i need some advice help :(

so , from last post when the snake regurgitate.
after how much time can i switch him back to 2 mice per week. this snake is really getting me worried.
yesterday i bought my ball python and when i asked this new petshop where i bought it from how long and wide was my snake and his age startled like the other petshops. today i got a picture of him next to my hand :



this corn is 1 year 6months old.. and his still this size. this petshops considered switching to pinky rats, the others considered switching to 2mice.
i tried the 2mice but he regurged after 2 weeks = 4mice, but that was probably my mistake for only giving 24hours between each mice.

please. somebody help me. im really getting worried about his size at 1year6months.

You're going to need to give him MONTHS of time to recover from this. Put his weight out of your mind and instead just think about his actual needs. He doesn't need to be fattened up overnight. If he's fed slowly AND is able to keep his food down (which is the ultimate goal) then he'll slowly gain weight.

im really confused since every petshop here is telling me you need to feed hime 2times a week and one sugested feeding him a pinky rat instead of small mice. and eveyone here is telling me to feed him once a week just like any other snake that has growed sucesfull altough with my snake this is not the case.

What Lori said. Months. I have quite a few 08s that aren't much bigger than that. I like to grow my babies slow for the first year anyways, but I did have a few that had eating issues (only one that had regurge issues though). Also, I have a nearly 4 year old who is currently eating peach fuzzies (he weighs 130g or so) due to multiple regurges. He won't get anything bigger than that for at least another month, then he'll be moved to fuzzies for at least a month, then to small hoppers, etc. Take your time, he's not going to starve.

Edit: Definitely don't feed twice a week. That doesn't give the snake's system time to digest and get rid of waste between feedings. A healthy hatchling should be fed, at the most, every 4-5 days (I feed every 5 for hatchlings and some yearlings, every 7 for subadults, every 10-14 for adult females, and every 14-21 for adult males).

In answer to your question when he can eat 2 mice a week again....how about NEVER.

Two mice a week is too much for any cornsnake....

If a snake has NEVER EVER regurged, maybe I would give him 1 mouse every 5 days....and only til he's a yearling....but yours has...

starsevol said:

In answer to your question when he can eat 2 mice a week again....how about NEVER.

Two mice a week is too much for any cornsnake....

If a snake has NEVER EVER regurged, maybe I would give him 1 mouse every 5 days...but yours has...

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I was going to say never, but I wasn't sure what others do for breeders. I personally would never feed my snakes twice a week, but like you said, Beth, every five days is ok for some. I keep my 08s on a once a week schedule, but I'm not in a rush to breed them. I know some breeders beef up their females quickly, but never a snake that has had regurges.

Like we've already said, Dark....forget about his size. It's only an issue in your mind. Your goal now is to make sure that snake NEVER regurges again.

Pet shops are not experts. The people on this board are experts. Pet shop owners just want to sell more stuff. I would say at his age he can take a large pinkie every 5 to 7 days. HOWEVER... because he has regured so many times. Stick with one pinkie every 7 days for a while. He won't die. He will just be smaller than other snakes his age might be. That's just fine. He will get to his adult size just fine. Many of my GF's snakes are smaller than mine even at the same age because she fed more conservitively than I did. But they are all heathy.

DarkSmoke said:

im really confused since every petshop here is telling me you need to feed hime 2times a week and one sugested feeding him a pinky rat instead of small mice. and eveyone here is telling me to feed him once a week just like any other snake that has growed sucesfull altough with my snake this is not the case.

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Petshop folks RARELY know as much about cornsnakes as people here (excepting me who's a noobie). Maybe a reptile specific shop... Then again, maybe not, the experienced folks here are specifically expert in cornsnakes.

I'd take the advice here. Keep this snake alive, don't risk his life with more regurgs. Get him eating regularly once a week without any regurgs for months & months. THEN worry about catch up feeding. He may take an extra year to get to adult size. I don't see that it matters as long as he is healthy.

I am just recapping the advice from the genuine experts plus my non-expert opinion that preventing more regurgs is much more important than getting back to normal feeding sooner.

Edit: Regurging is not like puking is for humans. We tolerate it really well. All the evidence I've found, here & elsewhere, is that snakes don't tolerate regurging.

