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Increasing muscle tone.

jovamabob

jovamabob

New member
So i picked up two new corns and they are just the cutest! They are a teeny bit chubby though - not excessively, but when i hold them i can feel they are more fat than muscle. I'm ideally gonna use the two as part of a breeding project a good few years down the line, so i'd like to increase their muscle tone a little. Is there anything i can do to help that?

About them:

Pendulum is thought to be an October 2010 hatch and is 210g and i have yet to measure him, but he's a bit longer than my 30" guy so i'd say around 3ft. Not much more though. He is 'squishy' if thats the right word (not that i squeeze him!). He was a slow-starter as a hatchling, so his owner really had to try hard to get him eating well. :D

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Unnamed girl is said to be a august 2012 hatch, but i disagree and think he remembers purchasing her then not her hatching. I think she is older as she is over double the size of my similar aged hatchlings and 112g - the same weight and almost the same length as my 2 year old slow-starter male. She's less 'squishy' but still could do with a bit of muscle on her! :)

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Are there 'snake exercises' or is it just controlled diet?
 
to me they don't look fat. They are going to be squishy. everyones muscles are squishy unless they are overly tight with stress or over work. I wouldn't really control thier diet because they are still babies. unless they are like a 1,000 gram adult. but if you want exercise for them I have heard of having them climb stairs or just having them out more. For the 112 gram beautiful snow she should be on weanlings once a week and the 210 gram handsome amel should be on adult mice once a week. I am not exactly sure how or why you would want to "control" thier diet.
 
Ah the guy is much chubbier looking in person and is very inactive - i'd just like to improve their general muscle tone. Especially the girl since she's going to be a breeding project in coming years and i know not enough muscle/too much fat can cause problems :) By squishy, i mean they feel just like bags of fat. My other guy has a nice amount of fat on him but is no where near the same. You can feel that he's much stronger, and these two dont seem to have much strength in them. I dont mean put them on a diet lol :eatpointe - just feed them a sensible meal at sensible intervals and give them a nice bit of exercise. :)
 
awww ok I was kind of worried there for a minute. lol :) I would just get them out more and have them move about/explore.
 
to me they don't look fat. They are going to be squishy.
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You can't really go by looks alone, as jovamabob has said. Some huge Corns can be pure muscle, where some smaller Corns are bags of flab. You do need to get hands-on with them to really know - there's a distinct difference between a well-toned or flabby Corn of any size. "Squishy fat" feels very different to "relaxed muscle".
 
Do you have space to give them larger (separate) enclosures? If you do, they can get plenty of exercise roaming, exploring, climbing their branches, etc. That way, they can do all this exercise while still locked safely and securely in their homes.
 
GoFride said:
Do you have space to give them larger (separate) enclosures? If you do, they can get plenty of exercise roaming, exploring, climbing their branches, etc. That way, they can do all this exercise while still locked safely and securely in their homes.
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You need to bear in mind that just because you give them bigger tanks, doesn't mean they'll be any more active. I've had a couple of palatial custom 3 foot wide x 3 foot high multi-level vivs built. It took a couple of tries before I found Corns which would even move off ground level! They're now occupied by the ones which like moving around more. I have a couple of Corns which rarely shift from beneath their favourite hides.
 
Maybe mine are just weirdos. They like their hides and tubes, but they also curl up like GTPs and sleep in the branches sometimes - cracks me up every time I see that. Maybe when they get a little bigger those branches won't be quite so comfy :grin01:
 
They already have seperate RUB's and i'm planning to move them to larger ones asap, with the vague hope that they'll at least have to move a little further to get a drink. Seb loves roaming around so he has a multi-level vivarium and im planning on doing the same for these two eventually :D I'm gonna keep them in RUBs till i find a suitable project :)
 
Funny, those are like the opposite of my pair, Male snow and a female that looks just like that amel... Do you know the lineage of him? I suspected mine of being creamcicle with all that orange.
 
They just need a lot of excercise by being handled frequently. You can make a "jungle gym" out of pvc or bamboo. Mostly boas and python like these but corns do climb in the wild and your's may like climbing to higher ground. Also, letting them outside and crawl in the grass if the temps are safe; may make them more active because they'll be exposed to knew smells and feels.

I couldnt find any pics of pvc gyms using search but on other forums there are some threads about them. Heres a vid of a bamboo gym for a boa. http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q...05CE1BE74313427F9B1805CE1BE74313427F9&first=0
 
that looks pretty cool :D My local poundland (dollar store equivalent) have bamboo canes and some thicker poles in so i could easily make up one of those for them to have a crack at :D
 
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