no regurge, but i overfed

Ok, my snake is up to 3 pinkies every 5 days. I KNOW i need to switch to fuzzies, but i have about 9 pinks left and i want to finish them off. So anyway i had them packaged 2/bag so i could just take a bag out and thaw them out.. but since i moved up to 3 i had a bag with just one in it. So i went to feed yesterday and i THOUGHT i grabbed one bag with 2 and one bag with 1, well i wound up with 2 bags and they each had 2 (in one bag they were stuck together, which is why i thought it was1) so i figured, i had 4 pinks thawed, i didnt want to refreeze and i didnt want to just throw it away, so i figured id give him his choice and i put them all in his feeding cage and figured hed probably eat 2-3, so i put him in there and was cleaning the kithcen. I KID YOU NOT, 10 mintues later i went to check on him and ALL 4 pinkeys were gone! And he was slithering around looking for more! I put him back in his home and checked on him today and hes still happily digesting with a large lump. No regurge, and im not gonna mess with him for a few days except to lift up his hide and check on him.

Anyway i don't plan on doing this to the poor guy again, i just have 3 more feedings of 3 pinks and then to the fuzzies, but is there any potential harm in this situation as long as i dont do it again and theres no regurge? man hes a vorocous eater!

I doubt it will hurt him a bit. Give him a couple extra days to digest (that might not even be necessary) just to be safe. It's pretty amazing how much these guys can eat.

If you are going to feed him that many pinks (even 3 per meal), then you need to at least space the feedings apart farther. Please feed every 7 days or so, or you are likely to have problems. And if you overfed him yesterday, you may see a regurge yet. I've seen it happen as far as 5 days from the feeding (and that was with just 1 pink!). In my opinion, 2 pinks per feeding is plenty...even if your little one is ready for fuzzies.

Also, I want you to realize that you were VERY irresponsible with your pet. It would have been better to waste the extra food rather than endanger your snake.

IMO it will not hurt your snake. If they get the chance to eat so much in the wild i think they wont hesitate eating it all. I would just skip a feeding or and then feed 1 pinkie after that.

Mowgli said:

If they get the chance to eat so much in the wild i think they wont hesitate eating it all.

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But then they may go a month or more without eating.

CornCrazy said:

But then they may go a month or more without eating.

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I know the above wasn't directed at me but I gotta do something to stay awake.

That's true. In my experience though, which I admit is very limited, snakes in captivity will do the same. Like you said, a regurge is still possible but IME (again, limited ) the snake probably won't have any problems. Corn snakes are good for beginning herpers because they can tolerate some mistakes. That doesn't excuse irresponsibility but we all have to learn somehow.

:cheers:

I would say a 35 cent pinky is far cheaper than even a low-priced (although how do you put a price on a pet) snake. Next time just throw it out. You'll have times when they might be ready to shed or whatever and just won't eat. I've had to throw out mice of all sizes, and rats when one or the other doesn't want to eat. Don't risk the health of your animal for such a cheap thing. FWIW though, I'm pretty confident that your snake will be fine if left alone. As stated above, they can be very forgiving of husbandry mistakes.

Baby corns especially those between 3-6 months of age will really 'pig out' when given the chance in our experience. We have rarely seen a regurge from that provided they have high enough temperatures to support digestion and they are not handled. It is likely that a very large meal will push the snake into a shed - regardless of where they are in their shed cycle - so you may be skipping the next couple meals because he is shedding. A lot depends on how big the meal was relative to the snake - a belly bulge of more than 2X body diameter in a corn under a year is getting to be a big enough meal to bring on an early shed, but not enough to cause a problem, in our experience.

To be on the safe side - likely best to discard the extra pink next time,

mary v.

I KNOW i need to switch to fuzzies, but i have about 9 pinks left and i want to finish them off.

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I just adore it when people say things like that even though it's not the best for the pet. Next time give the extra pinks away, or just keep them in the freezer and forget about them. Do what's best for the animal that can't help itself, not what's best for you.

I KID YOU NOT, 10 mintues later i went to check on him and ALL 4 pinkeys were gone! And he was slithering around looking for more!

