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a feeding and weight gain question

J

Jenstet

New member
I've been keeping track of our little girl's weight thanks to the advice from this forum. I was linked the the Munson Plan so my questions are based on that information.
She's supposed to be 1 1/2 years old. Her weight when we started weighing her was 292 grams. That was on 11/11. Her weight this morning 12/2 was 333 grams. She has gained 44 grams in the past three weeks for an average of 13.6 a week. Is that a normal weight gain? It seems like a lot to me. I realize we are talking grams which is a pretty small unit of measure.
According to the weight chart she is in the "adult" range. We feed her once a week and the mice have been between 15-22 grams. According to the chart she needs prey that is 25+. Does this mean she needs bigger mice? They are supposed to be adult mice but I have been reading more and think that these must be small adult mice. (as opposed to medium or large adult)
When we purchased her I bought 16 adult mice thinking we would be good for awhile. I didn't realize how fast she would grow. I guess my question is more about how to really know when you need to bump up a size. Am I feeding her too much or too little? The whole 1.5 times the belly width seems a little vague to me. I really hadn't put much thought into how many different sizes mice came in until we had a snake :)
 
When they approach 300 grams, I back way off on feed. I would think a non-breeding adult female would be fine on a 18-20 gram mouse every seven days. And yes, 44 grams in three weeks is a HUGE jump! Surely some of that was food/fecal/water weight.
 
Okay, so we aren't starving her. Although I'll be posting a picture in a few months regarding our obese corn snake. :)

One of the reasons that I bought so many mice was because the woman with whom we spoke with at the store told me they feed once a week but that I could feed her twice a week to keep her "really happy". It didn't sound like anything I had read about doing except for with little ones. When I got home and did some more looking, it just didn't sound right to me so we have stuck to the once a week schedule.
 
You definitely do NOT want to be feeding twice a week at her age! As Chip said, once a week is plenty. Snakes do grow at different rates (for example, mine is over a year and a half old, but about half the weight of yours).
Make sure your scale is accurate by placing something of a known weight on it. Also, to properly weigh your snake, do so before feeding (either the day of or the day before, I would suggest) when it has an empty stomach and empty bowels. Always measure the same way as to not skew the results; for example, perhaps a month ago you weighed with an empty snake, and this past weighing you did not, and so the results were not accurate.
Hope that helps!
 
Dear lord!! I have two 2 year olds, one is 70g (a rescue) and another is 140g. I agree, an adult mouse once a week or 10 days is all your baby needs.
 
I think I need a BMI index for corn snakes :)
We've tried to measure her length but it's kind a bumbling comic scene. I measured her shed and got 4 1/2 feet but I really don't think her body is that long. There must be some sort of stretch of the shed that takes place while getting it off.
My guess is she is over 3 feet.
My point is that in my expert opinion (7 whole weeks of snake ownership:)) I believe she is older than was represented. At least that's what I'm hoping. The other option would be that she is sort sort of mutant beast.
When we have weighed her we do it right before she eats. This week she happened to poo the night before we weighed her but other times I'm sure that wasn't the case. Either way I'll keep feeding her the mice we have (18-20 g) and stretch her feeding by a few days.

Here is a picture of her with my son. He's pretty tall for a 10 year old. 5'3" but you can get an idea of her length.
 

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no.
We were first told it was a male but when we picked her up they said a female. She tried to "pop" her but it looked uncomfortable and she couldn't seem to get anything to happen. The girl said it is easier when they are older to figure out what it is and just left it at that. It seems to me that most experienced people can figure this out when they are little but what do I know.
The whole buying process was a little strange and overwhelming. There had to be 100 snakes in this giant, rolling, two-sided rack. So many people work there and it seemed that aside from the type of snake it was, there was no indication of sex or age on the outside of the trays.

Are you telling me Cornelia may be a Cornelius?
 
I'd like to see a photo of Cornelia's tail from the underside :)

You can't pop a snake (without potentially harming it) much beyond the hatchling stage. Adult snakes (as yours is) are sexed by probing. Some snakes are obviously male, though. Of course you never really know for sure until eggs are laid, or the male's hemipenes are visualized.
 
She (he) just ate yesterday but we will take a picture tomorrow night and post it. Thank you for your help.
 
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