What length should a 8 Month Old Sunkissed Corn be?

I am just curious if our corn is about the right size or not for his age. He is healthy and happy and amazingly sociable, which I am hearing sunkissed corns are not usually as docile as he is but he is very tame , loving and does not attempt strikes, though his tank mate when we purchased him did act in an aggressive manor.

We have had him since he was 10 days old and now he is 2 feet 14 inches long. He has eaten according to schedule and size and now most recently he has been changed over to 2 fuzzies at each feeding with feedings being 10 days apart.

Is this normal size for a sunkissed his age?

MomFor2Gifts said:

I am just curious if our corn is about the right size or not for his age. He is healthy and happy and amazingly sociable, which I am hearing sunkissed corns are not usually as docile as he is but he is very tame , loving and does not attempt strikes, though his tank mate when we purchased him did act in an aggressive manor.

We have had him since he was 10 days old and now he is 2 feet 14 inches long. He has eaten according to schedule and size and now most recently he has been changed over to 2 fuzzies at each feeding with feedings being 10 days apart.

Is this normal size for a sunkissed his age?

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Well , first you know that you could have problems housing two snake together right?
And do you mean 2 feet 4 inch's or 3 feet 2 inch's?? Because mine butter is around 8 months and he's about 22 inches long. But all snake grow differently depending on genetics and feeding. Which bring me to your feeding schedule. You could shorten it to every seven day and not ten. Might help with growth? :shrugs: Being a Sunkissed or butter or whatever, I don't think one grow faster over the other.

Good Luck :cheers:

My normal is 7 months and she is just under 25 inches.
At the moment, she is fed every 5-6 days with 2 fuzzies. I give her 1 large and 1 medium, I am building it up to the next size up which will then be every 6-7 days.

Fuzzies Come In Different Sizes???

:wavey: Hi & Thanks for responding Lenny & Jenkva

Sorry I did not make it clear before. We do not house him with another snake as he is our only snake. I was referring to his tank mate at time of purchase, but we did not purchase her, so he is the only baby we have.

Sorry about the typo - Yes he is 2 feet, 4 inches long or 28 inches, which ever is the preferred measure in snake husbandry.

On Feeding - I have a couple of questions - Lenny, you said we could shorten feeding times to every 7 days instead of 10 for him to grow, and Jnkva I see that you are feeding more often than we feed also & with assorted size fuzzies, but if he is already 28 inches, is that still something we can do or should do?

I am a little confused by this because his size seems large comparatively speaking based on the size you both listed for yours, so if he is already over sized for his age, then not sure I would want to feed him more often. But he has never been given more food than scheduled so his size is not in proportion to eating too much, and could just be that he is a hearty little fella, so I am confused on the feeding schedule part of this. I would love it if you could help me understand this part a little better. :shrugs:

Also he is fed 2 small fuzzies at each feeding, so should we move up to something else? If so what? I thought it was just pinkies, fuzzies ( of one size ) and then full grown mice. Can you all clarify that for me? I did not know there were different size fuzzies. Please let me know some info on this so I know what to ask for when I go to purchase again. :shrugs:

Thanks for all your help.

MomFor2Gifts,
I I'll try to answer the best I can going down the list.
First, I don't think it matter which way you state snake lenght inches or in feet.
Second, with a corn your age,the general rule is to feed every 5-7 day and when they get older switch to every 10 day. And another general rule is to feed your snake an food item that id no greater than 1 1/2 time the snakes girth. So that and if after feeding you see a noticeable lump your fine. But to let you know, the prefer way to bump a snake up is to the next food size is to start with pinkys, then as the snake grow feed two pinky for a few feeding to help get adjusted to a larger meal then one fuzzy... two fuzzy ...one hopper.... two hopper... one mouse.
Third part Don't worry about our snake size. snake like us are different. Genetic play a roll here. So if you feed to the snake girth , your fine.
I don't think a eight month old can get over weight, just grow faster.You just have a hearty little fella.