At the moment, your focus should be on getting him to keep his food down reliably, not on growing him. Corns that have experienced multiple regurges as youngsters will tend to be smaller and grow more slowly as a result. However, a small snake is not necessarily an unhealthy snake, once a proper feeding pattern has been established.

You should feed very conservatively. In this situation, I think that the shops are wrong and the advice you're seeing here is correct.

If you carry on trying to feed multiple items or increase the frequency of feeding, then your snake will continue to regurge and die. I'm sorry to be blunt, but this really is the decision you have to make. If you carry on doing as the shops advise, your snake will die - I know you don't want that otherwise you wouldn't still be posting here. You're very obviously caring and concerned, just misguided.

ok then , so my last 2 questions. feeding every 5days is ok once he has gone some months without regurg?
also , cause nobody answered on this one , is it a good idea to switch to pinky rats ?

Not "some" months....MANY months!

I also wouldn't "personally" advise only rat pinks. Again, his size is not an issue, and you don't want to make him fat.

DarkSmoke

This is being posted to you with the utmost respect. I have been a stubborn teenager at one time and am now raising a stubborn 18 yr old. I am pointing these things out to you for a couple of reasons.

1. If you continue with the behavior you are displaying on here, you will quickly receive no responses from anyone anymore.
2. You're lack of respect and stubborn attitude is currently killing the corn snake you have and if you continue this way, you will likely kill or harm any other animal in your care. At this point your main focus seems to be on yourself(what you want to do regardless of what results it will have) and not on what is best for you animals.

Please look at your behavior listed below and try very hard not to be defensive and think of it as an attack but instead as a chance to see your actions from an outside point of view. This is meant as constructive criticism with the hopes that you will learn and grow from it, and inadvertently your animals will benefit from your personal growth.

You keep asking for help and then getting upset when people try to help you out. You choose not to carefully read what is posted as the answers to your questions and then do not follow the advice given. When things do not work out as you want them to, you blame those trying to help you, instead of taking responsibility for your own lack of reading carefully and following directions.

You have gotten angry and defensive, when people have tried to help you save the life of your corn snake by suggesting you buy specific tools to ensure it's husbandry is correct. You state you have no money and can not afford as little as $8-$15 dollars.Now you have gone out an bought another live animal. This will upset those try to help you when you get angry at them for suggesting you buy items needed to properly care for the corn snake and you say you have no money but now you have money to buy another snake!

In this post you have shown that you have not bothered to ensure you can properly provide for the one you have because when questioned about the corn snake you brush of the question and state you will address the issue in another thread and then go one about the question you started this one for.

Then when advised you should hold off on getting another animal(for the safety of the new animal, no disrespect intended to you) until you know if the corn is contagiously ill you rudely state

too late, its here now.
so back to my question...

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This shows a lack of concern for the animals in your care and a lack of respect for the people on here, whom you keep coming to for advice.

You frequently post a problem and then complain about no responses or make a decision before giving anyone time to respond, again showing you do not actually care what people are going to tell you. Example, this thread was started at 6:34am on Nov 20/09, to ask if a shelf would be big enough to house a new snake in and by 10:49 am on Nov 20/09 you state you have already bought the new snake.

These actions are making you look more like a person who is simply coming to a public forum and starting multiple threads for attention and the thrill of an argument(other wise known as a troll), instead of as a person who is coming to the public forum genuinely looking for help, support and friendship in a like minded community.

Please take the time to read this post through beginning to end several times, slowly so that you can get the true tone of my post, it is not rude, harsh or ignorant, it is polite, constructive criticism meant to help you out.

Now for the question of this thread...as everyone has said to you several times in several threads about this corn snake....follow Kathy Love's regurge FAQ, search it out on here....it will take many months for that snake to be healthy if not a year, if you listen, if you do not you WILL kill it. Stop worrying about trying to have a snake with size and bulk it is not a snake body building contest, so what if he is small. Small and alive is better than attempted large and dead.

One pinkie every 5 days in a few months time, after he's stopped regurging yes.

And no, stick with mouse pinkies. When you need to increase, give him two mouse pinkies at a time. But that will be quite some time after you've moved to one feed every 5 days.

DarkSmoke said:

ok then , so my last 2 questions. feeding every 5days is ok once he has gone some months without regurg?
also , cause nobody answered on this one , is it a good idea to switch to pinky rats ?

