Hi guys,

A friend of mine caught a baby fox snake and gave it to us because the fox snake we did have died last winter (we’d had the guy for 14 years, and he was over 4 1/2 feet long when he passed).

My friend gave us this snake September 9, and he ate a small fuzzy on the 12. We tried feeding him a slightly larger fuzzy on the 23rd, but he wouldn’t eat it. I dropper fed the fuzzy some warmed milk, and kept it warm over night, then tried feeding him to the snake again, and he (temporarily Otis until we come up with something my family and the friend that gave him to us can agree on) still wouldn’t eat. Mom brought the fuzzy back to the reptile store, and bought a pinky, we tried for 3 days to get him to eat the the pinky that I kept alive as long as I could by dropper feeding it and keeping it warm. Yesterday Mom went to get another pinky, and Otis still hasn’t eaten him.

Last night we put a little chicken broth on the mouse (I found that mentioned on another site last evening), but that hasn’t worked. Tonight we’re going to try putting some tuna juice (Mom found that at another site today). We also tried crickets and night crawlers, but Otis wouldn’t eat those either.

How long can a 13-14 inch fox snake go without eating before it’s too weak to eat? Does anyone have any other tips for getting him to eat?

Thanks for any help you can give.

10/04/09 08:39pm

#2080331

Houdina mom
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Message To: Houdina mom In reference to Message Id: 2080326

Baby Fox Snake Won’t Eat - Help?

I forgot to mention that I’m in Minnesota, and it has been getting colder the last week or so. Could he be getting ready to hibernate?

10/04/09 08:46pm

#2080444

Reptilefreak23
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Message To: Houdina mom In reference to Message Id: 2080331

Baby Fox Snake Won’t Eat - Help?

Yes he probably is. I wouldn’t mess around to much with him. Hes a wild snake he knows hibernation is close at hand. Just offer him a mouse every two weeks or so.

10/05/09 08:05am

#2080445

Reptilefreak23
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Message To: Houdina mom In reference to Message Id: 2080331

Baby Fox Snake Won’t Eat - Help?

Also, never offer him food every day. Wait a while before trying again. That can be really stressful and actually cause the snake not to eat. Have you tried cupping, split head, or gecko scenting?

10/05/09 08:08am

#2080775

Houdina mom
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Message To: Reptilefreak23 In reference to Message Id: 2080445

Baby Fox Snake Won’t Eat - Help?

We have not tried these 3 techniques. What is ’split head’? How do we gecko scent without a gecko? Would we be able to get some kind of scent from a reptile store? Like a spray? Or gecko droppings?

Thanks for your help!

10/05/09 11:17pm

#2081066

Reptilefreak23
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Message To: Houdina mom In reference to Message Id: 2080775

Baby Fox Snake Won’t Eat - Help?

Split head is when you split open the head of a f/t pinky. I just poke a nale into it and try to get some of it on the outside.
No, I don’t believe there are any products. Any lizard or lizard tail you can find outside do well. I like to use geckos because they are so common and the tails are easy to use.

10/06/09 06:21pm

#2081971

JackAsp
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Message To: Reptilefreak23 In reference to Message Id: 2081066

Baby Fox Snake Won’t Eat - Help?

Forget about tuna/lizards/frogs/worms/any of that stuff. Egg yolk might help, but mice ought to be fine. Fox snakes don’t normally eat anything except birs or mammal products.
They’re very sesitive to seasonal changes, so it’s about environment, not scenting. Here are some ideas to minimize the seasonal change.
1. Make sure there’s summer lighting. That means a bright, natural-looking light with a timer that’s set to run for 16 hours a day. I suggest using a striplight rather than a heat-bulb, and using a pad for heat.
2. A humid hide, with some damp sphagnum moss in it.
3. Deep burrowable substrate, with a small heatpad under one end. Substrate depth allows him to find a resting level that’s just right.
4. Throw a towel over the whole top. One of the nice things about fluorecent striplighting is it won’t set the towel on fire.
5. Tape some cardboard onto three sides of the tank, to insulate against night-time drafts.

Also, diurnal snakes eat best in the morning. If you already have the mouse in there right before his light clicks on, odds aren’t bad he’ll eat it before he remembers he wanted to hibernate. Another quirk of some snakes is that they eat better if you put them in a deli cup or something with the mouse for about half an hour. I don’t know if it simulates being in the burrow, or if having to coil up with it makes them feel like they’ve just constricted it, or WHAT the schpiel is. Just know that, with many individual snakes, it works.

Even babies usually take months (and I mean like 8, not like 2) to actually die of starvation, so in all probability you’re not facing death, just a very unhappy winter and some loss of growth, followed by a noraml appetit in the spring. I’m not saying that because you shouldn’t worry and try to keep him happy and eating, I’m just saying it because a lot of people panic and start thinking about force-feeding way sooner than they need to, and the snake suffers for it.

Hibernating him is an option, too, if you’ve got a room that stays about 55 degreees. But if the temperature’s all over the place, that could do more harm than good.

10/08/09 07:55pm