• 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.

Feeding Questions

T

texasreb

New member
My corn is a probable male, about 14 years old and he weighs over 700 grams.

Is he considered a large corn snake or average?

I feed him a large f/t mouse about every 7-10 days. Around the 7 day mark, he starts begging for the next meal.

Am I over/under feeding him? I used to feed him small-medium rats every 14 days and he seemed more satisfied, but I switched to mice on the recommendation of this forum.

Would XL mice be better? Where do you get them? My local stores only carry large mice.

Thanks for all of the help and info.
 
A picture of his body shape is a better indication of his level of over/under-weightedness. However, I think he sounds fine judging by the grams. My largest corn snake is in the 700 gram range and she is not overweight.

I feel like you're feeding him a bit too often, but if his weight looks good and he's otherwise healthy, you can probably stick with your schedule. I would not feed him rats, however.
 
A common analogy is that a tented shape is underweight, a round shape is overweight, and a bread loaf shape is appropriate.

I know that if you ever need to switch to XL Mice, I have read that there are places online where you can by mice (luckily I am spoiled by having a great reptile shop 1/2 hour from my house).
 
I took a couple of snaps with my phone. Not great pictures, but maybe you can judge his weight by them. He ate two days ago.

Sleenkie%201_zpsqr8bayr3.jpg
[/URL][/IMG]

sleenkie2_zpscjzvvera.jpg
[/URL][/IMG]

sleenkie3_zpscupxpfyy.jpg
[/URL][/IMG]
 
He looks a bit overweight in the pics.

I would keep him on large adult mice (as opposed to XL adult mice) and maybe space out the feedings a bit more, until he is back into a healthy weight range.
If he is still over 500 grams at that point, You can probably give him an XL adult, every 2-3 weeks.

Think of someone (person) who was allowed to gorge themselves on a buffet for a while, and then they start eating appropriate sized meals. Yes, they are going to be hungry after the normal meal, until their body adjusts to eating appropriate portions, but that is what they have to do to become healthy.

Being overweight is as bad for them as it is for us.

How big is his enclosure? Is it possible to put him in a larger enclosure with "obstacles" (branches,etc) for him get get more space to move around in, more exercise?
 
Will do! But he's going to hate us all! He's in a 40 gallon terrarium--36"w x 19"t x 18"d.

My scale is currently on loan to someone else. He was 702 grams after his 3 month hunger strike this spring. So I'm sure that he's back on regular feedings, he weighs a bit more.

He went from the end of Feb to the beginning of June without eating. I fed him hoppers for the first 3 feedings after he resumed eating to avoid shocking his system with a large meal. He's been averaging about 3.5 large mice/month.

I'll stretch out his feedings a day or so at a time to accustom him to eating less often.

I'll post his current weight as soon as I get my scale back. I'm going after it today!
 
As with humans, taking weight off can take a while.

It's good that you are getting him onto more appropriate sized food.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top