Some thoughts on the Munson Plan

Dean Arnold is a member I miss around here (user name Roy Munson), and he is best known for writing up this guideline for feeding corns.

The Munson Plan (Sample Feeding Chart)
-When they're on single pinks (2-3g), I feed every 4-5 days. (Snake = 4-15g)
-Double pinks (3g x 2) every 4-5 days. (Snake = 16-23g)
-Small fuzzies (5-7g) every 5-6 days. (Snake = 24-30g)
-Regular fuzzies (7-9g) every 5-6 days (Snake = 30-50g)
-Hoppers (9-12g) every 5-6 days (Snake = 51-90g)
-Weaned (14-20g) every 7 days (Snake = 91-170g)
-Adult (24-30g) every 7-x days (Snake = 170+)
-Jumbo Adults (40-50g) every 7-x days (Snake = 400g+)

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Some care sheets of days gone by suggest seven day feeding regardless of the age, which is simply not enough for tiny hatchlings eating reds. And these caresheets didn't have snake or food item weights listed, and we all know a pinkie can be anywhere from barely over a gram to 5 grams. Following those could have negative consequences, if not a dead baby snake. So the Munson plan was a great guideline that probably saved many a baby from not being fed adequately. But as time has gone on, I've seen more and more people with either regurge issues with juvenile snakes or fat adults on this forum from using the plan.

For starters, it's an aggressive plan that will get snakes up to breeding size quickly (if they can handle it), not necessarily a standard pet feeding regimen. I believe Dean's intention was for users to adjust it to their snake, not use it as a bible. If your temps are cool, your corn is not going to be able to keep up with this plan; the food items will simply be too large to digest. And many people don't weigh the food items, and just assume if it's a fuzzy it must be 7 grams, etc. Then there is the hopper jump -oodles of people have encountered regurge issues when moving up to hopper mice on this plan, myself included. This is always the hardest jump in food size, so it pays to sort mice! There is a lot of variation in one bag of mice of any size, so weigh and feed off the smallest first. This is where those of you with one or two snakes are luckier than those of us with a herd of the things! Cutting a few slits in the backs of your hoppers at first can go a long way also.

Finally, I have zero use for jumbo adults for corns. A Big Cheese jumbo can weigh over 50 grams. Even my biggest corns never get a meal much beyond half that size. I have thought about making an alternative plan that is a little more cautious, but I would feel like a plagiarist to simply copy the plan with slightly smaller weights, and I suspect that it would be fraught with issues as well. My best advice for feeding your corn is, stay on the smaller side of meals and longer side of time if feeding with this plan, until you get a feel for what your snake can handle. A hungry snake will usually spend time out and hunting. If they are holed up in a hide for days, they are probably either digesting, blue, or gravid. I do have a couple of shy exceptions, but even they will start pacing the cage "hunting" by day 5 or 6. If they don't come out to feed after I've opened the cage for pre-feeding inspection, I don't thaw them anything out. If they are empty and hunting, they are fed. As with most things snake related, there is a lot of variance from one individual to the next, so your mileage may vary. Happy feeding days!

It obviously depends on the size of your mice, but I also don't feed double pinks. I have in the past, but with my mice, two pinkies are larger than one fuzzy. I'd rather go pinkie, peach fuzzy, regular fuzzy, instead of feeding double prey items.

Good post, though. I'm often hesitant to recommend the Munson plan to new snake owners because I do feel that it is too aggressive.

Also, one of my snakes is 176 grams, but there is no way he would keep an adult mouse down. He's still doing well on weanlings, but he's very sensitive to change, so I think I'll let him get to at least 200 grams before I think about switching him.

I agree that it seems to be an aggressive plan (as others have said in the past), and every snake is different. I personally love it as a guideline, because when I first got my corn I had NO IDEA what size to feed, and I was nervous handling her so trying to weigh her or visually match a food item to her body size was difficult enough. I found that weighing was much easier, as she didn't sit still (but at least in a zeroed plastic container it was easier that way). I definitely fed on the shy end of the plan, and even a bit below it many times.

Now at 2 years old she is 300 grams. I think every snake is completely different, and it is just a guideline. I like to suggest the plan to beginners, but maintain that it is an aggressive guideline. Just gives them a general idea of mice sizes versus snake sizes and whatnot.
But I guess it's kind of like feeding any animal (or human). There are "rules" (which usually turn into guidelines), there are averages, and there are exceptions to the rules and averages. What works for one may not work for another. I think the most important thing is to pay attention to signs and the individual at hand. Get to know them (whomever or whatever they may be) and find out what works best for them.

I did make a plan off of my past years of feedings to see how close it was to the munson plan I recommended quite a bit. I had just started a thread about it.

I don't understand how some can use a weight based feeding chart and then not weigh the feeders?

I have it pretty good as far as feeders go because I breed my own so there is very little variance in feeder size in my bags in the freezer.

I feed Munson Plan, but modified.

I feed hatchlings on a 5 day schedule, ideally. This is difficult to maintain when they number 100ish. _Maybe_ I do a few feedings at a 4 day interval, if numbers are low, and the snakes are on reds, and are out prowling the next day.

Until adulthood (200 grams), I feed Munson plan, but let the snake get 5-10 grams over the beginning weight, and weigh the feeders and start with the lowest weight in the range.

Once the snake is on hoppers/weanlings, it is usually on a 7 day interval.

300-450 gram snakes are on a 14 day schedule, of 25 gram mice. Breeding females may get fed more often, depending on condition.

500 and up are on a 21 day schedule, on 25-30 gram mice. The snakes are weighed at each feeding to make sure they are still slowly gaining, about 5 grams per feeding.

Sometimes adults get weanlings or small adults, depending on supply.

Every once in a while they might skip a meal. I don't feed in blue.

I don't slit after the snake is on small adults.

The only person who gets jumbos or chicks is Janine, the Florida King. She weighs about 1300 grams.

Nanci said:

I feed Munson Plan, but modified.

I feed hatchlings on a 5 day schedule, ideally. This is difficult to maintain when they number 100ish. _Maybe_ I do a few feedings at a 4 day interval, if numbers are low, and the snakes are on reds, and are out prowling the next day.

Until adulthood (200 grams), I feed Munson plan, but let the snake get 5-10 grams over the beginning weight, and weigh the feeders and start with the lowest weight in the range.

Once the snake is on hoppers/weanlings, it is usually on a 7 day interval.

300-450 gram snakes are on a 14 day schedule, of 25 gram mice. Breeding females may get fed more often, depending on condition.

500 and up are on a 21 day schedule, on 25-30 gram mice. The snakes are weighed at each feeding to make sure they are still slowly gaining, about 5 grams per feeding.

Sometimes adults get weanlings or small adults, depending on supply.

Every once in a while they might skip a meal. I don't feed in blue.

I don't slit after the snake is on small adults.

The only person who gets jumbos or chicks is Janine, the Florida King. She weighs about 1300 grams.

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Interesting, you and I have the exact same feeding schedule and method right down to the slitting. Come to think of it I think I learned about cutting slits in mice from one of your post a while back. It's rare that I have a problem using this schedule and slitting method. The one thing I may do a little differently than other people is that I offer slit cut hoppers as first meals after my girls lay eggs. I've never had a female regurge her first meal after laying but I've read it can happen and the thought makes me a little nervous...so, just as a precaution, I always give them a slit hopper or small adult for their first post lay meal. They seem to digest these slit meals in about half the time and quickly get back to their normal feeding routine.

I offer females a hopper, maybe two, the evening after they have laid, then a weanling about three or four days later, then back to normal, at a seven day interval. Sometimes I slit the hopper, sometimes I don't.