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I am not sure why people are telling you this.. Pinky rats are just to big.
Personally I do not feed my corns Rats.. i keep mine on a diet of mice.
Plus if you are afraid of regurge recheck your husbandry (how you are keeping the snake). If you do not bother your pet while its digesting and keep good temps and care, your animal isnt going to regurge even if you feed it twice a week.

I think what you need to do is some hands off for awhile and keep it in its cage.

ok first before i continue on these thread, Asbit , i answered to your post on the other thread you posted that same post but im gonna paste it here too unless you dont read it on the other side but thanks again for your advice here too.

i know i sound rude and out of respect sometime and attack people, but i dont do it to be an idiot or to try to look cool or something i just can't stand people because they know everything and they are expert they start to get angry at me when i post something so i attack back, if you read my posts i have been attacked many times for , i ask a question m you answer with help, i question your help , but i dont do it to try to say that i know more then you , i do it because i want detailed explanations about the help you gave me cause im the curious type of guy that wants to learn and not just get help, do it, problem solved, yes trough but i dont know what really happened.

so please try to understand me too . another thing iv been raised in a country where many people claim to be experts in things then they are just plain idiots, im not saying this is the case here i know there are really experts in here but when i see someone talking as an expert and trying to make you look like plain zero for asking alot of questions and being rode i go into defenseve mode because thats how i was adepted to act in this country. and please dont tell me that people were'nt rude to me here, there where the ones that where patient to me and answered my questions even when i questioned there help , like bitsy and many others and im very thankfull to these people , but there where other people that acted to me in a way that made me act to them like that.

to the ball python part, i was really looking for a ball python , it took time to resieve a response here that that shelf is not good enough for the ball python and when i asked the petshop if that size is good they said its ok so i bought it. maybe yes, i admit , i acted a bit stupid and i should have waited for an expert response from here, again tough this shelf is just for abouth 2-3months max then im building a bigger viv. so for now it should suit him.

im not a guy that like to be aggresive to people im the relax type of guy which doesnt like people in bad moods wich acts with that "hey i know everything you do as i see im giving help here just shut up and do what im telling you without questioning else its trouble" attitude, and itts not me to be the first one to complain about this on this forum. that when people brake my relaxing mood and make me go aggressive.

but fine, i'll try to control that and don't act like that, but it musnt only come from my part.

i also understand that people in the states are going in a bad time for their crazy goverment trying to ban the pets they truly love, but not everyone should just gat attacked for making mistakes cause of that, in my case i dont have anything to do with the states. but anyway i think iv said enough, i hope you can understand me like i understood you, and please you should no better that when an 18year old wants something that really likes it will do anything to have it, in this case i really wanted that ball python and i got it, i wasnt calm enough to wait for an expert response but again i admit that. i am looking for a relaxing forum with people with patience and that can discuss help and cal m relaxing, and if that their help is questioned then they should give detailed explanations of their help and not get aggrasive,

bitsy said:

One pinkie every 5 days in a few months time, after he's stopped regurging yes.

And no, stick with mouse pinkies. When you need to increase, give him two mouse pinkies at a time. But that will be quite some time after you've moved to one feed every 5 days.

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ok so i'll stick with 1 mice a weak after the 10days break has passed then i will continue like that untill alot of months has passed without any regurgs. then maybe i'll switch to 1 mouse per 5days after that or continue with one mouse every 7 days.

thanks guys for answering to my questions thanks again for the help. my main concern was that the snake was unhealthy cause of his small size at this age, but that got answered.

thanks

Dark...for many feedings going forward, you want to make sure you are feeding the appropriate size for a post-regurg snake. Are you currently feeding pinks?

Since your corn has been regurging quite a bit, you should seriously consider only feeding him 1/2 pinks, at least for the first few meals, just to see if he keeps it down. Then you can GRADUALLY move up.

when he didnt regurg i used to give him mice thich as his thichest part since you can give snakes mice thick as x1.5 the thicest part. but of course i will give him a smaller mouse for the next feeding. no they weren't pinkies since there werent pink lol they had some fur , but i tell the petshop where i buy them to choose and he shows me a box full of them with different sizes which i choose from

Pick the very very smallest ones he has in stock for the next few feeds. Baby steps.