Maybe a small problem.........

I just got a digital scale in last month (and also started using FreeHerp) to keep better care of my snakes. What I am wondering now is every week before I feed, I weigh them and record it in the program. I am trying to feed tonight and have noticed that my snakes (most of them) seem to be losing weight over the last three weeks. Here is an example:

7 6 5.5
10 8 8
13 13 12.5

Is this normal for young snakes and/or hatchlings? Just curious as all eat every week, so I figured that they would put weight on (like me). Any ideas, or should I just give it time. Thanks for your replies. :shrugs:

I've never weighed weekly, but I have noticed that some of my animals fluctuate up or down depending most likely on how active they've been, how large a prey item you fed etc. To figure it out, you'd most likely have to weigh the prey animal and see if the weight fluctuates due to size difference, but you'd also have to observe to see if there were more active times during the period also. I don't think it's all that unusual. It could also be your scale. Do you check for accuracy each time you weigh?

yes........i use the same deli-cup to weigh all of them in, and it always weighs 35 grams. so i know that it is still accurate (also, when i turn it on every time it resets itself to zero).

as a matter of fact............i just tried to feed the smallest one again tonight (7-6-5.5 grams) and she would not eat. that makes her eating every-other week for the last three feedings. i got her at the expo around the first of june, and i think she has eaten a total of three times. but when she does eat, she eats a full pinky and has it down within 5 minutes. i am afraid i am going to loose her........... :shrugs:

Some snakes seem to set themselves a slower feeding schedule and growth rate. If your conditions are good (as I suspect they are!) then just accept that this snake will feed and grow at it's own rate. The reason I say this is that my Christmas corn is lagging far behind my R.O. but they are supposed to be around the same hatch date. She will feed about 3 out of 4 times, and is just going up to peaches, while he eats every time and is on hoppers and soon to small adults. I tried 1 1/2 pinks with her before bumping to 2, because she was so slender I thought 2 would pop her!

I only weigh once a month if I remember. I think weighing every week will make you obsessive... or, more obsessive. Put the snake down, step away from the scale, and no one will get hurt... I use Free Herp too, and the results are easier to read on a monthly basis because the results are greater.

Since you are weighing weekly, it is possible you might have weighed the snake just before it defecates. That could be one reason for the sudden drop in weight.
I have some snakes that a swear look like they just pooped a quarter of their body weight sometimes. :eek1:

thanks gusy/gals..........i might try to extend the weighing periods to see if that makes me feel better. i would imagine i do get overly concerned by looking at the weights every week, i just wanted to try and "do the right thing" as a snake owner. the little snow is probably what is worrying me the most........i don't think she has grown at all in the last 1 1/2 months. i would hate to have to give her to my new mbk if she doesn't improve.

Pardon me if I am speaking out of reason here, but just because a snake is a slow grower in the beginning doesnt mean it wont turn around and be hearty later on. No need to kill the snake just because it doesnt gain weight fast. Some are just slow to start.

For example, In March, I bought a 2004 eastern king trio of siblings. The largest was 140 grams the middle was 80 and the other was only 33 grams. she was Quite small for a 2004 ,but once I got her figured out and eating regularly she has turned around and is now 100 grams in only a 5 months. They can turn around. Please dont sentence the snake to death unless it is ill.

dawnrenee2000 said:

Pardon me if I am speaking out of reason here, but just because a snake is a slow grower in the beginning doesnt mean it wont turn around and be hearty later on. No need to kill the snake just because it doesnt gain weight fast. Some are just slow to start.

For example, In March, I bought a 2004 eastern king trio of siblings. The largest was 140 grams the middle was 80 and the other was only 33 grams. she was Quite small for a 2004 ,but once I got her figured out and eating regularly she has turned around and is now 100 grams in only a 5 months. They can turn around. Please dont sentence the snake to death unless it is ill.

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you mis-understood me i think. i would not kill this snake just because it is not eating, only if it continues to get worse. it is starting to look pretty skinny and not very healthy. i will continue to try and feed her until all hope is lost. this one of the snakes that i bought at the expo (when i bought 4 for $40) because the lady "didn't want to deal with corns anyway". so she was partially shed and not in great shape in the first place. i was just trying to give it a home and bring it back up to par. so no, i will not do anything until there is nothing left to be done................hope this clears things up a little bit.

