Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have an approx. 31/2 year old, maybe 3 ft or so long corn snake and i bought some frozen mice yesterday from petsmart. the biggest size they had are about a touch bigger than a fuzzy...they came in a group of 6. i didnt realize how small they were until i got home and now im not sure how many to feed him? he usually eats one large adult mouse every week week 1/2. i dont want to over feed him, so should i just feed him 2? or go find bigger mice?

The fact that your corn is 3 and 3' makes me wonder if you aren't UNDER feeding it. Hope is 1 year old and 35". I would stick to one adult (not xl) mouse. I don't think the 2 fuzzies will be enough.

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0.1 Snow Corn "Hope"
1.0 Ball Python "Wilson" (Castaway)
1. Orange Albino Black Ratsnake "Chunk" (Goonies)
.1 Orange Albino Black Ratsnake "Peaches"
0.0.1 Mexican Black Kingsnake "Onyx"
0.0.1 Black Ratsnake "Molly" (Flogging Molly)

As we say in Missouri, "I ain't goin back to Missouri!"

i agree, a 3' corn can take a full size mouse with no problems at all... but, small mice cannot hurt you snake so don't throw out the ones you just bought. Feed them to your snake 3 at a time and then switch to large mice.

I would put them all in his feeding cage and let him decide how many he wants to eat, he will know when he has had enough, and will leave the rest to be devoured another time, throw them back in the freezer if they have not been out too long afer defrosting.

I HIGHLY recomend against that. In the wild snakes will gorge themselves on a whole nest (mice, birds, squirells) because they don't know when they will eat again. That is not healthy and is unneccesary since they eat regularly.
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0.1 Snow Corn "Hope"
1.0 Ball Python "Wilson" (Castaway)
1. Orange Albino Black Ratsnake "Chunk" (Goonies)
.1 Orange Albino Black Ratsnake "Peaches"
0.0.1 Mexican Black Kingsnake "Onyx"
0.0.1 Black Ratsnake "Molly" (Flogging Molly)

As we say in Missouri, "I ain't goin back to Missouri!"

If this was a ONE TIME event then it REALLY is ok to feed as many of the smaller mice as it wants,not to waste good food,especially if the snake is still growing, just next time make sure you purchase the right size, or guesstimate how many smaller mice fit into a larger size you would normally feed especially if it is still growing, I feed my younger snakes as many pinkies as they want once every 9th day, and they DON'T gorge themselves on them, captive snakes are different from wild snakes, they become accustomed to feeding and DO KNOW when their next meal is coming, unlike snakes in the wild. My snakes approve of a well balanced diet, and don't need to be consuming no slimfast shakes, they are young, and they need to eat to grow, ANOREXIA is NOT sexier. Feed that beast.

Just because YOUR snakes don't seem to gorge, does not mean every captive bred snake will not. I had a snake escape and get into my breeder mouse cage that night. I found it the next day stuffed full with a whole litter of pinkies/ fuzzies. it was so fat, it could not get out the bars. Some snakes will eat only what they want even if offered more, others will not stop.
Although I do not think it is bad to give your snake an extra meal every now and then, it is not healthy to let them "gorge". Lots of people think that more frequent smaller meals are better than one large meal, so the smaller meals wont be a big deal. Just plan better for the future. Everyone learns as they go.
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****Misty****

Due to budget cuts, the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off.

1.1.2 bearded dragons
1.1.1 water dragons
0.0.5 leopard geckos
7.18.4 corn snakes
1.1.0 jungle corns
2.5.0 king snakes
1.0.0 Sinaloan milk snake
0.1.0 Tri-Hybrid milk snake
0.1.0 rat snake
1.1.0 Leucistic rat snakes
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