I hope this help you more than it confused me. :crazy02:
Good Luck :cheers:
And last, go with I said with feeding to size of snake and mice size go basically like this but do vary.
pinky....fuzzy....hopper....small mouse...large mouse...XL mouse
But keep in mine that their is peach fuzzys and weans and so on.

To add to Lennycorn's info, here is a website were you can see the different sizes and how most of us call them
http://www.themousefactory.com/rates/rates.html

Mine eats the 3rd one from the left which can be slightly bigger or smaller but not as fat as hoppers.
You need to see if after 24/48hrs the lump is still there or not. If it is gone after 24hrs, you can go up one size if you are already giving 2 food items per feed. What is his weight?

When I first got Freya, to know which food size I should get for her, I compared her body width with one of my nail/finger so that when I bought food for her, I would ask to see the food items and compare them to my nail/finger. If they were the same size and a bit bigger (emphasis on NOT bigger than x1.5 the width of the largest part of your snake) then I would get it. Some of them in the bag were bigger than the x1.5 but I just keep them for later on for when she is big enough.
<o></o>
I hope this has answered your questions.

By the way, I am sorry if I confused you with

At the moment, she is fed every 5-6 days with 2 fuzzies. I give her 1 large and 1 medium,

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I give her a large and medium because she can take a large and do not just want to give her 2 medium so I try to make it as even as possible

Lennycorn said:

Third part Don't worry about our snake size. snake like us are different. Genetic play a roll here. So if you feed to the snake girth , your fine.
I don't think a eight month old can get over weight, just grow faster.You just have a hearty little fella.

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Lenny is exactly right about this. I have an 8 month old that is only 16 inches and still on pinkies. (I tried bumping her up to two and she regurged, so it's back to one for a few more weeks.)

If you are only feeding once every 7-10 days, you are NOT overfeeding your snake. Just follow the feeding advice you've been given here and hee will be perfectly fine.

Hopefully I can figure this out without killing off too many brain cells, lol

:wavey: Lenny, Jenkva, Becky G - Thanks for responding , you folks are wonderful!

I think I have this straight lol, but I have a few more questions/concerns for you all. That link really helped me understand mouse sizes, so with that being known now, I must correct my previous post and say that he eats 2 large pinks every 10 days. He has only been on this schedule for 20 days now so his past 2 feedings he has had this diet.

Now that I better understand sizes and terms, I can better tell you his past history. He started on pinkies, then moved to 2 pinkies, then went to 1 large pink and now he is up to 2 large pinks with each feeding. The reptile store calls them fuzzies which is why I was confused.

So am I underfeeding him? Should I be switching him to an actual fuzzy and not the large pinks which the pet store calls fuzzies? I know how to measure for girth but how do I weigh him? I mean he is extremely docile and I am sure if I knew how to do it he would let me but how do you do it, keep them from moving so you can do it, and what do you weigh them on?

When he eats the two large pinks, the hump is not quite gone after 24 hours but dang near close. I feel really bad now because I have been going on what the pet store said for feeding and now I find out that what they are calling fuzzies, are not even really fuzzies at all!! :bang: So that ends that as my source of information. I am just concerned now because I may have been under feeding him all this time. ( :twoguns: Grrrrrr, she says as she kicks herself! )

As bad as I feel about this, I also feel that I am now on a road to finding out the real SCOOP on how to care for him, just wish I had not been misinformed by the pet shop, and not just taken everything at face value without looking at several sources. But lesson learned and I won’t make that mistake again.

Thanks all, for the help and for not laughing at me for being so naive.

P.S. Lenny you did a great job explaining, so no you didn't confuse me, which is amazing because that takes very little to do, lol.

Hi MomFor2Gifts :wavey:

Hehe, I was asking the same about weighing Freya but it is quite simple: I use the plastic travel box to put her in because she is a wriggler and then on the kitchen scale. If you do not have one, just use a small box

Hey, don't beat yourself up about under-feeding him, at least you are back on track now and I am sure that it hasn't done any harm at all for this short a time. You have to remember that they can go weeks without food so there is no :bang: needed....LOL

MomFor2Gifts said:

So am I underfeeding him? Should I be switching him to an actual fuzzy and not the large pinks which the pet store calls fuzzies?

