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Going against Munson Plan?

C

ChristinaH

New member
Hi everyone. Our little Doof is getting long and has finally put on some weight. He last weighed in at 12grams. My concern is that the last couple of times we have fed him his f/t pinky, there really isn't much of a lump showing. He ate last night (he's on an every 5 days schedule), and this morning I don't see a lump. According to the Munson Plan, he should be on 1 pinky until he reaches 16 grams, but I'm wondering if we should try giving him 2 pinkies? Any advice? BTW, we've been getting our pinkies from Petco and they seem to be pretty small. Looking at them I would say they are about the same diameter as Doof's body.

Thanks!
 
The Munson plan is not the end all, be all of feeding schedules. Animals are individuals and do not conform to any plans. Feed them what you want, do not worry about "the plan".
 
I don't follow any plan. I feed my snakes what I think they can handle and they are doing great, Bandit is growing like a weed and Gypsy has lost the fatty build up from her old owner over feeding her. So things are doing great w/o a plan... Oh and I only just got a kitchen scale to weigh them...lol
 
The "Munson Plan" is a great guideline to get great growth from your snake without overfeeding it that can cause problems down the road. As it has been stated, it is only a guideline.
 
Try weighing the pinks. If they really are like 1 gm pinks I bet you could do 1 1/2 or 2 of them.
 
Thanks everyone! I was thinking about weighing the pinks - I'll do that before the next feeding and decide if we should move him up to 2.
 
There's a huge variation in the size of pinks. Sounds like you have some small ones. I might do a couple meals of 1.5 pinks, see how that goes, and then go up to doubles. But I'm conservative :)
 
Not all pinks are created equal. Neither are all fuzzies, jumpers, etc., which is why I always look at the snake and eyeball the size prey it will eat on any specific day, using the info from previous feedings as additional help. And to make matters more complicated, some snakes don't follow the rules, requiring larger or small meals to do well.
 
As above, I agree that The Munson Plan is a great starting point and a reasonable set of guidelines that won't cause a problem for the majority of Corns.

However, as also stated, Corns don't necessarily follow the same rule book that we're reading! If you need to depart from Munson, don't feel that you'll be harming your youngster. Most of us work on variations of it. Some Corns put on fat faster than others and have to be fed less. Some stay on the lean side and need to be fed slightly more.

Tweak to your heart's content! The only real problem would be overfeeding and it doesn't sound like you're in danger of that, with one pink not leaving a lump 12 hours later. I'd see that as a good point to promote to the next feeding stage.
 
Hey everyone, sorry it took me so long to update this - I moved Doof up to 2 pinkies every 6 days, versus the 1 pinky every 5 days. He gobbles those babies up in minutes! I get my mice from Petco and they are really small - I actually picked up a pack of fuzzies yesterday because they don't seem much bigger than the pinkies. Might try him on 1 fuzzy in a couple of weeks.
Thanks for all the advice!
 
The pinkies from Petco are VERY small. Never more then 1-2g even though the bag says 2+. When I saw regular sized pinkies at the reptile store I was a little shocked by their size, lol! The reptile store is great because they have tons of different frozen mice and they help me pick the exact size I want. :D

The Petco frozen adult mice seem a little on the small side also by Munson Plan standards. It works out okay for Emily though since she's a little on the small side right now too. :)
 
The Munson Plan was developed using mice from The Mouse Factory, which are well-fed and generously-sized compared to lots of other commercial mouse suppliers. It's nice to have a gram scale to weigh mice so you are feeding by the gram, not the somewhat arbitrary size designation.
 
Yeah, I need to find somewhere nearby to get better mice I think. Our reptile store here doesn't endorse feeding f/t so they don't sell them. Thought that was a bit odd. I don't want to order a huge amount online not knowing how long Doof will be on the various sizes either.
I'll have to weigh the fuzzies I got, and weigh Doof again, because while I'm pretty sure he's no more than 20g, if that, he really looks big enough for the fuzzy.
Thanks!
 
Good to know Nanci. I'm definitely going to weigh the fuzzies when I'm down to just 2 pinkies (one meal for Doof) in a couple of weeks. Doof eats tonight, I'll try to remember to weigh him again to get an idea of where he'll be at. Last time I weighed him he was 14g, but it has been a few weeks. He doesn't like being put in the container on the scale. lol
 
I increase the size of the pinkies as the hatchling gains weight. I still don't bump them up to 2 pinkies until around 16 grams.
 
The Munson plan is a good place to start. But my problem with it is I think it relies too heavily on weights. Not all pinkies are the same (even from same source) not all snakes are the same. Here's how I feed my snakes, which I think is way easier.

Feed something that is ~1.5x the widest part of the snakes body. Feed once a week until you no longer see a lump after it eats. When you don't see a lump, move up in food size. Then continue to feed that size until you no longer see a lump and continue the process.

So if you're feeding small pinks and don't see a lump, move to large pinks. Then feed those until you don't see a lump and move up to fuzzies and so forth. I prefer this method because you don't have to worry about weights to keep things going.

If the prey is slightly larger or smaller than 1.5x, no big deal, just don't feed anything that is too extreme.
 
I'm pretty limited on food size - seems Petco's mice are all small. I bumped him to 2 pinks because there was no lump from 1 after 12 hours. I need to check him after this next feeding and see how long the lump stays. I don't want to bother him when he is digesting so I usually leave him to hide. He seems to have grown a lot recently though so I definitely need to weigh him. I'd guess he is about 15 inches long, without actually stretching him out to see. He's about as long as from the tips of my fingers to my elbow. He was teeny tiny when we brought him home!
 
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