Another ignorant pet store.

[ConcinusMan]

I'm not so sure about baby corns as I have no first-hand witness of the babies eating crickets. I only have a half dozen or so people who witnessed it. In fact they pointed out individual neonates that eat crickets. Those were the larger ones that weren't emaciated. I did witness very young eastern ribbon snakes feeding on crickets on more than one occasion. Some of them subsisted on crickets as neonates, and even grew outgrew crickets to move on to more substantial meals.

All I am saying about baby corns is that the so-called "problem feeders" could all be saved and get them on proper food, if only they weren't sold before they had a chance. The young don't seem to care about what good food smells like, it's the motion that triggers a feeding response. big problem for inexperienced people who buy them as babies and expect them to eat dead pinkies.

Many of these unfortunate hatchlings just waste away in pet stores. I know they could be saved if only someone cared. Sad.

I say this to the people that breed hundreds of unwanted corns because they are looking for the perfect morph:

If the babies aren't wanted, cull them or sell them as food for other herps. Seriously. Don't have them waste away to poor husbandry only to get emaciated and end up dead in a pet store, or even worse, dead in the viv of a first timer who spent a fortune, and misguidedly ended up in charge of a baby snake.

That benefits neither the hobby as a whole, nor the possible future hobbiest who got turned off to snakes as a pet because of the horrible first experience. In the end, the buyer loses, the snakes loses, the hobby loses. If they are going to die, give them a purpose such as feeding other (somebody tell me the word that means snake-eating snake) snakes.

Directed at nobody and everybody: Don't discount your part in the big picture. How many offspring had to suffer the same fate for you to have the privilege of buying that rare morph at premium?

I'd feel much better about it if their bodies were used to feed instead of wasting away and breaking hearts to end up flushed down the toilet.