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Paranoid about the size of one of my corns

F

foxyjax1212

New member
He is an aggressive eater of one pinky a week. He is pretty aggressive and has a bad attitude, but that's not really new. However (and I'm not sure if it's just because of the massive size of a kingsnake I just recieved), lately I have noticed how skinny he really is. He was born around October...the last week of October, and I don't have his weights...but I have some pics to go by.

If you see something that looks off...tell me. That's what I'm asking. Does my 5 month old hatchling look normal to you?

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He looks just fine to me, but I'd wonder if he's ready for fluffs or large pinks by now, or 2 pinks if you've got a stock in the freezer to use up. Once corns get off pinks you'll see a growth spurt
 
He's pretty. I'd feed him 2 pinkies at a time or even 3. Looks a little thin to me. His aggression could be cause he's hungry.
 
he looks just fine to me. I don't see anything that would make me think he's skinny either.. How much are you feeding him? My 2011s are all eating double pinks.
 
my 2011's are on peach fuzzies and actually some of those are small! I have fuzzies that I'll be using really soon.

I need to remember I have more snakes on the way who will be small so I need to save my small mice. oops! Good thing a show is coming up!

I wouldn't really worry much about him being too thin, just keep feeding the right size every 5 days. Stay consistent with the 5 days. I tend to forget feeding day sometimes.
 
Your snake will grow better if you feed it one pinkie after another til it quits eating. If you are deciding how much your snake should eat at a feeding you may be wrong. Let the snake eat if it wants until it is full and of course do not handle it for a couple days to let it digest its meal. Your snake has absolutely beautiful markings and color.
 
Jim king said:
Your snake will grow better if you feed it one pinkie after another til it quits eating. If you are deciding how much your snake should eat at a feeding you may be wrong. Let the snake eat if it wants until it is full and of course do not handle it for a couple days to let it digest its meal. Your snake has absolutely beautiful markings and color.
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Your kidding..... right!! No way in heck should you do this!!

One pinky every five day. I would then double up for a few feeding before moving to hoppers.
 
Corns are eating machines, unlike other snakes they will not stop eating when they are full. I would defintly try him on 2 pinks and see how he does.
 
Jim king said:
Your snake will grow better if you feed it one pinkie after another til it quits eating. If you are deciding how much your snake should eat at a feeding you may be wrong. Let the snake eat if it wants until it is full and of course do not handle it for a couple days to let it digest its meal. Your snake has absolutely beautiful markings and color.
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I really hope you are kidding. This is absolutely horrible advice.

Following what Jim king says can easily get you an extremely obese snake, cut its life expectancy down by many years, and the more obvious outcome is that they snake may end up regurgitating and die from overfeeding.

On topic, I have an Anery corn that took a long time to hit his growth spurt. He is a late 2009 and is still a little small. Technically I should have been able to breed him this year, but he was too small, and I will not be around to take care of the babies this summer, so I decided not to try. But, when I got him I had not done any research and kept him on sand, with another snake, without a regulated heat source, so yeah, I did everything wrong... I am glad I found this site to fix me up. But yeah, sometimes it takes them a while to hit their spurt, then they grow quickly.
 
Ours is 7 months old and looks very similar to yours, just proportionally a little bigger
and has eaten twice since we got her, 2 fuzzies per feeding. She is very friendly and does not mind being handled at all, by adults or children.
Here she is on the tile floor, the tiles are 13" x 13"
 

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I believe my corn snake responds very nicely to more numerous small size pinkies at feedings every 4 days. He has not regurgitated yet... and when I run out of my 100 frozen pinkies I will move up to a larger size meals. He has grown 6 inches since i got him Feb 12, 2012 and is 24 inches last week. I have no plans for more snakes and I will continue feeding him when he wants to eat. I think his feeding schedule would be considered power feeding by many, but some authorities say that feeding young snakes more food during their rapid growth phase is not a bad thing. In 18 months I plan on slowing down to once a week feeding of 1 adult mouse.
 
Jim king said:
I believe my corn snake responds very nicely to more numerous small size pinkies at feedings every 4 days. He has not regurgitated yet... and when I run out of my 100 frozen pinkies I will move up to a larger size meals. He has grown 6 inches since i got him Feb 12, 2012 and is 24 inches last week. I have no plans for more snakes and I will continue feeding him when he wants to eat. I think his feeding schedule would be considered power feeding by many, but some authorities say that feeding young snakes more food during their rapid growth phase is not a bad thing. In 18 months I plan on slowing down to once a week feeding of 1 adult mouse.
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Out of interest, Jim, just which authorities recommend this method of feeding?
 
I just google "power feeding snakes "and go thru the hits until I get one I like. LOL I almost always find the information I like. My snake loves to eat and is not fat and is not skinny.
 
Like everyone else said, bump him up to 2 pinkies, every 5-6 days.
And then the next week give him a larger pinkie, or "barely fuzzy".
And then switch back n forth over the next couple of feedings after that.
Personally, I switch back n forth when moving up to the next food size, as I suspect this causes their skull bones to stretch and rest. This in turn seems to cause their heads to grow wider.
You may also notice that as they age through the first few years of maturity, they seem to go through phases of growing chubbier for awhile, and then growing longer for awhile.
Your boy is hungry.
With regard to his handling, perhaps he needs more time in your hands 60 hours after feeding (to avoid regurgs), so he gets used to the concept of being handled while he is small, and so he does not learn to associate his vivarium being opened with Feeding Time!
 
Thanks for the tips. My corn snake is able to separate feeding from holding perfectly so far. I believe I have the most mellow content corn snake in the whole world. I keep his enclosure closed and escape proof , with good ventilation and small heater under a hide at one end of the enclosure with an unheated hide at the other, which he chooses the temperature he wants. When I remove the top to observe his behavior, he just waits to see what I will be doing... either picking him up for a while or tweezer feeding him pinkies which does get him moving around his enclosure on his own . Usually I see him wandering around his enclosure only in the dark when I flick the lights on to spy on him.
 
Jim, just so you know. There have been people on this forum that have power fed in the past and noticed health issues later on in the snakes life. They thought it was due to the power feeding. Most people I have talked to around here discourage it because it can cut your snakes lifespan by a few years (not sure how many exactly), just a little food for thought.

Also, I used to think that power feeding my snake was a good idea, until I heard some of the negative side effects.
 
Thanks for your experience and knowledge. After this corn snake lives out whatever life he has with me I will not get another snake. I will ease off on the feeding schedule, because I do not want him to get any health issues while he is young.
 
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