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Corns are like many animals, when presented with food they will eat it regardless of how hungry they are. And yes, corns are relatively easy snakes to own and will let the owner make mistakes that doesn't make it ok for people to not do their best to prevent mistakes. I believe there to be a multitude of threads on here about when to move up to two pinkies, and then on to fuzzies. I would suggest checking those once again.


Ok! I'm done. My rant is over. Didn't mean to come off rude, but you as the human are a lot less delicut than these little snakes.


hana

ok, whoa now... he has been eating 3 pinkies every 5-7 days for 3 weeks now with absolutely no problems, he's usually out cruising that night, and the bulbdge is definitly NOT 2X his body.. its about 1.5 or less... evel with the 4 pinkies... and they were SMALL pinkies... I had a range of small medium and large, and he was eating 3 small, and i have 3 small ones left and a few larger ones. Im sorry, but the pinkys cost me 60cents a piece and if you add that up to 9 pinks thats 5.40 cents... may not seem much to you guys but for someone who is on a limited income, i have to learn to budget. I am a full time student nurse and my husband works full time but its still not a lot of money, we are only 21 years old. Its not that i can't afford my pet, but i don't believe in wastfullness. How is it going to hurt him feeding pinkies? If 3 pinks are about the size of one fuzzy i don't see what the problem is. Yeah he scarfed down the 4 before i got a chance, but i saw him out last night on his branch, so obviously it wasn't too much for him.
Also, corn snakes have very fast metabolism compaired to other snakes, and i was told by a very reputable Herpatoligist/zooligist who has bread corns for over 20 years that i can easily feed 2, even 3 pinks to him without a problem.

ashleynicole said:

Also, corn snakes have very fast metabolism compaired to other snakes, and i was told by a very reputable Herpatoligist/zooligist who has bread corns for over 20 years that i can easily feed 2, even 3 pinks to him without a problem.

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Metabolism in reptiles depends greatly on the temps they're kept at. And nobody is arguing that 2 or 3 pinks is too much...that's why if you read any of the 900 threads about when to move from pinks to fuzzies it says that 3 pinks = 1 fuzzy. It's 4 pinks that everyone is saying is a bad idea.

I know I have read here over and over that the difference between pinks and fuzzies is nutritional value. I do understand budgeting and using up what you have. Get another snake it'll take care of those pinks for ya. :crazy02:

Actually, we didn't say to throw away all the pinkies, we said throw away the single extra pinky. I find that two decent sized pinkies are equal to a fuzzy actually. I've never fed three of anything to my snakes. I'm sure yours will do fine with the four pinkies. I understand the desire to budget, but frankly, your animals health is more important than one or even two pinkies. What will you do if you need a vet if a package of $5 pinkies is overbudget?

Some of these discussions and admonishments seem kind of useless to me if everyone isn't using a standard size when discussing pinkies or fuzzies. The mass difference between the smallest pinkies and the largest is significant-- same goes for fuzzies. To say that three is ok, but four is a no-no, when the mass of the prey item isn't even being considered, seems to be a useless guideline. This also goes through my mind when I read posts asking whether it is time to move a snake to fuzzies. If the snake's mass, and the intended prey item's mass aren't being taken into account, how can a reasonable judgement call be made?

My $.02.

Roy Munson said:

Some of these discussions and admonishments seem kind of useless to me if everyone isn't using a standard size when discussing pinkies or fuzzies. The mass difference between the smallest pinkies and the largest is significant-- same goes for fuzzies. To say that three is ok, but four is a no-no, when the mass of the prey item isn't even being considered, seems to be a useless guideline. This also goes through my mind when I read posts asking whether it is time to move a snake to fuzzies. If the snake's mass, and the intended prey item's mass aren't being taken into account, how can a reasonable judgement call be made?

My $.02.

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Thanks for that.. i love your statements. THe pinkies I fed were very small although some that i have now are larger.

MegF: I have an account budget set aside for emergency vet bills for my cats and i can dip into that for the snake if need be. It is now the "Cat and snake vet budget" ... LOL. My weekly cash spending budget for groceries and gas is completely different... it is the same every week and if i increase it i won't be able to put money into savings for the future. I don't think feeding 3 pinkies for a couple more weeks is going to hurt anything. I know fuzzies are more nutritions, but is 2 weeks gonna make a difference? The snake is only 2 months old and i know some who feed pinkies up to 6 months... so please don't call me a bad pet owner, ive sacrificed my grocery money in the past to take my sick cat to the vet.

