Recurrent Scale Damage

[SillyNoodle]

Hey guys!

I've read a few posts from both here and other cornsnake forums regarding health, scale damage, weight, etc.

My snake is about 1.5 years old and is close to 4 feet long (he doesn't like to cooperate with getting an accurate length). His most recent weight was 375g on Monday (pre-feeding). He is being fed an adult mouse (~16-18 grams) every 2 weeks - it does not produce a bulge in his stomach but I haven't wanted to go up any further since he's experiencing scale damage.

He's been experiencing lines of scale damage since about 8 months ago. His body shape has always stayed bread-loaf shaped (rounded back with flat sides, can sometimes see a nice spine line). I've been trying to be really careful about that since most of the threads I've seen regarding this type of scale damage points to the snake being overweight.

And Im sure the answer may be that he is overweight! I just want some extra glances to let me know that this is indeed the case and what I think is "bread loaf" shape may not be, or, is still too overweight for him. Or if he looks fine... what else could be causing this? He's very active, he can still get a pretty impressive range of flexibility (he easily fits himself into his humid hide (medium tupperware container) and paper towel tubes (though his butt hangs out now since he's too long :P). I try and do things to encourage him to keep moving about and strengthening muscles and burning any extra chub.

Here is a photo of the "damage" I'm concerned about. It's just getting to be more and more as he gets older instead of lessening. The photo is not the best example of the severity since those are some of the more minor lines on him, but its the best lighting I could get (the others you cant really see too well).

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/3gj0dmykld41u3u/IMG_0981.JPG?dl=0

And then here are some photos to better show his body shape:

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/inbwwkhk0ksweqj/IMG_0982.JPG?dl=0

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/dzfin1n3vbxyat6/IMG_0987.JPG?dl=0

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/e6wlg1xey8qwdwf/IMG_0985.JPG?dl=0

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/6yb3ky583f83j0y/IMG_0983.JPG?dl=0


Thanks for any advice! :>

[Dragonling]

375g at 1.5 years is pretty huge, but he doesn't look overweight per se. The crease marks are just from the scales bending the same way over and over when coiled up in the same position. As long as it's not affecting his sheds, it should be fine.

[SillyNoodle]

Yeah he likes to coil into the paper towel tube a lot so that may be it. His sheds are complete thankfully and he's always been a really good shedder.

Im not sure how to balance feeding him enough to keep him healthy and not so much that he grows like a superworm. Or if it's even possible to keep him from growing so fast, lol. My only concern is I've read in a few forums that over-feeding them and making them grow faster can shorten their lifespan (not sure if this is true though). Even if I space out his feedings more (went from 7 days to 10 days to now 14) he is not slowing even slightly. And then every resource I read says he should be eating more than he is now given his weight but.... yeah. He's a youngin'.

He's my first snake - can you tell? ;) Thanks for the advice!

[Karl_Mcknight]

I don't see any scale damage in the pictures posted. He looks fine to me. And I agree, 375 grams is huge for 1 1/2 years, but a 375 gram snake should certainly be eating more than 18 grams every 2 weeks.

[SillyNoodle]

Do you think it's anything I'm doing in regards to how large he is at his age? Or maybe just he's a beast of a snake? Aka do I need to be concerned or can I just feed him according to his weight so long as he doesn't start getting fat? (Is his size at his age a bad thing?)

I got him almost a year ago (adopted him from someone when he was about 6 months old). He was about 33g at that point and since then he's.... grown 10x. In basically a year. I have no clue if that's normal, obviously (never owned a snake before).

Been following this feeding guide for the most part:
http://www.thecornsnake.co.uk/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=27833

Though I stopped giving him larger meals when he hit adult mice and then started spreading out his feedings when I noticed the lines in his scales. I'll sometimes add a fuzzy if the adult mouse weighs too little.

I'm really happy to hear that ya'll don't think the lines are anything bad and that he looks fine! I want him to live a happy a long life if at all possible. :)

[Karl_Mcknight]

I have seen perfectly fine corn snakes at 5 feet long and 900 grams. An adult fully grown corn snake can be anywhere from 3 feet long to 6 feet long and weigh from 300 grams to 1000 grams. It's impossible to say how big a corn snake is or will be. There is a lot involved including genetics, housing, and feeding. You might have one of the larger snakes. I have a 2 year old male about the same size as your's and I feed him a 30 gram mouse every 7 days. I plan to at some point move him to a 10 day schedule and eventually a 14 day schedule, but he's still growing. You typically don't do that until they are fully grown and he is nowhere near being fat.

[Scrappyeddie77]

He might be a cross ( anacornda ) lol
He is a great looking snake and it looks like you are doing a great job with him


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk