When to upgrade

[Evol_girl]

So I'm a first time snake owner... I have a little anery - she's beautiful - and a flippin' piglet.

When I got her I only fed her 1 pinky every 7 days. I noticed she was grumpy a day or two before feedings, a little nippy - so I thought I'd feed her every 5 days. She was all too eager to devour her pinky on day 5 - so I gave her 2 pinkies one feeding to see if she was interested in 2. It takes her less than 2 minutes to eat both. Its like a shark in a pool of chum.

So now she's eating 2 pinkies every 5 days and I just feel like she's a piggy! She's not large - I can't get an accurate weight on her but I think its right around 14g. The pinkies seem like they are the right size - maybe more like equal to her body instead of slightly larger... Is it time to upgrade to a fuzzy?

I feel bad saying this - but I've never seen a fuzzy so I really have no way to gauge how much bigger a fuzzy is than her. Also - I've heard of "peach fuzzies"... Is this a gimmick - or is it actually a good in between the pinky and fuzzy for piggy snakes like mine that are hungry but not huge?

[atmox]

Get an accurate scale and use the Munson plan (http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-50106.html). It will save you a lot of worries. Also never let the snake decide how much food it wants. Corns are opportunistic eaters and will eat the selves to dead. If you're not sure when buying the mice ask if they can weigh the mice.

[Evol_girl]

ok... so she's eating maybe more for a snake a TEENY bit bigger than her. I think she's ok for now then, no worries about upping her quite yet!

I was told by someone though that she will eat when hungry and wont when she's not - but you're saying that they will eat when fed, even if its too much and could get sick from it?!?

I'll stick to this chart and assume that she's ok, even if acting like she's starving then...

[atmox]

ok... so she's eating maybe more for a snake a TEENY bit bigger than her. I think she's ok for now then, no worries about upping her quite yet!

I was told by someone though that she will eat when hungry and wont when she's not - but you're saying that they will eat when fed, even if its too much and could get sick from it?!?

I'll stick to this chart and assume that she's ok, even if acting like she's starving then...

Ignore the advice of that someone. In the wild snakes only see food every couple of weeks and thus have evolved to eat whenever they get the chance. They will get obese which of course is bad for their health. And in the worst case they will regurgitate their food which can be lethal for the snake. Underfeeding is always better than overfeeding with snakes.

[carnivorouszoo]

Deffinitely, I have seen what happens when people feed everytime a snake comes out from hiding. I have had very heated arguements about this with people. There are apparently many people out there that think that snakes ONLY come out of their hides to find food and that they should be fed EVERY time they are seen creeping the cage. If they owned my snakes, they would probably all be dead. My snakes are very active. I see them everyday, even right after feeding them. Now, they aren't out ALL the time but at least once a day. If I went with the way those other people think they would be fed at least once a day which gives no time for them to digest. See how bad that could get?

[Evol_girl]

Oh I wasn't considering feeding her once a day - the 2 pinkies every 5 or 6 days is as often as I'd feed her, I just was wondering that if 2 pinkies didn't seem to be enough if it was time to give her something bigger during that feeding...

She comes out every day - we play with her every day, unless she's just been fed. I do notice though that on feeding day she's less willing to just hang out and obviously waiting to be plopped in her feeding tank with food!

[Naagas]

Corn snakes will eat until they throw it back up.
Don't test that theory.

Search the forums for obese snakes... and get an idea of what overfeeding can do!

It can be tricky to know when to move snakes up in food sizes. The Munson plan is a good rule of thumb. The proportions of your snake is a good thing to be aware of. Don't go by how hungry your snake is, though. ;)