Greedy 'Lil Guy

[Brady]

I learned a lesson tonight that struck me (pun intended) as funny and I thought I would post it for your reading pleasure.

My Amel (Cob) is by far my favorite corn. He is very calm and always pokes his head out of his hidey once he knows I am up and about in the mornings as if to say "Hi". He is still a youngling and is a bit over one foot long. Unfortunately I don't have a scale yet so I don't know his weight. But I have been able to tell from his behavior and the amount of time the lump stays in his belly that he would really prefer more than one fuzzy at meal time. He had a perfect shed last night was ready for his next feeding. So I decided to bump him up to a two fuzzy diet.

I placed the two fuzzies in his feeding container and then picked up Cob and put him in with his dinner. He immediately pounced on the black fuzzy and coiled it tightly. As he was working his mouth down to the end to start swallowing he seemed to take interest in the white fuzzy. I mad a snap decision (which was wrong) to remove the second fuzzie so he could injest the first one. I picked it up by the tail and quick as you please Cob struck it and yanked it from my grasp!

He struggled with it for a few seconds while the first fuzzy was still firmly in his coils. Eventually he let go of meal number one to finish off the one I tried to remove. Then he came back to his first fuzzy and swallowed it up too. I was quite amused by the whole spectacle of my greedy little snake and put him back in his viv so I could feed my other kids. I always dangle the f/k rat by the tip of it's tail for my adult motley but fuzzies are a wee bit small for my comfort. I'm lucky Cob didn't nail me instead of his meal.

Note to self: Leave him alone at feeding time; he'll figure it out.

 

[Maize411]

Lol cute story..at least ya know he's a good feeder..lol

 

[Ohana]

Made me laugh thinking about being a fly on the wall. Great story.

 

[patm1313]

Lol, I think I get like that at the dinner table too.... I don't think I've bitten anybody over food, though .

 

[suecornish]

That is so cute. As I've been saying, each snake has their own personalities. I have to put Hayyah on a piece of slate so he can eat at his leisure but Yingarna needs her's dangled in front of her. If I dangle Hayyah's near him he gets scared and hides under the paper towel.

 

[Sanebedlam]

Hmm you really should get a scale it might be better to go up to one hopper instead of two fuzzies. the issue becomes stomach length and doubling up on larger prey items makes it harder for them to digest then a single slightly larger prey item.

 

[Brady]

Thank you for that info sanebedlam. I plan on picking up a scale as soon as my finances allow. Then I can put everyone on the Munson plan. One factor working against me is the variance in sizes that I get from my local (and only) herp shop. I've had to refuse what they called a hopper a few times and gone with multiple fuzzies. Some of their so-called hoppers are up to three times Cob's diameter and that just won't do. :shrugs:

 

[Brady]

Sorry for the bump - I measured Cob's shed skin and he is actually right at 19 inches long. What was that about men not being able to look at something and tell how long it really is?? :uhoh:

 

[patm1313]

Thank you for that info sanebedlam. I plan on picking up a scale as soon as my finances allow. Then I can put everyone on the Munson plan. One factor working against me is the variance in sizes that I get from my local (and only) herp shop. I've had to refuse what they called a hopper a few times and gone with multiple fuzzies. Some of their so-called hoppers are up to three times Cob's diameter and that just won't do. :shrugs:

Scales can be very cheap. They may not be as accurate, but they will probably be within a gram or two of the actual weight. Also (from my own questions about the munson plan) the munson plan is supposed to be only a guide. If your corn reaches the right weight as the munson plan says for the next size of food, there is a chance that it still may not be ready for that size of food. For example, my corn was 20 grams but was not big enough to handle double pinks.

My local pet shop that sells frozen mice also had very differentiating pinks, but they got a new supplier (I think) and got better ones. In the time that they had differentiating pinks, I simply asked to see the bag of pinks and picked out the properley sized ones. I think they were happy about that because they thought the little frozen mice were gross and were happy for me to handle them.

Sorry for the bump - I measured Cob's shed skin and he is actually right at 19 inches long. What was that about men not being able to look at something and tell how long it really is?? :uhoh:

Ahhh!!!! No No! Do not measure your corns skin. Measure the corn. I know that the corn probably doesn't want to cozy up to a yard stick, but you could probably work it out with some assistance. Or, you could measure the length of the corn's cage, and when the corn is crawling along the edge, you can roughly geuss it's length.

The problem with shed skins: They can stretch up to 40% longer then the corn itself, so it's possible to have a foot long corn, but measure the shed as 17 inches long.

Sorry about the typos, I'm sitting in a cold basement and my fingers are about frozen solid.

 

[Brady]

Ok. We had a photo op evening tonight. Cob turns out to be ahem... Cobella... I think. When you view the snake from the side there is a marked decrease in size from vent to tail. By the way, have I mentioned that as far as forums go, you all rock! Thank you for your imput and solid info.