• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

Concerned with weight

D

Doggey75

New member
I am a little concerned on my corn snakes weight. It doesn't seem to go up that much. He is 7 months old. I am a ball python guy and weight change goes up in the 2 digits each week after a feeding.
Here are his feeding logs:
Dec 5 12g
Dec 13 12g
Dec 20 13g
Dec 27 14g
Jan 4 14g
Jan 10 16g
Jan 17 14g (After poop and refusal)
Jan 24 15g
Jan 31 15g
Feb 7 16g
Feb 14 17g
Feb 21 16g
March 1 16g
March 7 17g
March 22 17g

Here is a picture.Please tell me if he looks skinny:


u5cgepo.jpg




I tried getting him on lg pinkies but they are too big for him and he could not fit it into his mouth. If this is not normal. Please tell me what I should do. Like feed 2 sm pinkies or something.
 
Ironically, I was just playing with weight/age statistics in another thread. I grabbed all the 7.0-7.9 month entries real quick:
Age (months) Weight (g)
7.6 10
7.6 12
7.2 17
7.1 18
7.6 21
7.4 23
7.9 23
7.0 28
7.3 34
7.0 78

Right about 20g seems average, but even so there were some real light weights, and one huge one. Based on those numbers, I'd say you are fine, but the real experts here can chime in.

As an aside, I know I've also read on here that weight gain is really slow until they are off pinkies. I can't speak from experience yet as my snake is about the same age and size as yours is, but my personal numbers are similar to yours, just a hair faster on the gain. Most likely because I feed every 5 days, and it looks like you are on a 7 day schedule.
 
I would put him on a 5 day feeding schedule for a while. It is true, some snakes grow faster than others, but he will put on a bit more weight with the 5 day feeding.

I have 3 corns all about 2.5 years old, Scarlett is my first from Damon here in Phoenix (shout out, http://www.arizonareptile.com/) and she was 25g at 1 year, is now 190g. My first rescue was her age but I got him six months later, Scarlett was at 80g, Gus was at 25g (the girl who surrendered him fed him one pinky/week like you are doing). My third corn Boots (2nd rescue) was 2 years, just like Scarlett and Gus, a few months ago, but he came in at a whopping 800g while Scarlett was at 175g and Gus at 70g. Boots has been on a steady diet of rats for at least 1.5 years, which are fattier than mice. Remember, all three are the same age, right about 2 1/2 years old, but their feedings made them all grow at different rates.

Your guy looks healthy, which is good, but it wouldn't hurt him to be fed a bit more often. The Munson Plan http://www.medusa-corns.webs.com/feedingchart.htm is a great guide, and will help him grow.

If the 5 day plan doesn't help him gain some weight, you can try two pinks. Don't go up in size until he is ready, but a second pink might be the trick. Give the 5 day plan several weeks to work before trying the second pink.

Let us know how he is doing!
 
^^^^^^^Do that^^^^^^^^:)

Hatchling to 30+/- grams is sloooooow going with corn snakes.
He looks like he is doing ok with his weight gain.
I'd double check his temps to make sure he will digest properly on a 5 day schedule.
I would have the temp set to the higher side of the recommended hot side temperature gradient.
 
I agree. Five days, and slit the pinks. If you're feeding small pinks, you might get away with two, but I'd start with 1.5 for a few feedings to be sure.

The rule of thumb is a cornsnake gains about 1/3 of the weight of the prey it has been fed. So if you are feeding a 2 gram pink, the snake is only gaining a tiny amount. I weigh my babies on a scale that shows tenths of grams- then I can see progress.

He doesn't look thin to me.
 
Thanks everyone! Right now I don't have enough pinkies for a 5 day schedule. But I will buy more within a week or two. Weight is so much easier with BPs lol xD
 
You have enough snakes that you could be buying frozen, if you don't already. Big Cheese Rodents has _excellent_ quality mice (my favorite) and super-cheap shipping, because they ship ground (which, even in August, Texas to Florida- I've never had a problem because they are so well-insulated and have so much dry ice) and they are competitively priced at the lower end of the price range. Anyway- if you order small pinks, you get very uniform "reds," and if you order large pinks, you get a wide range (in single digit grams) of pinks. I think the smallest quantity is 50, but on a five day schedule, you _might_ go through that many before he's on to regular fuzzies. It doesn't hurt to save a few in case of regurge, or for when you get another baby.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top