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Feeders Any and all issues about raising rats, mice, or anything else that you feed your cornsnakes.

Feeding Questions - from a newbie
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Old 07-29-2017, 05:48 PM   #1
Em.Mo.Clark
Feeding Questions - from a newbie

Brego is about 2 months old, I've had him for 2 days, and am trying to work up a feeding plan, but I've heard and read so many different opinions. People have said anything from multiple times a week to once or twice a month. In your opinion, how often should you feed corn snakes in the various stages of maturity? What do you feed yours? Pros and cons of frozen versus live? Mice versus rats versus etc?
 
Old 07-29-2017, 06:09 PM   #2
Karl_Mcknight
Quote:
Originally Posted by Em.Mo.Clark View Post
Brego is about 2 months old, I've had him for 2 days, and am trying to work up a feeding plan, but I've heard and read so many different opinions.........
Most of us follow the "Munson Feeding Plan" or a similar variation. You can find it all over the internet, just google it. You can probably find it on this forum if you browse around a bit. Basically it revolves around the fact that you feed a Baby Corn snake 1 meal every 5 or 6 days that weighs about 10% to 13% of the snake's weight. So for example if the snake weighed 11 grams, you'd feed a baby mouse (pinky) that weighs about 1.3 grams every 6 days.

As the snake ages and grows the meals get larger, and the feeding time becomes longer. By the time the sake is an adult it may only be eating 1 or 2 times a month.

Your snake being about 2 months old is still a baby, but you'll need to get an accurate scale that measures in grams and weigh your snake. Once you know the weight of your snake you can figure the size and time frame of the meals.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Em.Mo.Clark View Post
....... What do you feed yours? Pros and cons of frozen versus live? Mice versus rats versus etc?
Most of us feed mice. A few folks will also feed baby chicks, small quail, and the folks with the larger corn snakes may feed rats. Most corn snakes never get big enough for rats. You could feed your snake on mice for its entire life and it would be fine.

There is no reason to feed live anymore with the abundance of frozen available. A living mouse will fight back. No animal is going to just sit there and allow itself to be squeezed to death. A mouse may be small and seem innocent enough, but they do have claws and teeth and have been known to actually injure a snake, and if the bite gets infected, could even kill the snake. A big rat could easily kill a snake. There are a few folks around here that feed live animals because they claim their snake won't eat the frozen. But most of the folks around here feed frozen.
 
Old 07-29-2017, 08:57 PM   #3
DollysMom
Here's my copy of the Munson plan:
-When they're on single pinks (2-3g), I feed every 4-5 days. (Snake = 4-15g)
-Double pinks (3g x 2) every 4-5 days. (Snake = 16-23g)
-Small fuzzies (5-7g) every 5-6 days. (Snake = 24-30g)
-Regular fuzzies (7-9g) every 5-6 days (Snake = 30-50g)
-Hoppers (9-12g) every 5-6 days (Snake = 51-90g)
-Weaned (14-20g) every 7 days (Snake = 91-170g)
-Adult (24-30g) every 7-x days (Snake = 170+)
-Jumbo Adults (40-50g) every 7-x days (Snake = 400g+)

Note: Adult females are fed more frequently than adult males (especially following brumation). Females are fed every 6-8 days; males are fed every 7-14 days.

This is by no means scientific.

One bit of advice is to get a scale that weighs in grams. Weigh your snake and the prey (mouse) before each feeding and keep records.

I only feed frozen thawed. Almost all corn snakes will eat frozen thawed. The only reason to feed live, in my opinion, is when for whatever reason it is the only way the snake will eat.

When I got Cleo she was 6 weeks old and 14 grams. She ate a 2 to 3 gram pinkie mouse every 5 days. That's a normal feeding schedule at that age. I have records of every feeding and weight from that day to this.

I agree with checking out the Munson plan, though I always feed the longer interval and lower prey weights. That is until I get to the point where I don't need the chart any more.

For example, Cleo is going on 2 years old now weighs 258 and gets a 13 gram mouse every 10 days.(size will increase gradually as I select from the big bag of frozen small adult mice) She has a nice steady growth rate that puts her on a good track to full adult size in another couple of years but it is way less than Munson as you can see. If she needed the mouse size Munson gives for healthy growth I'd do it but she doesn't as evidenced by her weight at 2 years old.

One more thing. almost no one feeds Jumbo mice. I have an adult corn snake too, and she gets 20 to 25 grams every 10 days. She weighs 550 grams.

Munson is a guide but you've gotta use common sense and learn your snake and its growing habits. By the time you aren't as reliant on Munson you will have the confidence and experience to depart from it like I did.
 
Old 07-30-2017, 05:07 PM   #4
Em.Mo.Clark
Thank you both! That's really great info!
 

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