Freshly hatched corn snake

Question
I'm having problems feeding this freshly hatched snow corn i just bought my wife.  It struck at a pinky with no trouble but it couldn't get the whole pinky down.  It wasn't a large pinky but this snake just seems to tiny to eat it.  What other options might i have.  The snake is about 2 weeks old right now.

Answer
There are a couple of things you can try. If there's a pet store near you that sells feeder mice, ask them if they can alert you when they have newborn pinkies. Even a small hatchling should be able to eat a day old pinky. In the meantime, you can try feeding it "parts". Basically, snip the legs off of a frozen-thawed fuzzy mouse. Try leaving the snake in a deli cup overnight with the parts. If he eats them, I'd suggest doing this every 3-4 days. If not, you can try tease-feeding the snake. A hopper-sized mouse tail works best. Hold the snake in one hand, and gently tap the snake on the nose with the mouse tail. When it opens its mouth, insert the fatter end of the mouse tail and gently twist the tail until its at the back of the snake's throat. Set the snake on the floor, but hold it gently about 2/3 of the way down its body. Let the snake crawl but not really get anywhere because of your hand, and it will swallow at the same time. Again, do this every 4 days or so until you have enough size on it for it to take a pinky.

If you bought the snake from a pet store, be aware that some stores sell non-feeding snakes. Some animals are not cut out to be survivors, and often this is the case for runts. So you may need to put some time and effort in to assure its survival.