Shedding frequency question

[randj]

Our 8 yr old amel male shed January 5/13 (actually went blue almost 2 weeks before that). He ate well three days later, and has eaten twice since. He is now blue again! We got him in Sept 2012 and the January shed was the first he has had with us. Don't know when he shed before that. Is there any concern or significance to going blue again so soon after the Jan. shed?

[Zombiegirl]

I swear Omnom goes into shed every time he eats...(he eats every 5-6 days). I'm not sure if it has anything to do with him being kinked or not? Kiyo sheds about every 30 days or so.

I believe once every 30 days (or so) tends to be the norm? or almost the norm...every snake is different so they will do things on their terms. Have you looked him over to make sure there is no physical reason? A wound, mites, stuck old shed? I know people asked me that when I posted about Omnom shedding so frequently.

[Zombiegirl]

Of course there is a very real possibility that I'm wrong, so I'm sure others will chime in soon lol.

[bitsy]

I'd expect my adults to shed 4-5 times a year, with bigger gaps between sheds during the winter. A 5 week interval would be quite fast for an 8 year old if mine are anything to go by. My guess is that either he's putting on a growth spurt or there's something irritating his skin.

What are you feeding and how often? What kind of substrate are you using?

[randj]

Aspen is the substrate.

Regarding feeding, we had trouble getting him to eat through Oct/Nov, which I think in retrospect was probably temperature related, which is under control now with our new Herpstat. He ate twice in early Dec, and mid-Dec, then went blue. Ate three times since January shed.

[randj]

He has always been on Aspen, and did not shed from Sept to January; we don't know when he shed before Sept since he was not ours.

[bitsy]

In that case, I think you're just looking at a growing lad making up for lost time after a feeding hiatus. Might be worth keeping an eye on his weight. Most of mine eat one adult mouse a fortnight - sounds like your chap might be having a bit more, although that's not necessarily a bad thing. Some need more, some less. If the relatively frequent shedding continues, it might mean he's getting a bit large. Unless he was badly underfed by his previous owners (which is possible), I wouldn't expect an 8 year old to be growing enough to trigger a shed once a month on a regular basis.

Aspen's good for Corns, so no problem there.

[randj]

I think he had reasonable care by previous owners although his hides were way too small for him in my opinion. I was hoping to hear that this may be due to his not eating for awhile, and now eating again a bit more frequently than usual as we tried to help him "catch up" with a bit more frequent feeding. He is the largest corn snake I have seen in my limited experience at just over 1200 gms so I am not sure how much growth to expect/how frequent the shedding at this size and age. Thank you for your thoughts.

[bitsy]

Blimey! 1200g is big for a Corn. Difficult to be definitive without a pic, but I'd strongly suspect that he needs to lose some weight and that his feeding needs to be geared back. He really doesn't have any "catching up" to do at all. 1000g would be big for a Corn. 500-800g would be their more usual range, so at 1200g, yours is around twice the weight we'd normally expect.

[randj]

Having a headache, as ever, with tecnology over attaching a picture. Not sure if it will come up.

[randj]

Ha! I did it. And not a great picture I know. I will try for others once he has shed. (I also have my two newest corns to take pictures of once they have settled in.). Can you tell anything about his weight from this picture? We have not measured his length but I think he must be 5 ft. He is a big guy. Since he was our first, I actually expected other adult corns to be bigger on average than it turns out they are.

[bitsy]

It is kind of difficult to tell with him curled up like that. His head does seem very small in proportion to his body which is a tell-tale sign of a weight issue, but then their bodies do seem wider when they scrunch up!

[melinaking]

our corn is on a diet and he is just over 5ft and weighs about 680 grams and he is obviously over weight when you look at him i suggest feeding him smaller amounts and trying to get some weight off him my almost 6ft corn weighs less than yours and n my personal opinion a diet would be best