Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I got my first corn in Late '07 (either August or October..one of the 2)...a pretty Amel. Picked up another, smaller, anery at the show in Columbia, SC in Nov. of '07. Since then theyhave both been feeding readily (once weekly) on appropriately sized pinkies.

The amel that we got has grown noticeably since we got her and has shed either 4 or 5 times. The anery has only shed twice and doesn't appear to be too much larger then when we got it.

Could it be that the anery is just taking a longer time to grow or is it possible that there are "runts" in cornsnake clutches similar to occurrences in cat or dog litters?

Just wondering why our 'baby' is staying so small?
Thanks for any inupt.

Cory
-----
1.0 Abino Striped Cali King
0.1 Amel Corn
0.1 Anery Corn
1.0.1 Black Rat
0.0.1 Eastern Garter
1.0 Normal Ball Python
2.1 Bettas

Corn snakes, like just about any animal, can have different growth rates, even when the same sized animals are fed the same amount of food.

It's possible that you got a "runt" but there's really no way of knowing that. I feed baby snakes more frequently than once a week, especially in their first 6-9 months of life. If the anery is processing (digesting) it's food in 3 to 4 days, I'd feed it more often.

Also, some corn snakes are genetically smaller than others. Depending on the locality of the snake's ancestors, one corn make never reach the length of another - even if on the same feeding schedule.

Tim

Third Eye

Thanks, Tim.

I'm still a little new to this as I've only been keeping since late '07 and I guess, sometimes, I tend to err on the side of caution. I didn't want to overfeed and didn't want a surplus of thawed pinks that no one wanted to eat.

The anery is eating fine and "processing" what I would call 'normally'..by normally I mean if it goes in, it eventually comes out. However, I can't tell (until this point) how long it's taking. I'll watch more carefully after the next few feedings to know exactly how long.

Is there a ceratin amount of time that I should allow after defecation before feeding again?

Thanks,

Cory
-----
1.0 Abino Striped Cali King
0.1 Amel Corn
0.1 Anery Corn
1.0.1 Black Rat
0.0.1 Eastern Garter
1.0 Normal Ball Python
2.1 Bettas

It would be difficult to overfeed a baby snake. Adults can get fat, but babies generally take the energy from food and apply it towards growth. So it's unlikely that a baby would become overweight.

You don't need to worry about being stuck with pinkies, as the snakes gain size they can eat two or three at one sitting until you run out and order the next larger size.

I'd put the anery on a once every five days feeding schedule and see how that goes.

Tim

my 07 lavender eats 3 times a week. recently I had to get rid of a bag of day-old pinks that were too small for my other snakes so I started feeding them to the lavender (who was eating fuzzies). He was eating 6-9 day-olds each time.

As soon as the lump goes down the throat, it's time to offer another. You can probably get your snake to eat 4-5 pinkies in one sitting. Wait 3 days and do it again.

And if your snake gets full and you have a bunch of thawed pinkies, give them time to cool down to room temp and then toss them back in the freezer. You can refreeze them a few times before they go bad.
-----
1.0.0 Great Plains Ratsnake
1.0.0 Corn, Lavender Aztec het for Amel
0.1.0 Black Ratsnake
0.0.1 Texas Rat (tame)
1.0.0 Broad Banded Water Snake, Hypo
1.0.0 Black Bassador Retriever
2.1.0 Godchildren, 1 Evil, 2 possible hets

An interesting observation - I bought a Caramel and a Charcoal last year. Both are growing decently, but the charcoal was growing faster than the caramel. Last couple months - the caramel hit a growth spurt and is now overtaking the charcoal.

It's just the way it goes sometimes.
-----
I decided my old sig was too big.

Thanks All.

ALL great information for, still, a relative newbie. I lost about 20 pinks in an unfortunate freezer accident last week (outlet tripped and everything thawed WAY before we noticed) so as soon as the new batch of mice-cicles gets here i'm going to step up her feeding and see what happens.

Thanks, again, for all of the most helpful information.

I'll check back soon and get some pictures posted.

Cory
-----
1.0 Abino Striped Cali King
0.1 Amel Corn
0.1 Anery Corn
1.0.1 Black Rat
0.0.1 Eastern Garter
1.0 Normal Ball Python
2.1 Bettas

Here are a few pictures of the litle girl....the shoe is a size 8.5

-----
1.0 Abino Striped Cali King
0.1 Amel Corn
0.1 Anery Corn
1.0.1 Black Rat
0.0.1 Eastern Garter
1.0 Normal Ball Python
2.1 Bettas

The SHOE I mean!..hahaha!

BTW,....Tim did NOT mean to stuff the snake with too much prey when he said ...."you can't over-feed a young corn". He only meant that a young corn will not get obese, and that they use their energy for growing rapidly. If the snake is not kept where it can seek temps of low-mid 80's, they can EASILY regurgitate big meals!. This in turn can cause HUGE problems if not corrected ASAP!

A pinkie that is "SLIGHTLY" larger than the diameter of the size of the snake at mid-body every 5 days is as large as I would offer that young slim corn for the time being. Don't get me wrong, depending on temps and size of snake, etc...they can sometimes be fed every three to four days, but without REALLY being familiar and able to "read" things like the back of your hand, I wouldn't recommend it, and the 5 day appropriate diameter thing mentioned before is fine, AND much safer too.

Just keep in mind, the very LAST thing you want, is a small delicate snake regurgitating!...things can go bad FAST if that is allowed to happen even once,....it can cause a downward "domino effect" that many inexperienced keepers don't know how to handle properly, and MANY a young snake has died from the chain of events from just ONE initial regurgitation. Simply put, what I really mean to say is,...unless you know the proper steps to take if this happens, one regurge leads to the next regurge, to the next, etc...etc...until the young small snake eventually dies......definitely something to think about, some keepers think ...Oh!, I'll really get it growing good if I offer huge meals real often..............WRONG!!!!

best regards, ~Doug
-----
"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

Yeah, it isn't the best shoe but we keep her (the snake - not the shoe...well, the shoe, too...but i digress) in my son's room and it was the closest thing i could find for a size comparison.

so far so good...she's a great eater and has been since we got her in november 07 (we picked up 2 at Repticon in Columbia, SC - the other was a non-eater). only regurged once and that was because the tiniest of the pinks i had (at the time) was even too large for her. she got it about halfway in and had to let it go. i gave her a few days (got an even smaller pink) and everything was fine again.

she's been on a once a week schedule since we got her she just seems to not be getting any larger...MAYBE a little more length but no more girth.

she's always active when i handle her...we did have to treat her for mites when we brought her home but she made it through that successfully. her first and second sheds weren't perfect by any means but her most recent finally came off whole...

ida know. maybe i'm paranoid and maybe i'm just looking for a problem when there really isn't one...she's just such a sweet little thing...

time will tell

sorry for the long post

Cory
-----
1.0 Abino Striped Cali King
0.1 Amel Corn
0.1 Anery Corn
1.0.1 Black Rat
0.0.1 Eastern Garter
1.0 Normal Ball Python
2.1 Bettas

Only time will tell the tale!

~Doug
-----
"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"