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Ooops, forgot to answer that one...
It is always difficult to advise on which size a snake should eat. From what you said to us, yes, I guess you could go up a size. If you are feeding him 2 large pinkies (according to the website description) and after 24hrs the lump is gone or barely noticeable, then you should go up a size.

You might want to get a book or two to help you along the way. I know mine helped me a lot. Here are the ones I have and found really good and useful:
- "Corn Snakes : The Comprehensive Owner's Guide" by Kathy Love
- "The Art of Keeping Snakes" by Philippe De Vosjoli

Here are also some websites which was recommended to me and some that I have myself found interesting and with good advice:
http://www.cornutopia.com/Corn%20Ut...0cornsnakes.htm
http://www.serpwidgets.com/Apps/apps.html
http://www.themousefactory.com/rates/rates.html (you already have it but thought it wouldn't hurt to put it again )
http://www.herpvetconnection.com/
http://www.moreptiles.com/cornsnake-lifecycle.htm

If he is eating two large pinkies, he can probably handle a fuzzy.

What I would do, if it were me, is to order a package of fuzzies, hoppers, and weanlings/small adults (a pack of each), from Big Cheese or Mouse Factory, and just compare the size of the fuzzies to what he is eating now. It'll probably be about the same, but just look at the size of two pinkies compared with one fuzzy. If it seems comparable, then you know he is ready to move up. Then feed one fuzzy every 7 days. After the fuzzies are gone, you already have the next size in your freezer, and the next size after that.

That's what I would do.

P.S. Even with shipping, your mice will be cheaper ordered online than bought from a pet store.

hehe BeckyG, you answered the one that was zapped out of my mind... must have been tired.
I think the idea you have given is a good one, it is practical and cost efficient.

MomFor2Gifts, to find out the size, just put what they call "fuzzie" next to a rule and you can see hoe big/long it is and compare it to the ones online :shrugs:

Good Luck!

Thanks all

:wavey: Thanks all for the info on the mice. Yeah he most definitely is ready to go up. He just took his 3rd feeding of two large pinks and he woofed them down in under 4 minutes. That was yesterday and his lump is not visible at all now, so most definitely time to move up to a fuzzy.

By the way - Good God he is growing fast lol. I can't imagine how much quicker our little boy is going to grow if we bump him up but like his human brother counterparts, no matter how much mom wants them to stay little it just ain't happening lol.

I am going to order from Big Cheese or Mouse Factory, well I should say my son is, technically it is his snake secretly I keep hoping he will lose intrest and Sosa will be all mine lol. ( I know I'm horrible , hee hee )

Anyway, thank you all for giving me the 411 on all this. I really appreciate it.

MomFor2Gifts said:

I am going to order from Big Cheese or Mouse Factory, well I should say my son is, technically it is his snake secretly I keep hoping he will lose intrest and Sosa will be all mine lol. ( I know I'm horrible , hee hee )

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:laugh01: if I were you.... I would be exactly the same....I'd want the snake to myself.....LOL

MomFor2Gifts said:

Anyway, thank you all for giving me the 411 on all this. I really appreciate it.

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hmm, 411?? What is that? Emergency number?

jenkva said:

hmm, 411?? What is that? Emergency number?

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411 is the phone number for information here in the U.S., which you call to get someones phone number, address, or time. I forget not everyone lives in the U.S. lol.

cool, so now I know the Tel No for Direct Enquiry in the US

Just another side note or two:

Sunkisseds originated in Kathy Love's Okeetee lines. Since they have only started being crossed out to other lines, currently existing sunkissed corns are all relatively closely related to each other, as compared to the general population. Snakes from that line are generally quite large and grow quickly compared to average corns, so it's not surprising that yours is getting big in a hurry. I also have a sunkissed with a great attitude (and an amazing feeding response) but many of them (including her offspring that are het sunkissed) do have a less-than-friendly attitude.

I wouldn't be concerned that you were "underfeeding" him. He has been growing at a good pace for him, and that's the most important part. But I would agree with the recommendations already given. Just keep an eye on his figure and he should be just fine.