Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm pretty new to the snake world, have 2 corns from this summer. Now will they eat anything I put in front of them size wise? or will they look at the pinky and say "are U freakin kidding me look at the size of that thing" and not even attempt it LOL
I know they can take down big prey, but when i put the small pinky down next to her it dwarfs her big time and I'm just a "worry wart"

Corn snakes should be fed food items that are about the same width as the thickest part of their body. Although corn snakes can eat larger food items than that, such items are difficult to digest and may result in regurgitation.

Tim

Third Eye

What Tim says is correct. But, of course, with baby corns...many of us have been in the position of having a tiny baby that even the smallest pinky we had available seemed HUGE...and the little bugger took it no problem.

Usually with a new baby corn (or two, or a clutch of babies!), I kinda "pick" thru my bag of pinks, finding the littlest ones and working my way up as they put on some weight. Do try to find pinks that are a correct size, if at all possible. You don't really want to push your luck by going more than 1.5 times the thickest part of the snake's body, and a little smaller is a little better. Duffy

I have to disagree with the same size of the snake idea. They can and will eat much larger items and in my experience have no problem digesting.
Do you think they pass up meals in the wild until they find the perfect sized ones. Snakes are amazing animals that way.
If the food is too big it wont fit. Before you get on my case I dont feed the absolute biggest thing I think they can get down but I also dont worry about tossing something in and then realizing it was on the big side. I've put rats in before that after I tossed it in I thought thats not going to go down and I have yet to have one not eat it.
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Jason

I mentioned that they can eat larger items. The snakes we keep are not in the wild. In the wild they eat what they can get. In some cases a larger-than-ideal food item is all there is.

Also, snakes have more thermoregulation options in the wild than they do in captivity. If it's 85 degrees outside, a snake can bask on a rock in the sun where the surface temperature is over 100 degrees. Or it can go in a burrow near a creek where the temperature is in the 50's. That's a 50 degree temperature gradient. Temperature is key to proper digestion in snakes.

"The Corn Snake Manual" states "Corn snakes are best offered rodents that are approximately 1-1.5 times the diameter of the thickest part of their body."

I've had snakes regurge after eating items that were big enough for them to swallow, yet too large to properly digest.

Tim

Third Eye

Great post Tim!!!
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Genesis 1:1

Tapeworm,
Listen to the master(Tim). He knows of what he speaks!!! What one can do and what one should do are often far apart!!!!

Pat

I understand that our snakes no longer live in the wild but they are still perfectly capable of doing what they were intended to do. And if you provide them the appropriate conditions they will do fine. This is just my opnion.
I'm not saying feed them the absolute biggest rat you can find every time but if its a little bigger than you thought, dont sweat it, your snake will be fine....even in captivity
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Jason

Tapeworm,
Look here's the deal. Why chance it???? Why worry???? The answer you got from Tim is what we call conventional wisdom. Do what you will but remember as a worry wart feed multiple smaller prey and miss out on the experience of smelling/cleaning up a regurged larger prey.

Pat

Thanks all for responding. That last pinky I gave her was just barely bigger then her bodies widest thickness.
Cant wait till she gets longer and thicker, shes so small to handle unlike my big male.

The cake is a lie....

The first specie of snake I ever bred was P. textilis (Eastern Brown Snake). The Hatchlings were tiny as the female wasn't fully grown. 3 hatchlings together were the diameter of a no.2 pencil. I bought 2 pair of African Pygmy Mice from a guy in S.C because their babies are small enough for the smallest hatchling to eat, and I started breeding them. Now I'm breeding Corns and Kings, and the Pygmy Mice pinks have come in very handy with.

RC

Although in captivity, corns have more trouble digesting because we limit temps to a very narrow range usually.

This is a wild cornsnake. No problem.

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Mark