when sould i change my corn snake from mice to rats?

hello snake lovers i have a 5and half foot corn name ozzy and i feed him to large mice once a week and it look like he is still hungery so i think it time to change to rats but im not to sure so if any body can help me please write me back and let me know what is the best thing to do thank you

Paul
from Delaware

Snakes are opportunistic feeders and always act as though they are hungry. They can happily eat themselves to death.
Some keepers do feed rats, but rats have a high fat content.
I have never (and will never) feed rats.
My snakes are doing great on mice. (My oldest is 14)

I have fed rats. It makes them fat...use mice until the end!

oh ok should I feed him three mice every two week then

I would stick to feeding 1-2 mice every 7-10 days.

he eats two mice at a time and still wants more so what should i do

I feed all my adult corns 1 large mouse every 10 days

when i got ozzy he was already eaten two large mice so i stayed with it and know it looks like he could eat atlease one or two more but all of you have giving good advice so i will try it so I thank all of you very much for all the info so no rats for ozzy again thank you very much i am going to bed now..... Paul2183

[QUOTEhe eats two mice at a time and still wants more so what should i do [/QUOTE]Ignore him!

Seriously, Bethany hit the nail on the head above. In the wild, they don't know when they're next going to eat, so they'll scoff everything you put in front of them and still keep looking for more. They don't know that in captivity, you're going to guarantee they get another good quality meal in the next week or two - they're just programmed to keep hunting after eating, so that's what they do.

It's very easy to end up with a Mr Blobby snake if you feed on demand - I know, I've been there! And it's the devil's own job to get that flab off them once it's built up - can take years or may never shift at all. Like obese humans, obese snakes can have all sorts of health complications and tend to live much shorter lives.

My adults get one large mouse every two weeks (and that goes down to three weeks in the winter for healthy males and non-breeding females). My eldest is 21 years old, so all I can say is that this regime works like a dream for me and mine.

When you bought a Corn, you signed up for 15+ years of being a Weightwatchers group leader! Ignore those pleading puppy eyes and harden your heart to that frantic hunting around after food. Think of it as a person with an uncontrollable appetite filling themselves to capacity with a full roast dinner, then hunting through cupboards for a packet of biscuits afterwards. They might WANT it, but they sure as heck don't NEED it!

Paul2183 said:

he eats two mice at a time and still wants more so what should i do

Click to expand...

Bump up a size. If you are feeding 2 adult mice, bump your snake up to one Jumbo mouse. Jumbos are available through themousefactory.com and rodentpro.com.

We feed either a weener rat every 14 days or a jumbo mouse every 7 - 10 days....
And our boys are fit healthy and great tone/no fat. It's all they need.
Don't be tempted to feed more as it's not good for them....
Tough love is what they need...

just jumping into this discussion, I have 2 adult corns that due to my mice stock running low are being fed 1-2 mice every 2 weeks, is this ok and also you mentioned earlier about cutting down to 3 weeks during the winter when should this start and when do you put them back to normal feeding, I have only had the snakes a year and didnt brumate them last year. Thanks

I start the 3 week feeding regime round about the start of November and continue it through to about February. This is for healthy, full weight adult males and non-breeding females only. Breeding females continue with their usual feeding regime right through the winter and so do any males/non-breeders with actual or potential health problems.

If any on the 3 week regime start to lose weight or condition, then they go back to the normal routine (has only happened a couple of times in the years I've been doing this).

I feed my females rats once they reach 32 inches long, so they can get used to moving a large load through their bodies. I think it helps to stretch them out down there, so they'll be more elasticy in the nether regions, when egg laying time comes around. Having had a couple of problems with egg binding, thick and stout meals seem to benefit the females. I also feed the females rats after they've laid a clutch, to pound back the body reserves they may have lost during gestation. I toss the ocassional rat to the males, but I find mice are lower in fat, and I want the males to be frisky and agile. Depending on the temperature and size of the adults, Females get fed every 6 to 10 days; males about every 10-21 days.

Never. I have an almost 900 gram adult corn, none of that is fat. He gets an adult mouse ever 7 - 10 days, and the occasional weanling rat when my boa decides he doesn't want to eat (which is rare). And in that case, I wait longer until the next feeding.

i actually disagree with the people who say that rats make them fat. my snakes are not fat, and i have been feeding them rats for over 2 years.

well I have just fed my python as nice rat and she seemed to really enjoy it, might consider breeding them as well as mice but not sure just yet.

I guess a lot depends on the size of the mice. I have seen adults that were no bigger than weanling size. I have also seen them as jumbo size. Depends on where you buy them. I have a 5ft 3in. that is about 900 to 1000. I feed him an adult mouse ever 7 days and then every 3rd time I give him two. He seems to hold nicely there. I have also fed him rat weanlings. When I fed the rats though I did it every 10 days and never fed two at a time. Don't feed the snake because it seems hungry. They always seem hungry. Feed it so it is healthy size.