Brainmurk
08-11-2013, 10:23 PM
Is super fast digestion and hunger indicative of an underlying issue, or just a snake with a high metabolism?
I've had my corn snake since March, and he's been on fuzzies for about a month now. Before we switched him, we were doing 2-3 pinkies depending on the size of them, and were hesitant to move up because the size of the fuzzies we're able to get seemed way too big. When we first gave him a fuzzy, he struggled with it for a long time - nearly 15 minutes - before he got the whole thing down. At that point he weighed about 25g. After eating the first fuzzy, we didn't see him out for about three days and he was laid up digesting it happily... but when we subsequently fed him the next week he gulped down the fuzzy and crawled into his favorite spot... and was out the very next day crawling around, no food bump at all, hunting for more.
It's now to the point where we're feeding him one fuzzy roughly every four to five days, and he's digesting the thing and sometimes out again in less than 15 hours, but always by the next day. He sits by the hide next to his feeding dish if I forget to take it out after feeding him, and will put his head in it and sniff around, curl around it and wait. I thought that maybe he just could "smell" the prey and was looking for it, however when I remove the dish, he curls up at the place where he's fed and waits - no searching around, he knows where he gets fed, and he patiently sits there.
His current weight, as of today before feeding, is 46g. I've been trying to schedule/base his feeding on the Munson feeding plan, as detailed on this post. (http://iansvivarium.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=410) Some people have said that it's a little aggressive, but honestly so far it seems like maybe it's not aggressive enough for our little guy!
Further, but not related, he has absolutely no 'hunting' instinct. He doesn't strike at his food at all and if I try and get him to take the food from tongs he will just 'sniff' at it, gently bonk it with his head and rub his face on it... but make no effort to take it or eat it at all while it's being held. He will only eat the food if it's been laid in the little dish I feed him with, and then he won't "hold" the food with his body as you sometimes see snakes do. He goes to eat the food, gets it about half in his mouth, and then will rear up and randomly bonk the thing around on his hide or the wall of his tank to shove it further into his mouth. In the past I kept a ball python and she ALWAYS struck and held her food while eating it, so this is really very strange to me to the point that I ended up looking up videos of corn snakes feeding on both live and frozen food on Youtube, and it seems that they do strike and constrict around the prey item... so I guess my guy is just a freak. :p We joke that he's a scavenger, not a predator.
I've had my corn snake since March, and he's been on fuzzies for about a month now. Before we switched him, we were doing 2-3 pinkies depending on the size of them, and were hesitant to move up because the size of the fuzzies we're able to get seemed way too big. When we first gave him a fuzzy, he struggled with it for a long time - nearly 15 minutes - before he got the whole thing down. At that point he weighed about 25g. After eating the first fuzzy, we didn't see him out for about three days and he was laid up digesting it happily... but when we subsequently fed him the next week he gulped down the fuzzy and crawled into his favorite spot... and was out the very next day crawling around, no food bump at all, hunting for more.
It's now to the point where we're feeding him one fuzzy roughly every four to five days, and he's digesting the thing and sometimes out again in less than 15 hours, but always by the next day. He sits by the hide next to his feeding dish if I forget to take it out after feeding him, and will put his head in it and sniff around, curl around it and wait. I thought that maybe he just could "smell" the prey and was looking for it, however when I remove the dish, he curls up at the place where he's fed and waits - no searching around, he knows where he gets fed, and he patiently sits there.
His current weight, as of today before feeding, is 46g. I've been trying to schedule/base his feeding on the Munson feeding plan, as detailed on this post. (http://iansvivarium.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=410) Some people have said that it's a little aggressive, but honestly so far it seems like maybe it's not aggressive enough for our little guy!
Further, but not related, he has absolutely no 'hunting' instinct. He doesn't strike at his food at all and if I try and get him to take the food from tongs he will just 'sniff' at it, gently bonk it with his head and rub his face on it... but make no effort to take it or eat it at all while it's being held. He will only eat the food if it's been laid in the little dish I feed him with, and then he won't "hold" the food with his body as you sometimes see snakes do. He goes to eat the food, gets it about half in his mouth, and then will rear up and randomly bonk the thing around on his hide or the wall of his tank to shove it further into his mouth. In the past I kept a ball python and she ALWAYS struck and held her food while eating it, so this is really very strange to me to the point that I ended up looking up videos of corn snakes feeding on both live and frozen food on Youtube, and it seems that they do strike and constrict around the prey item... so I guess my guy is just a freak. :p We joke that he's a scavenger, not a predator.