Reptile & Amphibian Forums

a very short while ago someone told me my snake "yawns," or really more like stretches her mouth around, because it's a way to realign their jaws after a meal. i've seen her do it after a meal before, but I've noticed she tends to do it when she's coming very close to feeding time, or is overdue (when the petstore runs out of pinkies :[ don't worry though, she never goes long at all) do all of them do this, or is this just her own way of saying "come ON!!!! i am SO READY for my food now! DON'T MAKE ME EAT MY CLIMBING STICK!"?

alsoooo, when should I start moving up to feeding her twice a week? she's 26 inches long and right now eats a mouse fuzzy a week. she had QUITE a time with a rat pinkie, and that was just heartbreaking for me because rats are my favorite animal (mice are different... cute, but different). Should I start feeding her two pinkies/mouse fuzzies a week instead of this once a week business? Perhaps that would be better to aim for since the pet store around here runs out fairly quickly.

You shouldn't feed your snake more than once a week. At 26 inches she is already large enough to take just one meal a week. Two meals a week would be pushing it and you may end up with a regurgitating snake or at least one that gets fat. I would feed 1-2 mice/rats each meal, but don't feed more than every 7 days. (Feeding every 3-5 days is okay for hatchlings that are just eating pinkies because they are digested so much quicker. And adults should be fed, in my opinion, only every 14 days, unless they are breeder females.)

If you are feeding live mice, you may want to consider trying to get her on to frozen/thawed mice. They are much safer for your snake once the snake starts eating larger mice and it's much easier to go to the freezer and get a mouse out rather than having to run to the pet store to buy just the right sized mouse.
-----
alstiver@hotmail.com

1.0 2001 Hypo snow cornsnake
0.1 2002 Pastel Ghost cornsnake
1.1 2002 Bloodred cornsnakes
0.1 1998 Het Hypo, Het Caramel cornsnake
1.0 2000 Hypo Het Caramel cornsnake

ohhhh ok. good deal. once a week is good to me.

the only reason i don't want to move to frozen just yet is because i've heard they lose a few nutrients once they're frozen. maybe when she moves up, but for now she likes live ones better anyway but i see what you mean, mice with teeth would definitely pose a problem

I would try small mouse once a week.I do remember your yawning post from awhile ago.My corns arent real big yawners but my boa's do it constantly...Paul