Update !!!

well, i got home from work today and my littlest one (5.5 gram snow) was laying in the middle of her tank, just chillin on the aspen. she is always in the hide during the day so it seemed a little weird. she wasn't moving that much and pretty much stayed in the same general area for 15-20 minutes. i decided that after my shower i would try and feed her again (scheduled wasn't until friday) since it was going on 2 1/2 weeks. i gave her a small pinky and put her in my sock drawer to eat in peace/dark. 30 minutes later she was checked on and she was resting her head on top of her food (like a pillow). took her back out and pretty much just hung from my hand and would only really move with some encouragement. i have put her in a deli cup and covered her with a sheet to go in peace. it was hard not to terminate her life right now, knowing that she is probably suffering, but also wanting to let nature and God take their course. just giving you people an update as i am going to bed and will check on her in about 5 hours or so. oh well, i bought her as a troubled snake and obviously had trouble with her..........but at least i tried as the vender at the expo didn't want anything to do with her..........i don't know, say a prayer and maybe i wake up and she was playing a joke on me. LOL. thanks for all of your help and suggestions during this feeding problem.

Arcanefate said:

Since you are weighing weekly, it is possible you might have weighed the snake just before it defecates. That could be one reason for the sudden drop in weight.
I have some snakes that a swear look like they just pooped a quarter of their body weight sometimes. :eek1:

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yea, i have had an adult corn poo over 50 grams before....:sidestep:

cornsnakekid92 said:

yea, i have had an adult corn poo over 50 grams before....:sidestep:

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wow you weigh the poo. i think that may be excessive/obsessive. and i seem to remember reading that a young snake may lose 10 or 20 percent of its weight when it sheds. wish i could ...

nehpets1 said:

wow you weigh the poo. i think that may be excessive/obsessive. and i seem to remember reading that a young snake may lose 10 or 20 percent of its weight when it sheds. wish i could ...

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Actually, if you wanted to do an accurate study of intake vs. output vs. efficiency of digestion vs. etc. cornsnakekid is on the right track. Kudos to him!

If you feed a 20 gram mouse to the snake, he defecates 8 grams, and gains 10 grams in body mass . . . where'd the other 2 grams go?! :shrugs:

D80

CaptBogart said:

I only weigh once a month if I remember. I think weighing every week will make you obsessive... or, more obsessive. Put the snake down, step away from the scale, and no one will get hurt...

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nehpets1 said:

wow you weigh the poo. i think that may be excessive/obsessive. and i seem to remember reading that a young snake may lose 10 or 20 percent of its weight when it sheds. wish i could ...

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I was only parroting the sentiments of bogie from an earlier post in the thread. CSkid never mentioned any efficiency project, and gave no means to judge that that was his goal

I'm sure that more than one person on the forums took plenty of overzealous notes on the maintenance of their snakes in their respective lifetimes. Michael McEachern (Keeping and Breeding Corn Snakes) could/can chart shed frequency to defecation mass ratio and probably tell you how that affects the future F2 offspring of a given snake if they mate in January and lay in June...:madeuce:

In addition, the extra 2g probably goes into the body as caloric intake converted into energy. I know that snakes' and mammals' bodies treat food differently, but I also know that no machine is 100% efficient in its function.

Besides I... for one... am thrilled with the fact that every time I eat a half-pound Angus burger I don't gain a half-pound no matter how soon I weigh myself after the meal. Although this theory doesn't hold true in the opposite on those rare occasions that I drink too much and wind up worshipping the porcelain gods. (When I finish my offerings, I almost always weigh in at less than the weight of the beer I drank that night, that is, when there's somebody around to help me to a scale to check...uke01:

oh bad news, hope you wake with a better outcome, but at least you're giving the snow a chance

Rip

:-offtopic Sorry, I hope this is the right thread to post this...........She did not make it.

sorry to hear that, at least you gave her a good shot. Sounds like she had a bad start that couldn't be overcome.

diamondlil said:

sorry to hear that, at least you gave her a good shot. Sounds like she had a bad start that couldn't be overcome.

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thank you.........i think you are correct. i know they say don't buy sick looking corns to try and save them, and this is probably the reason. but the vendor didn't even want her, and she was free. so why not try, huh? didn't cost me anything but about 3 pinkies. thanks again.

It's a shame she didn't make it, but at least you tried your best. I hope you have better luck with the next one.