Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've had my snake for a couple of weeks now and I just fed him for the second time last night. I measured him using SerpWidget's program on Wednesday night and he's about 32-33" and 2 years old according to the breeder I got him off of.

The breeder told me he was on 1 hopper every week, but I don't know if that was a maintenance diet or not. After I fed him the first time, a bunch of people seemed to think he should be on small adults at least, so I upped him to 2 hoppers last night. On Wednesday, I weighed him and he's at 173 grams...does that sound low to anyone else??

Is this a troll? A 2 year old corn at 33 inches eating hopper mice.

Way underfed! Obviously developmentally delayed. My 2 year old knocks off 2 adult mice a week and is about 48 inches.

Hoppers for an adult corn? Hopper rats maybe!

Feed the poor thing bud.

K

2 adults? WAY to much. Sounds like you'll have a fat corn in no time. If he's not fat already.

1 adult mice is max for a corna week in my opinion. A hopper may be to small, but may be fine as well. I guess it also depends on the amount of excersise the snake gets.

I guess that makes mine spoiled, cause my guys arent two yet and they are pounding two or three adults a week in one feeding. Oh well i have had corns for a long time and they are good to go never a problem. I am like one of those parents that has fat kids becuse they eat happy meals all day ha ha

ken
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0.1 Albino Cal. King (Fokker)
0.0.1 Cal. King (Spot)
1.0 Reverse Okeetee Corn (trouble)
0.1 Creamsicle Corn (Titan)
0.0.2 Anery (Thanks Jimmy)(Frodo, and Sam Wise)
1.2 Dogs(2 Boxers, Cookie and Joe, Lhasa Apso, George)
1.0 Betta
0.1 Wife
0.1 Kid

I feed them when they're hungry. I have a basic schedule that is somewhere in the middle, but if they're not interested, I skip them until next week (or feeding as the case may be.)
Once you learn, through experience, to see the signs it's pretty obvious when they are hunting. Some eat a lot, some eat less.
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Jeremy J. Anderson
snakepimp.com
gemstatereptiles.com
Of course it's my opinion, I said it, didn't I?
Breeding season is always just around the corner....JOY!!!

Hey while it is being discussed can you overfeed a corn, I was thinking of increasing the amount of food I feed my corns, they seem kinda small compared with what they should be. Will they only eat till they are full or will they possibly overeat and then reguritate. Just curious seen some pics. where it looks like they place the corn in with the baby mice to eat till full.

I think you'll find that the mainstream thought about how much to feed an adult corn is that one adult per week is enough for nearly any adult. However, in my opinion, that is too much for most adults as well.

In reality, unless you are trying to put weight on a female for breeding season, one adult mouse every other week is plenty for the vast majority of adult corns. I believe also,if you ask most of the larger breeders, you'll find that this is more in line with how they feed as well.

Too often, we get set into a specific way of corn husbandry that has worked for us, and we assume that it must THE way for everyone else. The one thing I have found in corn husbandry that is a "set in stone" rule is...there are no "set in stone" rules.
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Darin Chappell
Hillbilly Herps
PO Box 254
Rogersville, MO 65742

I feed my adults once every 2 to 3 weeks.They just get fat and lazy if I feed them more.
It's a waste of time and money and it's not healthy for your snakes....Paul

.........Slow and steady wins the race. And I strongly suspect will result in a longer life for the animal.

Different Corns grow at different rates. I have two 3 year olds that have only just started on medium mice.

On the other hand, I have two 04s that are about to start on small mice, will be on mediums this summer and probably large by the end of the year.

Just because a Corn's eating small items, doesn't mean there's anything being done wrong. They can just grow at different rates.

>>Different Corns grow at different rates. I have two 3 year olds that have only just started on medium mice.

This sounds alot like the corns I have between two and three years old, eating medium mice. My only concern is how long should it take before they will be of breeding size, I'm not in a rush, but I wanto make sure that I don't mess anything up so that their growth would stop long before they are large enough to breed, because we all in the back of our minds want to try breeding our snakes at least once. Atleast most of us.

Does his spine show? As an indent or bulge?

It sounds to me like your snake is an 03, which probably makes it a little shy of two years old. From the picture it looks to be pretty close to the approiate size of prey. A hopper mouse is just smaller than an adult. If indeed what you are feeding is hoppers then two at each feeding should be plenty in my opinion. However you should be able to up it to small mice without a problem. It has been my experience that corns grow longer alot faster than they grow in girth. My experience may differ from others on this however.
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1,0 snow
1,0 amel
1,0 texas corn
1,0 aney stripe motley
0,1 normal
0,1 charcoal
0,1 motley
1,1 oketee
0,1 tx rat
1,0 diadem
4,5 ball python
1,1 dumerils boa
1,1 columbian red tail boa
1,1 green iguana
1,0 leopard gecko
1,2 dogs
freezer full of mice & rats

That's what I thought. He took 2 hoppers last night and has kept them down so far. I think it was Darin who mentioned not powerfeeding it....I'm not planning on it. I've been talking to a lot of people on cornsnakes.com about it lately and even though I upped him to 2 hoppers it's still every 7-10 days or so. When I run out of them, I'll move him up to one adult. He looks like he's of a decent weight, but I had found a few posts asking about "normal sizes" of corns. Most of the references said something like 3 feet at 300g or so, which is why I started to question it.

You're snake is within the normal parameters for corns that age. It's not the largest, but not the smallest either. Power feeding, while making for big juveniles ready to breed one year sooner, may not be the wisest thing, given the possible long term health effects such a feeding program may have on a corn.

I think you're fine in upping to two hoppers so long as your snake keeps them down. Other than that, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

Good luck!
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Darin Chappell
Hillbilly Herps
PO Box 254
Rogersville, MO 65742

He could probably eat weanling mice with relative ease. Just a guess. My 150g corns can eat them no problem. feeding 2 or 3 smaller items is another opton.
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Jeremy J. Anderson
snakepimp.com
gemstatereptiles.com
Of course it's my opinion, I said it, didn't I?
Breeding season is always just around the corner....JOY!!!