Jumbo mice?

[Hail_Britannia]

So, in a bit of a pickle here, wondering if anyone has any input. Our cornsnake, Cornwallis, is about 270 grams now (he grows like a weed). It's time for us to order more mice. We need to order two sizes- fuzzies for our rosy boa and adults for Cornwallis (as per the Munson Plan). We like to go through Mice Direct, because we like the prices, but! They've been sold out of adult mice for ages and won't have any for a while. They DO have jumbo adults, though, who are actually cheaper. The thing is I don't know if Cornwallis could handle a jumbo adult mouse. What do you folks think- would a 270ish gram snake be able to take down a jumbo mouse? Alternatively, what size rat is equivalent to an adult mouse? Maybe I could order some rats instead. Any info is appreciated.

[Jdog3131]

rat pups will work and pictures will help

[ShenziSixaxis]

My okeetee, who's on hoppers, ate a full grown mouse with no problems; she just looked weird.
http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/8941/dscn1258k.th.jpg (http://img43.imageshack.us/i/dscn1258k.jpg/)http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/6774/dscn1254w.th.jpg (http://img833.imageshack.us/i/dscn1254w.jpg/)http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/5006/dscn1263k.th.jpg (http://img237.imageshack.us/i/dscn1263k.jpg/)

Those... as opposed to this. http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/6761/dscn1454yx.th.jpg (http://img801.imageshack.us/i/dscn1454yx.jpg/)

They can eat items bigger than you think, so don't worry. You can always cut them in half, too. As long as they have heating, hides, water, and a gradient, over sized items are fine here and there.

I second buying some rats for all your snakes if you can. I fed Apotos rats only for a few months, and she firmed up and had a growth spurt so well she went from eating fuzzy sized MICE to hopper mice in what seemed like over night. I recommend a mix of rats and mice; a varied diet seems to be best for at least one of my snakes. It also can't hurt, me thinks. After all, they eat lizards, toads and frogs, mice, rats, birds, and perhaps even other snakes in the wild, and it doesn't make sense to me why anyone would feed only one item to an animal when many are readily available.

[bitsy]

Depends what size a "Jumbo" mouse actually is. If they're the size my ex used to use for his subadult Taiwans, then I wouldn't risk it with one of my adult Corns.

In your shoes, I think I'd be going the other way and offering multiple small items, rather than risk a regurge on something too big and then ending up with an order of jumbo mice I can't do anything with.

[Hail_Britannia]

Thanks for the help, guys.

[Nanci]

Jumbos are way too big for that size snake. I'd either go with two hoppers every seven days, or one weanling fed every five-seven days. Rat fuzzies are an option, but he _may_ get hooked on them, and you have to weigh them because they vary widely in weight.

[carnivorouszoo]

I would not have a 270 on adults yet, I would still have it on weanlings. But that is just me. My 400 gram corn had a 1 year old male gerbil once because I was out of adult mice, it was 42 grams. To be safe i did not feed again for 16 days instead of 10 and he did just fine. Though I would not do this often. He deffinitely needed more time to digest and having a bigger meal showed in the rise of output if you know what I mean lol!

[Hail_Britannia]

Well, I'm a bit worried now. Decided to go with Loxahatchee Rodents, who we'd ordered from in the past, because they had regular adults in stock. See, the reason why I decided it was time to move him up to adults was because we'd been going by the Munson Plan, which states that snakes weighing 170 grams plus are ready for adults. Previous to this, we had been feeding three fuzzies per feeding, which he's had no problems with (and we had extra fuzzies and didn't want to order larger mice until those were all gone). He doesn't appear fat to me, and we only plan to feed one adult every 10 days...I hope it will work out okay because we've already order the mice :/