Needs for food?

[unipt]

Fed Loki today with a bigger prey size, and after she ate it, immediately start looking for more food around the paper that had the mice's smell.

The previous prey were smaller, and she ate three each time.

Does she actually need more food, or it's just being a fatty snake?

Sorry for nothing using the correct name for the prey size, but I can't find it anywhere, not sure if those are fuzzies or hoppers.

[Jdog3131]

Well, pics and or weights of the prey and snake would be very helpful. As your snake for all I know, could be 30-150+ grams and it could have been getting pinks then and hoppers or fuzzies now. Now, that statement wasn't meant to bash you, just giving an example.:)

[unipt]

Can't get you a weight value, it's about 3.54 inches tough, if that helps lol.

http://i.imgur.com/WpqTs.png

[unipt]

That's the prey's size sorry. Loki is about 33 inches.

[Jdog3131]

From what I can see in that pic, the next size ma be good, but I'm no pro.

[bitsy]

Some of them show this "hunting" behaviour after eating. It's just an instinct and doesn't mean that they're hungry or that they need more food.

Generally, they need to eat one food item at a time, which is no more than one and a half times their body width (look half way down the body, not at the head or neck). The food needs to leave a visible lump in their belly for 24-48 hours. If the lump goes down within 24 hours then it's probably time to try the next sized food up. Once they're on adult sized mice, they rarely need anything larger for the rest of their lives.

Remember that as you increase food size, you need to feed less often. That allows their digestive system to work properly and prevents them from becoming overweight. Once on adult mice, a Corn can be fed once every 7-21 days. I feed my adults every 14 days but a couple of males are inclined to fat and are fed once every 21 days.


It's very easy to overfeed a Corn in captivity. They will eat anything you give them, sometimes until they throw up. You need to regulate what they eat and not be tempted to feed on demand.

[unipt]

Thanks for the advice, she already ate two of those shown in the photo, with a week interval.