Rorrry: LOL.. id love to buy a new snake.... but that is NOT in my budget right now... lmao.. not really the best way to save cash.. ha ha ha.

TrpnBils: I know that 4 was too much, but he didn't regurge and i WONT do it agian, ive learned from my mistake... thats what life is about, making mistakes and learning from them. I know now that the snake will eat whatever it can get its mouth on LOL. I always thought they'd eat till they were full. Thanks for the information, i appreciate

ashleynicole said:

ok, whoa now... he has been eating 3 pinkies every 5-7 days for 3 weeks now with absolutely no problems, he's usually out cruising that night, and the bulbdge is definitly NOT 2X his body.. its about 1.5 or less... evel with the 4 pinkies... and they were SMALL pinkies... I had a range of small medium and large, and he was eating 3 small, and i have 3 small ones left and a few larger ones. Im sorry, but the pinkys cost me 60cents a piece and if you add that up to 9 pinks thats 5.40 cents... may not seem much to you guys but for someone who is on a limited income, i have to learn to budget. I am a full time student nurse and my husband works full time but its still not a lot of money, we are only 21 years old. Its not that i can't afford my pet, but i don't believe in wastfullness. How is it going to hurt him feeding pinkies? If 3 pinks are about the size of one fuzzy i don't see what the problem is. Yeah he scarfed down the 4 before i got a chance, but i saw him out last night on his branch, so obviously it wasn't too much for him.
Also, corn snakes have very fast metabolism compaired to other snakes, and i was told by a very reputable Herpatoligist/zooligist who has bread corns for over 20 years that i can easily feed 2, even 3 pinks to him without a problem.

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yesi dont belive in wasting something ether(waste not want not)..but i would rather waste a 60 cent pinkie than a 30-60 dollar snake...i think that it should be fine to feed him 3 pinkies..but after that its to many little things for him to eat ..it may become stessful..

No problem here either with feeding multiple items until you use up the excess. The problem you stated was that you'd overfed, not that you were feeding multi items. Everything else sounds like you've got it covered, so keep on keeping on! Your snake will survive, and I'm sure it will thrive as well.

MegF. said:

No problem here either with feeding multiple items until you use up the excess. The problem you stated was that you'd overfed, not that you were feeding multi items. Everything else sounds like you've got it covered, so keep on keeping on! Your snake will survive, and I'm sure it will thrive as well.

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Thanks meg, i just don't see why everyone jumped on my case seeing that i owned up to my mistake...

Okay I know this might be a bit off-topic but it seems that the heart of this discussion is settled.

Why is it that everyone assumes that just because a snake is moving around after eating that they are looking for something else to eat. Are they expected to just lay completely still and not even flick their tongue until the next time they are fed? Maybe I'm just overthinking this, but it seems absurd to me that just because I see a snake out moving around smelling the air around him/her that it is looking for a meal. If that is the case, then man I have some hungry snakes because I see everyone of mine out almost every single night looking for a meal! Maybe I should move up to 4 pinkies!? :sidestep:

zwyatt said:

Why is it that everyone assumes that just because a snake is moving around after eating that they are looking for something else to eat. Are they expected to just lay completely still and not even flick their tongue until the next time they are fed? Maybe I'm just overthinking this, but it seems absurd to me that just because I see a snake out moving around smelling the air around him/her that it is looking for a meal. If that is the case, then man I have some hungry snakes because I see everyone of mine out almost every single night looking for a meal! Maybe I should move up to 4 pinkies!? :sidestep:

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Great point. My 11 summer '05 hatchlings are very individual. They are all roughly similar in size, and get near-identical prey items, and are fed at the same frequency. Some of them are active every night, and even during the day, regardless of feeding. Some are secretive almost all of the time, and I rarely see them except at feeding and handling times. Then there's everything between. I don't think activity is a good indicator of hunger either, or if it is, I think its due to a very opportunist instinct in corns-- an instinct that really has no survival value in captivity.