corn snake question

[edventurous77]

hey at what age do cornsnakes begin to constrict there prey? i dont feed live myself but noticed that they dont constrict live when they are younger :?

 

[Mina]

How old is yours? Mine does not constrict either and he is a few days away from being 3 months old. Do they constrict? I wasn't sure about that either. Sorry I couldn't help.

 

[Cirith Ungol]

Any age basically, but I havn't seen it often. I've seen it more often when the snakes were really very hungry - thus also more agitated.

 

[edventurous77]

:? i thort they where constrictors:? i suppose they jus constrict when they think the live food is a thret to them ie hoppers and adult mice

 

[xgrafcorex]

my two corns were born in "early 2006" and have constricted their prey everytime they eat. so far i've only given them live pinkies..but i am planning on switching over to frozen.

 

[MindUtopia]

I've never seen mine constrict their prey, but mine have always been on f/t, so I agree perhaps it is only with live prey.

 

[Midnightrdr456]

i have a corn that eats live, i got him full grown and he was always fed live. Ive tried to switch him over to frozen like my boa and king but no matter what i try i have had no success thus far. He constricts everytime so maybe the live thing is the factor.

 

[edventurous77]

i thought it was a f/t or live thing. but on the net there is videos of people feeding live pinkies andthe mouse just swallows them it doesnt constrict at all also i have seen snakes constrict f/t :?

 

[edventurous77]

aaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnyyyyy ideas :?

 

[Mushroom Spore]

Animals in the wild with crappy instincts (like a constrictor snake not constricting their food) starve or are killed by their would-be prey.

Animals in captivity have us to help them/provide food/whatever, so the poor instincts are no longer being eliminated from the gene pool.

 

[southern]

We have 6 corns from late 2005/early 2006 clutches, and all of them occasionally constrict their food, and they're all on f/t.

2 of them (the biggest and one of the smallest) ALWAYS constrict...we originally thought it was a size thing, but now I put it down to enthusiasm....kinda like kids in gym class...some love it and some can't be bothered

 

[edventurous77]

:? looks like it comes down to many factors:? , but mainly how hungry the snake is and if the food is live or not. i jus cant see a corn not constricting an adult live mouse so i will have to see when mine is old enough ( i feed him f/t pinkies at the moment)

 

[Mushroom Spore]

i jus cant see a corn not constricting an adult live mouse so i will have to see when mine is old enough ( i feed him f/t pinkies at the moment)

You really, really should not do this. Feeding live is a lot of potential risk already, why would you EVER put in a live adult mouse with a snake that might not have the instinct to kill it properly? If something goes wrong, that mouse could rip your snake open faster than any human reflex will be able to intervene in time for.

 

[southern]

:? looks like it comes down to many factors:? , but mainly how hungry the snake is and if the food is live or not. i jus cant see a corn not constricting an adult live mouse so i will have to see when mine is old enough ( i feed him f/t pinkies at the moment)

OK, first off it's illegal to live feed in the UK

Secondly, why risk your snake? Do a search on the web for rodent inflicted injuries to snakes...not a pretty sight.

Just stick with f/t - they're readily available and so much less of a risk to your pet

 

[Spider Tyrant]

This is going to depend on the size of the snake compared to its prey, and the nature of what you feed. I have seen many snakes just swallow prey once they have learned they get things that are already dead. I would not be worried about the lack of constriction unless you feed live prey.

 

[edventurous77]

in the wild corn snakes eat wild prey. they become lazy in captivity due to being fed f/t. obviously i would begin to slowly introduce live prey if i was to ever feed live (by moving prekilled prey to try and induce strike and constriction) i have found this to work as my young corn now constricts. my snake will at som oint be fed live prey. if my snake can not easily overpower a mouse then the snake must have something wrong with it. i have to feed my ball python live gerbils as it will not except anything else (i tried to changeto f/t mice but just when i thought it had switched it would go back to only accepting live gerbils) my ball has never ever even been scratched by its prey. its a dog eat dog world and we cant try and mother the wild animals we keep, yes corn snakes are still wild animals they have not fully adapted to captive life. therefore we should not mother these wild animals and keep our beardies on paper towel because " they might get impaction" if it is natural and easy for me to do then i do it for my animal eg i keep my animals on natural substrate and feed with natural food/prey. many of you will not agre with this, iam not i repeat NOT trying to spark a forum war iam just sayng what i believe

 

[Mushroom Spore]

Do you also house your pets with their natural predators, edv? Wouldn't want to mother them, after all. If they can't easily avoid their enemies, there must be something wrong with them.

 

[edventurous77]

no but the way you all act mice are a snakes natural enemy and i house my snake with them

 

[edventurous77]

also if you read properly you would see that i wrote anything that is available for me 2 do and is natural i do. getting predators for all of your animals is not easy to do

 

[GailC]

I have a young corn, around three months. The first 2 times I fed her it was with live pinkies and she didn't constrict them, just swallowed alive & kicking. I've since switched to F/T, much easier.