Reptile & Amphibian Forums

HerpZilla's post made me think about my situation. I have an Amel Mot that is overweight. I haven't seen a lot of adult corns, but what I have seen as proven breeders at shows were tiny compaired to her. She is by far the biggest corn I have ever seen.

What is the best way to get her into shape? I plan on breeding her for the first time next year and have read that overweight females have problems. I had her on small/medium rats every week. Right now I am feeding her 1 small rat every 3-4 weeks to work on her weight. Is it better to do this or smaller prey every week? I just want her to be healthy overall and for her (my)first breeding.

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3.2 Corn (Butter-Sunflower '07/Anery Stripe-Ripple '06/Amber-Jack Straw '06/Snow-Casey Jones '06/Amel Motley-Cosmo '03)
0.1 Baird's Ratsnake (Sugaree '04)
1.0 White Oaks Grey Rat (Tennesse Jed '04)
0.1 IJ Carpet Python (Cassidy '04)
1.0 Western Hognose (Samson '05)
1.1 Shepherd mix (Dylan 9yrs, Porter 4yrs)

Seriously, slow down feeding some, and a BIG cage with nots of areas. branchs etc, and if they get bored, change it. I speak personally what can happen from lack of activity. A 20 long or a 55 is no BIG. We do it out of convience.

We got a couple of snakes last year, Tim the S man may recall. They were FAT and soft. Diet and activity.

HAY TIM!!!!!!!!
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Thanks for reading.
Big Tom

www.HerpZillA.com

I had an amel corn (my first), that I let get overweight. Someone suggested that I not feed it for a few months, but that sounded dim-witted, so I thought about trying another plan. Instead, I decreased the prey size to hoppers and fed every two-three weeks. I also exercised the snake my bringing him out to be handled a few times a week and gave him a swim in the bathtub. He lives in a 40gal breeder tank, so I found that just by decreasing his food he became more active in his cage, hunting for food. On the down side, he still has a soft belly and I'm not sure if he'll ever tighten up. He's not a breeder, though, he's just a great pet.

I have her in a 40 breeder. I had some dow rods in with her before, but she never seemed to climb on like some of my others do. I do keep the aspen deep and she does like to burrow a lot. Pain in the butt to clean after her since you have to go hunting for it.

I have been on the 3-4 week feeding schedule for awhile. I know that with humans multiple small meals each day is supposed to help you lose/maintain weight better than one large mean a day. That is why I didn't know if very small prey weekly would boost the metabolism better than large meals every 3 weeks. I know that they are not human, but didn't know if others have experimented with what works best.

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3.2 Corn (Butter-Sunflower '07/Anery Stripe-Ripple '06/Amber-Jack Straw '06/Snow-Casey Jones '06/Amel Motley-Cosmo '03)
0.1 Baird's Ratsnake (Sugaree '04)
1.0 White Oaks Grey Rat (Tennesse Jed '04)
0.1 IJ Carpet Python (Cassidy '04)
1.0 Western Hognose (Samson '05)
1.1 Shepherd mix (Dylan 9yrs, Porter 4yrs)

They don't have the same metabolism that a human has, so small meals more frequently won't stoke the furnace, so to speak. Small meals less frequently, and make sure the temps are right with a little more exercise are the key components.