How Long Can A Baby Go

[kita8]

Hey,

I have 4 baby garters, 2 Pugets, 1 San Fran, and 1 Cali Red Sided.

Everyone was doing great when they got here, and the first two feeding sessions everyone ate.

However the Cali has stopped eating.
I separate them into small travel containers and offer earthworms from the local fishing shop, usually cut in half cause these are bigger worms.

The Cali ate the first 2 times.
When he first arrived he had a long journey due to flight delays from the hurricanes out east at the time, and had started a shed during it. His travel container didn't have anywhere to rub so he was stuck with the shed on him until I got him into the new tank where there was plenty of places to get to work.
He quickly removed the shed and was good for the next 2 feeds.

I noticed he had a flake of skin behind one of his eyes left from the shed, but I figured a tiny flake was no concern.
Turns out the flake was attached to a bit of either old shed or upcoming shed because after the third attempt to feed him I got some help to remove the flake as just the eye beside it had gone milky and we wanted to make sure it wasn't related. It ended up removing an eye shaped patch of skin, but I honestly couldn't see the milkiness until that attempt, so I don't know if it just didn't turn on his earlier shed until then, or if it was the start of a new shed, but he hasn't exhibited any further signs of an impending shed.

I thought maybe he was stressed from being essentially blind in the one eye until we helped, but even several days after he's regained vision he still won't eat.
It's been about 3 weeks since he last ate.

He's also a big ol' scardey cat. Flattens his head a lot at me, and bites a fair bit, but he was like that from the get-go and still would eat.

I'm going to try overnighting him in a travel tank with an offering of several worms so maybe he'll eat if left alone with hides and peace and food.

I'm not sure of his exact age at this point, but he's not even as thick around as a pencil yet.

How long would you think he can go without eating?
I know the adults can go a long time, but I haven't found much on how long the babies can be expected to last.

[MNGuy]

I’m a newbie so I don’t have much to say. Just wanted to add that my young eastern is eating less of her meal these days and has skipped one here or there. I believe part of it (for my snake; not sure about yours) is simply the change in temperature and daylight, even though I’ve kept my house heated and her lamps on at the same time.

I hate to redirect people, but check out the Thamnophis Facebook groups for advice. This forum is slow.

Good luck.

[Zdravko092368]

At this time of year a lot of snakes will stop eating due to sensing the change in season, you can try to counter this by increasing their temps and daylight hours or brumate them, one or the other should stimulate them to eat.

How old the snake is and how much fat reserves it has will determine how long it can go without eating, I had a well fed 8 month old infernalis go 6 months without eating(4 months pre brumation, decided to brumate to stimulate appetite).

[guidofatherof5]

Here's a video that might help.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1O36FMumumg

[kita8]

Thanks everyone! I will try brumating him and see if that helps, since increasing temperatures hasn't helped yet. I haven't had to brumate a snake yet, so it'll be a learning experience for us both.

If not then we'll try fish. I try to leave fish as a last resort.

I put him in an overnight container with a couple worms and some hides in a warm room, but it was a no-go.

Pretty sure my San Fran was judging me the whole time thinking I'd killed his friend. Can't wait for the looks of judgment once the Cali disappears for even longer.