• 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.

Following the Munson Plan w/o a scale?

Z

ZiVvmO

New member
I've really been wanting to keep on the Munson Plan with my snake(s), but now that she's growing, I really don't know what her weight is, and I don't have a scale. Is there a say....length + age type equivalent? Abbey is about a year old, touching about 3ft long and not quite as big around as a pop/beer bottle cap.

Any suggestions?
 
Sorry, I'm drawing a blank.

But scales are not that expensive and are sold virtually everywhere. Get one, seriously. I don't know how I lived without mine!
 
Any large chain store will likely have them cheap. I got mine at Meijers (our local version of Walmart). You can get them at specialty stores, too (Bed, Bath, and Beyond, for example), but they're much more expensive there.
 
Agreed! Buy one, you can start baking better too. I hate recipes that are in cups or fl oz. Very inaccurate. Ingredients by weight are always better.

Which kind of ties in, in a way. If I had a recipe (the Munson Plan for instance) which called for a 3 foot snake, I could easily wind up with too much snake (or not enough mouse, lol) if I didn't weigh him. There's just too much variation between 3 foot snakes. Not to mention they are the dickens to measure..
 
ZiVvmO said:
Abbey is about a year old, touching about 3ft long and not quite as big around as a pop/beer bottle cap.
Click to expand...

I must say it is refreshing to see someone else use the lid system of measurement. I'm not sure on the feeder size for a pop bottle cap size corn because when I got my snake she was already Ken's Steak House Dressing lid size. Now she's about 64 oz.Welch's grape juice lid size and still growing. She eats a mouse about that size (or about Old Bay Seasoning lid size) every 8-10 days or so.

The rule of thumb is 1 1/2 times the size of the biggest part of your snake. You should be able to see the lump in your snake for at least half a day. If the lump goes away quickly try bigger prey, if you still see it the next day you can feed smaller next time.
Observe your snake's size and adjust also. I was feeding every 7 days. I noticed my snake getting a little "rounder" and changed the time period for feeding to 8-10 days on alternate weeks. After several weeks(maybe a month and a half) I noticed a slimmer difference.
I don't think that the 1 1/2 X diameter works for large cornsnakes because my snake is about 1 5/8" in diameter and if I feed her mice that are nearly 2 1/2" in diameter she would put on weight for sure.

Use all the recommendations as general guidelines, but observe your snake.
 
I finally broke down and got a scale last week at Wally's and found that it didn't measure in small enough grams, so the spouse was at meijers and picked up one that, while it's quite small, weighs from 1 gram to 450 and it was a whopping $4.99. It's not a digital or anything fancy, you have to zero it when you put the container on it and then put the snake in the container, but it works like a charm, and now I know my amel corn weighs exactly 300 grams and my baby king weighs 22g. Piece of cake for next to nothing. :)
 
Thanks for posting this thread... reminded me that I too need to buy a scale - and now I know where!

However, it would be helpful to me if someone were to share a link to "The Munson Plan". I have no idea what that is. LOL.

Thanks again!

Fred
 
Thanks, LBoz... I was trying to figure out how to edit that post (since all I had to do was a simple search to find what I wanted), found out that I had to be a Contributor, made the contribution... and... you had beaten me to the punch! LOL.

Needless to say, I'll be getting a scale immediately. That Munson plan seems very worthwhile.
 
Kudos for becoming a contributor. Rich will appreciate that! :cheers:

Look toward the end of the thread as well. I think Dean made some modifications to it, or maybe he edited the beginning, not sure. It's easy to follow really. With one snake I didn't bother much with it because he's full grown, but now I have two babies, so it's really been a nice guideline for me. Hope it works out for you as well!
 
Thanks everyone. Looks like I'm getting a scale. I honestly didn't really know where to get one. I've never seen a small scale in a store, and I spent a lot of time in Walmart when I was in college.
 
I bought my scale off of Ebay for like 15 bucks. It measures in both grams and oz's. Good luck in finding a scale that works for you.
 
You'll probably want to look in the kitchen department and try to get one that weighs 2-3kg or above, that way you can weigh the snake in any size container without it maxing out :)
 
Walmart (well the one in Salem, NH anyway) has digital scales for $28. They had $8 non-digital ones as well and I bought one (being the corn snake noob and cheap college student that I am...) but as you can well imagine, the non-digital one is far from accurate. (unless my snake weighs the same as the surrounding air...)
 
The Munson Plan is great. I've been using it ever since I found the thread. And as everyone has posted here, scales are pretty cheap. I got mine in the kitchen section of one of our major grocery stores. I paid $29 for a digital, it has a nice big bowl on it so its really easy to weigh my snakes.
 
What is the weight capacity of your scales?

I got the $28 one from wally world and it only weighs up to 5lbs.
 
I've got the same one as you. I'm not too worried about what to feed him when he's 5 lbs. The answer is probably "whatever he wants!" Of course, I'm being a little sarcastic, but I'll worry about that when the time comes (if it does - I'm not sure what an average grown male corn weighs?).

Alan
 
A 5 pound corn would be great! I've got one that's almost 2 1/4 lbs and she's pretty big. I would think a 5 lb scale would fit the range .
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top