Brown Snake/DeKay Help with Feeding

[guidofatherof5]

Sorry, I should have explained more with my original post.
Brumation is a time is limited activity in cold/cool temps. For some snakes that is near freezing for others it is not near that cold. Brumation is a time when no food is eaten. For some snakes a cool down (brumation) for a short period of time will jump start their eating again. I have two non-eaters in my fridge right now. I'm hoping a month in there will get them eating again. It's very important that a snake going into brumation has not eaten for at least 2 weeks. Food in the gut will rot and kill the snake.
A small container with a water dish works fine. I brumate my snakes at 49-52 degrees in the fridge I use for my worms. Some people brumate in a cold crawl space or closet that gets cold. Care must be taken that the temps aren't to cold.
I don't have a concrete answer on the beer issue but washing them off might help as the smell might cause a problem. Once you have them, switch them over to vegetable matter though.
I hope this helps.

[d_virginiana]

Definitely wash the slugs off. Some snakes will try to eat inanimate objects that smell vaguely food-like, and some are very picky.
I think cutting the slug was to prevent it from crawling out of the dish so that you could leave it in the tank without worrying about it crawling out.

If you put him in the closet, make sure he still has light about 12 hours a day.

[d_virginiana]

Woops didn't realize the closet was for brumation. idk what the general rule for lighting during brumation is

[guidofatherof5]

Not sure how important light could be since most natural brumation takes place in deep, dark places.
I certainly would like to hear other opinions on this subject.
I brumate my snakes in darkness unless I'm checking on them.

[Stefan-A]

idk what the general rule for lighting during brumation is

The general rule for lighting during brumation, is "None." Or "Very little." Personally, I'm not convinced that it matters much, at least not compared to temperature.

[Invisible Snake]

How do you catch slugs with beer? o.O

[Eliza311]

you just put a little cup with beer in the garden. the next day i had like 6 slugs. read it on the internet! I'm still kind of lost, I dont know what the best solution is. he hasnt eaten for a little over 3 weeks so i guess I could try brumnation. would he die of starvation?

[d_virginiana]

Brumation is a state of seriously slowed down metabolism for the snake. They do this in the wild to avoid starving. It is somewhat risky, as there are snakes that die during brumation in the wild. It's much less likely with a human supervising and controlling things though.

[Mommy2many]

I have to ask you a question about your slugs. Are they still alive? Perhaps luring slugs with beer is not a good option, especially for the snake who will ingest them. Usually, the slugs have killed themselves with the beer. You can attract slugs by placing cardboard on the ground. Pizza boxes are great tools for this.

Your Dekayi will probably want his slugs alive. My Dekayi also took to eating worms when her tank mates ate her slugs on her You just need to make sure the worms are cut up small enough for your snake to be able to eat them.

Good luck with your Dekayi and welcome!

[Eliza311]

my slugs are dead. when i first picked them up some where still alive. so maybe i will try this again and rather than store in beer put it in a cup or something. thanks!