Fat snake, no obvious reason ...

Hi all, I wonder if any of you can shed any light on this.

Flo is 3 and a half years old. Sold as female, but not been checked by me.

A few months ago I noticed she was looking a but pudgy, thought she might be about to lay, but nothing.

I started to feel a bit concerned and took her to the vet, who couldn't find anything obvious wrong. Their only suggestion was to take her to another vet hospital in the next town for an ultrasound.

She just looks and feels fat, but I have never overfed her - in fact the opposite. My other corn who is exactly the same age looks perfectly normal.

She gets one large (not extra just large) mouse about every 10 days. But just gets fatter ...

She is always ravenous.

Has anyone ever come across something like this? Do some corns just have a weird metabolism?

TIA if anyone can help.

oops sorry don't know there the pic went

Looking at the pic you provided, I'd agree, your snake is fat.

Snakes get fat for the same reason people do.

If you take in more calories than you burn, you gain weight. If you burn more calories than you take in, you'll lose weight, and if you have a balance of burning the same amount you take in, you'll maintain a steady weight.

So..... does your snake need to eat less, exercise more or is there a medical issue (disease, blockage, etc) that's causing this?

Is your snake pooping in between feedings the way it should?

You stated she gets one large mouse every feeding. What is a large mouse? How much does it actually weigh? Some people would call a 22 gram mouse a large mouse, while others would call a 35 gram mouse a large. You also stated she gets fed every 10 days. Have you considered 14 to 21 days?

Does she get any exercise? I don't mean taking her out of her cage and holding her for 5 minutes. Does she have the ability to slither and climb and do the things a wild snake would do in order to maintain it's health and weight?

It's hard to tell by the picture, but that snake does not look too big to me. About how long is it?

I'm going out on a limb here and say you are over feeding it.

Perhaps, go down in size your mice, move the feeding schedule to 14 days or more, and get her some exercise. If she continues to stay fat, there may be a medical issue that needs a vet.

She poops fine between feeds - in fact she pooped on the way to the vet which took THAT out of the discussion lol.

The mice are between 22 and 24g.

Its a three ft viv with a log and a high platform.

I am puzzled because the other corn, same feeding schedule, same size viv, probably roughly same handling, isn't fat at all.

I'll weigh her next time she is out.

I'll try dropping the mouse size and letting her roam more.

How certain are you that she's female? Males have remarkable metabolisms. I had to drop my largest down to twice monthly feedings because he was starting to look hippy eating 18-23g mice weekly. Otherwise it's possible that she just has a different metabolism than your other snake and just needs less food in general.

Sold as female as tiny hatchling but never had her probed since then, and never produced slugs.

Mmn that's a thought, never occured to me thanks.

I'll cut down the feeds. She/he is always ravenous though :-)

The tail is short with a very rapid taper, more typically seen in females... but that could also be the fat. I have seen *plenty* of obese females and of my own personal snakes I have a female that is prone to becoming a blob.

Corn snakes are also kind of like labradors; they will eat until they explode. Miss-wants-to-be-a-blob has, in the past, eaten up to 4 adult mice at a single feeding.