Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I purchased a pair of hatchlings (amel het hypo, charcoal, motley) last year at the Northwest Captive Breeders Expo here in seattle. My female died about 2 months later due to a heattape malfunction and it cooked her in her tub :

Anyways i still have the male and hes coming up on a year now. He tops the scales at 280 grams and nearly 4' long. He feeds weekly on large fuzzy rats.

What do your yearlings weigh in at?...

My yearlings are 126 and 146 g, length somewhere around 30". My neighbor's yearling I'd say is at least 3.5'.
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-audri
Webpage/Pics

My yearlings are A LOT smaller than yours. Just curious, do you ever wonder about overfeeding? I ask because I was recently told that I feed too much and that it's much healthier if snakes don't get to be 3 feet until they are 4 (or more) years old.

Yearlings:
My female ghost: 127 grams, 26 inches
My male bloodred: 115 grams, 28 inches
My female bloodred: 130 grams, 28 inches

My 2 yr old male:
230 grams, 37 inches.

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alstiver@hotmail.com

1.0 '01 Hypo snow cornsnake (Tesla)
0.1 '02 Ghost (pastel) cornsnake (Banshee)
1.1 '02 Bloodred cornsnakes (Desi and Luci Too)
0.0.3 Goldfish (Kabuki, Isamu, and Yuki)
1.0 American Eskimo mutt (Rusty)

He gets 1 appropriatly sized meal every 6-8 days and thats it. He is on the same diet all my other snakes are on, and they are pretty much right on for their sizes.. hes just massive!

hes always fed on BIG meals however. When he was a hatchling he never accepted newborn pinks, he would only take larger pinks, and thats been the story his entire life. He always fed on "one size larger" than i thought he should be feeding on.

i as a rule switch all my animals over to rats as soon as they are able to take them. So once he became able to eat small adult mice, i tried him on a rat fuzzy and hes been chowing on them ever since.

he is the first corn ive owned, so i really havent had much to compare his weight and size to. Hes not fat, lumpy or anything else.. hes actually very lean (im used to short fat ball pythons, and kenyan sand boas).. looking back at his length now, hes closer to 36" than 48".. so that was 1 mistake..

dan

I just went and measured my larger yearling (the 146g one), and she comes out to be 33". That was just on one (not very large) food item per week. She'll wind up hitting 3' before she's 1.5 yrs. I can't imagine what kind of schedule I'd have to keep them on where they wouldn't reach that size till 4.

My neighbor with the 3.5' yearling has been feeding 1x/week as far as I know, also. Their food items were probably larger, but it probably has a lot to do with the individual. Forcing such slow growth sounds a little unnatural.
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-audri
Webpage/Pics

I'm not saying that I agree with what the guy said. I feel like his snakes must be starving on his feeding schedule.

I just added that info to see what people would say.

What happened was I was at a display to educate non-herpers and showed off my 3 foot two year old snake.

The people going around the display saw my snake first and asked about it, etc. Then they went to talk to the other guy and see his snakes.

He rudely pointed out that he keeps his snakes small and "doesn't power feed his snakes like SOME people because it isn't healthy to grow them up fast." I couldn't believe that he would try to make another person at the display feel like they were doing something wrong.

I actually took a look at his snakes earlier in the day and his corn snakes that were supposedly 3 years old were very small. I actually thought they were hatched this year because they were so small until he later made his comment.

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alstiver@hotmail.com

1.0 '01 Hypo snow cornsnake (Tesla)
0.1 '02 Ghost (pastel) cornsnake (Banshee)
1.1 '02 Bloodred cornsnakes (Desi and Luci Too)
0.0.3 Goldfish (Kabuki, Isamu, and Yuki)
1.0 American Eskimo mutt (Rusty)

There is a big debate in the boa and python forums about powerfeeding to get the snakes large enough to breed in the least amount of time.It's all about money and turnaround,and not about the welfare of the snakes.I dont power feed my boa's and yes they are growing slower but if that's bad for them i really doubt it.In the wild it could take a boa 20 years to reach 8 feet long and ive never seen a fat wild caught boa ever.

My corns i treat i little different than my boa's.My juvie corns get fed once a week and my adults are fed once every 3 weeks.I dont own any snake that looks plump but i dont have any snake that looks malnurished either.Im trying to find a happy medium that's best for my snakes.

I don't believe in power feeding at all, I was still accused of it though.

I've never fed my snakes more often than every 5 days, and that was only when they were VERY young. I've since switched to every 7-10 days for the yearlings and every 14-21 days for my 2 year old.
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alstiver@hotmail.com

1.0 '01 Hypo snow cornsnake (Tesla)
0.1 '02 Ghost (pastel) cornsnake (Banshee)
1.1 '02 Bloodred cornsnakes (Desi and Luci Too)
0.0.3 Goldfish (Kabuki, Isamu, and Yuki)
1.0 American Eskimo mutt (Rusty)

Do your snakes let you know when they're ready to eat? The longest my 14 month old corn has gone between feedings is 16 days. That was last month when he was shedding. Usually, he is out cruising his cage for food on feeding day (normally 7 days apart). When he starts looking for food sooner than a week, I've increased the amount of food. He currently gets two hoppers/feeding. Do your older snakes not look for food as much as younger snakes, or do you just not feed them even if they do? Thanks.
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1.0 Normal corn, "Mulder"

1.1 cockatiels "Farley" and "Snickerdoodle"
and 1.0 mutt "Logan"

I dont have any real old snakes,my amels are 3 years old and there growth has slowed down.I feed now to keep a healthy weight to them.I have some young hypos that crawl around the day after i feed them.I dont trust crawling around as an indication of hunger.I know people in my herp club that wont feed any snake till it deficates.I find that might be going to far but who knows?The best way to tell about your snake is buy looking at them.If they look good keep them on the schedule your on.If not bump it up a notch...Paul..

I wait until the snake defecates it's last meal before feeding the next meal.

I also usually wait until they are out actively exploring their cages for a few days before I feed them again. I don't like the fact that they could potentially be inactive snakes if I feed them sooner than this.

At times, my one snake literally does not move from his one hide for weeks on end, sometimes only coming out half way to get a drink and then back in. If I fed him more often than I do, he would be fat fat fat. Actually I'm thinking of extending his feedings even more (currently every 14-21 days) because of his inactivity. Right now he is only getting 1 larger hopper or small weanling mouse per meal too, so it's not like I'm feeding a bunch per meal either.
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alstiver@hotmail.com

1.0 '01 Hypo snow cornsnake (Tesla)
0.1 '02 Ghost (pastel) cornsnake (Banshee)
1.1 '02 Bloodred cornsnakes (Desi and Luci Too)
0.0.3 Goldfish (Kabuki, Isamu, and Yuki)
1.0 American Eskimo mutt (Rusty)

Male Okeetee 32" 171g
Female Amel 30" 153g

Both eating 1 or 2 hoppers every 6 days