feeding items that are to big

[reptbilly71]

What should a person do if they think a food item is to big after there corn snake has already started eating it? I was feeding my year old corn half of a fuzzy though I had cut it width wise not length wise and after he started eating it the fuzzy looked like it was going to be to big.

[katieam]

how often do you feed him/her? because i know that my year old corn is on hoppers now, so half a fuzzy sounds like it might be too small. are you sure he is a year old? maybe he's just small for his age, i dont know.

but i think that if it looked too big and he ate it, just leave him alone for a little longer than the usual two days and make sure your temperatures are warm enough to help with the digestion. anybody feel free to correct me if im wrong though.

good luck :)

[danielle]

After the fact all you can do is hold your breath and hope for no regurge. Next time go lengthwise and you should be good!

[reptbilly71]

Katieam the store said Cisco was five months old when I asked after I had purchased him, so I just counted each month as another. The house temp is kept about 70. Ciscos vive has both a heat lamp and a UTH. The UTH I put on the side of the vive instead of under do to the fact of the warning of possible cracking of the glass if to much water was accidently spilled. I usually feed Cisco once a week usually around two to three in the morning.


Danielle I did hold my breath and boy it was a while holding but Cisco finally got it in.


Thanks for the help everyone

[bitsy]

I agree - once it's started eating, leave it in peace.

In my experience, there are three scenarios if food really is too big:

1) The snake ignores it
2) The snake tries to get it in its mouth, spits it out and ignores it
3) The snake takes a long time to swallow, then regurges a couple of days later

The third is the worst-case scenario, but that needn't be a major problem as long as you deal with it properly afterwards.

They can safely eat things that seem waaay too big for them - I always worry when moving mine up! The food offered should be about 1.5 times the width of the snake's body (not the head or neck).

[danny819]

I accidently fed one of my just under a year old corns an adult mouse (about 3x bigger than him around) and he was stuffed, I raised the temp a few degrees on the warm side and waited about 10 days to feed him again and he was fine.. I had a bunch of them defrosting on top of the screen lid, I slid the lid over a few inches and went to clean/refil his water and when I got back he was on top of his tank and had 1/3 of it down already.I wouldn't do it on purpose but you have to remember that in the wild they don't always get appropriate sized meals so they will usually deal with it.

[rolandslf]

Good Day

I have found that the correct size prey item generally will be visible inside the snake for about 4 or 5 days.
They do handle prey items which seem a bit too big for them very well.
If you get a regurge, do not attempt to feed the snake for at least 14 days',
and then try feeding again with a smaller prey item and see if your snake keeps it down.

Just my 2 bits worth.

Ciao