First Feeding - Any Suggestions/Comments?

[tahlmorra]

Hi..!

Recieved a yearling Corn last Wed..was fed before shipping..has adapted nicely to her new home and is very active and personable..

Had to wait for a shipment (to my local/primary petshop) of pinkies..arrived today..and am all set to feed my new snake her very first meal in her new environment..

Since she has been most active starting at dusk, I plan to wait until then to offer the meal..and from all I've been able to glean, the best way to warm the pinkie up is in lukewarm water over a moderate length o'time..

Sound like I'm doin' things right for an inaugural dinner..? Anybody have any differing suggestions..?

I want her first dining experience t'go smoothly.. :)

[PtDnsr]

Sounds like you're doing great. My only suggestion would be to feed her separately (not in her cage). There are multiple reasons which you can find if you search on it but I don't like to take the chance of them ingesting substrate. Some corns will latch on soon others take a few minutes. You said she was a yearling...was she fed pinks the last time? How big is she? Depending on her size you'd probably be able to move up to fuzzies or two pinks but for a first feeding one pink should be fine. Good luck!

~Katie

[tahlmorra]

Thanks..!

Due to a previous bad experience, substrate is nothing more than layers of paper towels..so that shouldn't be a problem..

She's about 14" and no bigger around than my little finger.. Was raised on F/T.. I know she's an '04..but not whether or not she's actually a full year old, as of the moment...

[jazzgeek]

Another thing to consider is that the skin is the toughest organ for a snake to digest - a bit of very sound advice I picked up here when I first joined the forums is to take a cuticle scissors or "Xacto" knife and make a slit down the pinkie to open up the skin.

This allows for a faster digestion rate (and possibly more "complete" digestion), and thus a faster growth rate, without the need to "powerfeed". It certainly helped with my amel - whom I purchased last August as a lil' hatchling. He's now just under a yard.

My $0.02.

regards,
jazz

[A_Mc]

Another thing to consider is that the skin is the toughest organ for a snake to digest - a bit of very sound advice I picked up here when I first joined the forums is to take a cuticle scissors or "Xacto" knife and make a slit down the pinkie to open up the skin.

This allows for a faster digestion rate (and possibly more "complete" digestion), and thus a faster growth rate, without the need to "powerfeed".

I 'slice' all of my feeders--it not only helps with digestion, it also gives the mice a stronger scent...
You already said that you were going to warm the pinkie, so your new snake will have a nice, warm, stinky mouse for her first meal in her new home. Sounds perfect! :cheers:

[tahlmorra]

Thanks jazzgeek and A_Mc...! (and all)

Placed the sliced pinkie just outside her "warm" hide and, in less than two min, she was all over that meal...!

I didn't see her initially pounce it..but *did* see her with her jaw unhinged and swallowing... *beams*

I'm wondering iff'n she may not already be past pinkies..cuz I, while admittedly trying to leave her alone after her feeding, cannot see any bulge along her body, from the feeding..?


<----------- happy snake daddy....

[A_Mc]

I'm wondering iff'n she may not already be past pinkies..cuz I, while admittedly trying to leave her alone after her feeding, cannot see any bulge along her body, from the feeding..?

If she is a yearling, it's possible that a pinky may be too small...It's still a good idea this time because it was her first feed in new surroundings. Next time, you may want to try a fuzzy... A good meal for her is one that is about 1 1/2 times the diameter of her body (where she is the fattest). It depends on her size.....
When she is done digesting this meal, you should take some pics so we can see her!! :cheers:

[peep_827]

I've discovered that there is a huge difference between small pinkys and large pinkys, and small fuzzies and large fuzzies. Next time you are at the pet store ask them to let you see different size feeders, a small pinky can be more than 2X larger than a small one and the same is true for fuzzies. So you may just want a larger pinky for the next feed.

When I got my first snake I was totally paranoid about feeding too big an item and stuck to small pinkys and slowly worked my way up to large ones. After posting a pic of her eating, it was suggested to me that she could take larger mice so I tried a fuzzy. No problem. To this day I still up the size of her mouse at every feeding and she is on big fat fuzzies now and has never had a problem! Every time I give her a bigger mouse I think there is NO WAY she's going to get it down and she does it with ease. It's crazy!

My smallest snake is probably about 16"-17" and just seems very petite to me, she took a small fuzzy at her last feed. I wasn't sure she'd do it, but again, no problem! :shrugs:

Good luck! It sounds like you and your new baby are off to a great start! That first feed is always exciting.