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What do you feed corn snakes?

C

coralife205

New member
I have been feeding my snake frozen mice. however, Im wondering if feeding Live is more healthy for the snake or not... I know the risk of feeding live, but im just wondering if it is healthier...

also, can you feed them other things besides mice? I know other snakes eat worms, feeder-fish, crickets, etc....would my corn snake eat any of those?
 
Your corn snake might eat it. But its just a waste of time and money because they arent getting the nutrients they need. Almost everyone here feeds f/t (frozen/thawed) mice and they have big, strong, healthy corn snakes. I dont know how live will benefit them more. I just know about the consequences that come when feeding live mice to a corn snake.
 
Adults pretty much eat mice or other rodents. Babies might add some lizards to their diet.

Frozen is good because it's usually more convenient, the food is healthier and there's no danger of attack from the animal.

Live is good because it's more natural and the snake gets its exercise which can help avoid some health problems.

If the feeder animal is small enough there's no worry about attack.

Some breeders feed frozen most of the time and throw in live once in a while. It's all your choice.
 
The fresher something is, the more vitamins it has. vitamins dissappate because of contact with air, heat, and other reasons. That is why it is so much better to eat fruits right off the vine instead of out of a can.
But freezing holds in a lot more vitamins than cooking or canning (in the case of people food)...
So technically a fresh-killed mouse has more nutrients than f/t, but I still feed f/t because of cost, no chance of injury or parasites, and I don't want my snake to get "spoiled" and not go back to f/t after eating live.
 
My 22 year old has eaten nothing but f/t mice all his life. I recommend it!
 
I have looked at many live feeding threads. I won't do it unless it's that or death by starvation. If you think your corn needs more exercise, make him chase the zombie mouse around! If he has a good feeding response he will go up & back the feeding bin a bunch of times as long as you keep the zombie mouse out of reach but within sensing range. Then when you do let him have it he will probably constrict the guts out & get more exercise.

Or you can take him out for regular exercise outdoors, on the couch, on the stairs, in the bathtub, etc to replace the exercise from killing live food.

If you think he needs variety in his diet, you can offer other f/t rodents of the same size (like rat pinks/fuzzys/hoppers) or quail chicks. The risk of this is that he might like those items so much better he refuses mice after that & insists on rat or quail instead.

You can dust the f/t with Nutribac or herp vitamins occasionally to make up for anything lost to freezing. I don't know if that's really necessary, but Nutribac is safe and can't hurt, and vitamins ought to be OK as long as you don't overdo them -- check in Kathy Love's book, I know it says what the deal is with herp vitamins & corn snakes.
 
A corn can get all the nutrition it needs from a diet of mice only. Stick to Frozen Thawed. The risk of feeding live is too high. Plus you can keep frozen feeders in bulk safely in the freezer. That cuts down on costs and time. The feeders may lose a little nutrition by being frozen, but not enough to affect the health of the snake. Freezing also reduces the risk of infecting the snake with parasites. Freezing may not kill all of them, but will kill most if the rodent is infected.

Stay away from feeding worms, crickets or feeder fish. These are not part of their normal diet. Probably wouldn't eat it anyway.

If you do decide to supplement their diet with some reptile vitamins, do it sparingly. Maybe once every couple of months. This is a case of "less is more".

Wayne
 
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