Hello! First time snake owner here, with a question about feeding.

Hi! I'm ashley. I'm a very enthusiastic, first time snake owner! I got miles a few weeks ago and things have been going great, he's been eating well since I got him and he shed a few days ago, which also went very well. I've done lots of research on corn snake care, but I figured there's probably always more for me to learn, so I decided to make an account here! :+)

I'm generally a lurker when it comes to forums, so I'm not sure how often I'll really utilize the account for actually, like, talking, but I did have a question that I wanted to ask:

As I said, he's eaten well so far, but I was wondering if anyone could give me tips on knowing what/how much I should feed him? He's about 10 grams right now and I've been feeding him one pinkie, but I'm not sure when I should move up from that, and was wondering if anyone could help me in figuring that out. Anything from a rough graph of how much he should eat based on weight, to some sort of math equation to help me figure it out (ie if the food I feed him should weigh a certain percentage of his body weight). He's definitely good for now, but this was something I was a little concerned about for the future, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

(PS: I'm obviously new to this website, so if this isn't the right place for this question, forgive me/if anyone could direct me to where the appropriate place might be, that'd be cool! Thank you in advance.)

Hi, welcome! I was a lurker too, but since I don't know a single other person who likes snakes at all (ok, I know one now, but didn't when I got my first snake) I found I am on here a lot more than I anticipated. Ha ha. You may suprise yourself!

There is a plan called the Munson plan that most people at least refer to if not follow exactly. I feed roughly according to this plan, but I go a little lighter on feeding than this suggests and my corns are all growing really well. The other common option is to feed a mouse that's somewhere between one to one and a half times the width of your snake at it's widest point.

Here is the Munson plan.

A lot of us follow the Munson plan as pictured above, though I never feed 4 days apart. I bump that up to 5 days. Also, right now my snake is 27 grams and I'm just going to start on fuzzies. It doesn't hurt to be on the conservative side of it.

The other thing to really remember on feeding is to have that warm hide at the right temp, not to handle too soon after feeding, and to not feed when they are in blue (though I did accidently once because he was clear again and I hadn't seen the milky eyes-- it was fine). All these things are to avoid a regurge (or vomit when the food is partially digested). More often what we call regurge here is actually vomit, but in any case dealing with it is the same. It doesn't hurt to read up on that just in case. Search for and read the regurge protocol by Kathy Love for sure. I keep a copy of it handy on my computer (with the Munson plan) though I haven't needed it.

Congrats and welcome!

Thank you both, this helped a lot.