Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I read the stuff on powerfeeding corns below. While it may be harmful to feed adult corns too much/too fast, what's good for a baby. I have two that are two months old, and the breeder I got him from feeds his babies four small pinkies a week. (Please don't say that he is an idiot, because he is a proffesional snake breeder, he has no "real" job.) All of his snakes are healthy and happy. I was thinking that maybe I'd do more like two per week, or three in two weeks. Basically, how often is too often?

Thanks,
Taylor

The breeder I got my snake from (5mths old now) was feeding one pinkie a week. He said now that the snake will be in its final home it would be fine to feed it 2 pinkies a week, several days apart. If that is fine, when should I change my feeding times, at a certain age or certain size food?

Thanks for the info, in advanced.

Personally, I feed my hatchlings once or twice a week... when they're younger, I give them 1 pink per feeding. As they get larger, I move to two pinks per feeding until they're big enough to take fuzzies. At fuzzies, it's pretty much strictly once per week.

Use whatever works for you. I've never tried feeding a snake four times a week, though that sounds excessive... Just keep an eye on your snakes, and if it looks like your snake isn't having enough time to digest its first meal, don't give it a second so soon. Each snake has a different metabolism.

-Kat
-----
"You keep WHAT in your freezer?"
"Mice. And rats. If that bothers you, I can call them 'cows' instead."

First off the term "powerfeeding" is usually used to describe the practice of feeding a snake so much that it acheives a breeding length and weight before a healthy breeding age (in the case of corns 2-3 years old) It is a harmfull and often backfiring practice usually ending in a shortened life span of the mother and egg-binding, slugs and small clutch size and decreased vigor of offspring. If applied to humans in would the same as stuffing tons of food down little girls to get them to 120-140 lbs at 8 years old and hopeing they produce healthy offspring. If you were to poll all the long term successfull breeders that consistantly produce healthy offspring and maintain long term healthy breeders year after year you would that the vast majority of them feed growing snakes 1 appropriate sized meal a week untill true sexual maturity for that species and then maintain a consistant diet to maintain that snake at a healthy body weight in which the snake is still slowly growing and not showing signs of underfeeding but is definately not showing signs of obesity. This often comes up to about one appropriate sized meal every 1-2 weeks and sometimes even a little longer especially with the less active boids. There obviously is a lot of art involved as one needs to base some decisions on the individual snake and knowledge of specific species.

That being said however, I personally think there is some room for argument. When I had baby corns I did not have a good supply of pinkies and wanted to get them to the fuzzy/hopper stage quicker. I would typically feed them a meal that would put a visible lump in them but not so huge that they risked regurgitating or had such a big bulge that they couldn't move freely. Then I waited for them to poop which was usually at day 2-3 after a meal. figuring that meant the passage was clear I gave then another meal and so on. In addition to pinkies I would also supplement them with pinky sized hunks of rat tail and rat feet and legs for bone supplementation. My baby corns grew very steadily and had outstanding muscularity and a nice firm healthy feel to them. They did not show any signs of obesity. Once they were eating hopper sized mice I noticed that they would poop at about day 5-7 and I adjusted my feeding accodingly. At about year-1/2 they were about 21/2-3 ft in length and the girth of about a quarter. At that time they were eating fuzzy rats (I'm a big beleiver in feeding rats as soon as possible but thats another thread) I slowed their feeding down to 1 meal/week and all seemed well. On my first breeding the female was at a solid 2 years old and had 14 large, firm eggs which all delivered and hatched into robust hatchlings. She did lose a lot more weight than I wanted with that clutch and I did not breed her the next year. If I had it to do over again I would wait untill 3 years to breed. Impatience will not get you anywhere.

My thoughts on hatchlings and pinkies is that baby snake digestive systems are fast and efficient and the pinkies do not have developed bones and will thus digest rapidly. Because of those things I think you can safely feed hatchlings multiple feedings/week without harm but you must monitor the snake closely and adjust their diet as they develop. As the rodent develops they become more nutrient and calorie dense and take longer for the snake to digest and process. And like us, as the snake gets older they get less active and burn less calories and become more prone to obesity and all the problems that creates.

I have 2 corns, a milk and a jungle carpet python. I feed all mine about every 6-7 days. My corns eat 1 fuzzy each, my milk eats 3 pinks at a time, and my jcp eats 2 adult mice. I started feeding my first corn 1 pink every 4 days. She just seemed hungry all the time. Now she eats 1 fuzzie week. I don't plan on breeding, they are just pets. If your babies seem hungry feed 1 pink every 4-5 days.You should see a lump for a couple days after meal. If not feed more often. As long as you have the proper heat for digestion. Sometimes if my milk won't eat all his pinkies I'll give them to my ghost corn. He's as long as your arm and usually eats everything. :0)

I have had my snakes for a while and I can tell from their behavior when they are ready to eat. They will sit at the front of their containers and explore more at night. So I feed them and then they return to the back where the heat is to digest. Hatchlings seem like they are never full, while as they get older you have to be careful because they will get fat so slow it down a bit.
-----
2.2 Corns (2 striped and 1 okeetee and 1 blizzard)
1.1 Graybanded
2.1 Banana Cal Kings
1.1 Leopard Geckos (High yellow and Jungle)

I did the same as some others have mentioned. I started at 1 pink every 3 days or so, then bumped it up to 2 at a feeding every 5 days, now I do 2 larger prey items every week, either fuzzies or rat pinks. My corn has grown slowly, and is healthy as a horse. We call him our "little garbage truck" because he eats anything we put in front of him. If we threw a lg rat in there, he'd get all the tail down before he realised he was in trouble! lol....
-----
1.1 Ball Python 0.0.1 corn snake 1.0 Bearded Dragon
0.0.2 fish 1.2 cats 3.1 kids 1.0 husband and now...
0.0.1 Pink Zebra Beauty Tarantula
0.2 Solomon Island Boas