Halls of the Dark Muse

Both my corn snake and the king snake I used to have would go through periodic phases where they just wouldn't eat, there are a lot of natural things which can sometimes cause a snake not to eat. If a snake is nearing its shed time they won't eat, sometimes during their mating season they won't eat, and in the winter it is natural for snakes to hibernate, so even if they are kept in a temperature regulated environment sometimes in the winter they will not eat as much. But my corn snake seems a lot more finicky about eating than my king snake. It is true that king snakes are more aggressive hunters/eaters than corn snakes are. In the wild king snakes actively hunt and pursue their prey, while corn snakes will camouflage themselves and wait for their prey to come to them.

But I think that pet snakes become a bit too complacent, much like humans have become over years of civilization, and they start to lose some of their natural survival instincts. Domesticated snakes become accustomed to the idea that their food magically appears to them on a regular basis, and they don't really have to do much work to catch it and eat it, so just like people I think they begin to take their food for granted. When I feed them I think a part of them think, hey I don't have to eat it right now if I don't want to. They lose that edge, of I have to eat while I can because I don't know when another opportunity will come again.

I got a mouse for my snake the other day, of which he decided not to eat, so today I removed the mouse from his cage, and even though he was displaying no intention of eating and no interest in the mouse, he still seemed rather affronted, and irritated that I was taking it away from him.