Too many hides?

So my sister and I are having a discussion about how Esteban seems to be getting a little thick around the lower part. He's only about 7 months old and from the searches I've done in this forum, I get the impression that it's almost impossible for cornsnakes to get fat until after they've become adults.

We're still a little worried though, and my sister proposed this idea. I want to run it by you folks before we make a decision:

Since Esteban was pretty young when we got him, we decided to put 4 hides and 2 water dishes in his 20 gallon viv so that he'd feel more secure. My sister figures that if we remove two of the hides (now that he's bigger and more comfortable in his viv), it'll give him more room and incentive to move around. He's especially fond of his moss hide and the big log on the warm side of the viv and he rarely uses the other two on the cool side of his viv.

Do you think he'll get more exercise if we remove the two hides from the cool side and move the log or moss hide to their spots? If not, what's a good way to exercise him (my sister is very much against the idea of the warm water in the tub thing since he hates it and it seems to stress him out)? I don't want to change his diet regimen because he's still young (a fuzzy every 7 days).

Any ideas would be appreciated and thanks in advance!

I would remove the two biggest hides that way he gets more exercise.I hope everything goes well.

I'd just say switch it up. Move the hides to different spots and whatnot. That way they still have their hides but they explore it like it's a completely new place.

~Katie

From what I've seen with my corns, number of hides wouldn't make a difference. If they don't want to cruise they'll find a place to curl up, even if you only have one hide. When my snakes are out at night, they crawl right over top of their hides and anything else that is in their tubs/vivs. Even when they have nice open spaces to cruise, they go right over top of water dishes, hides, etc.

Four hides gives him more options to chose from, but it's my opinion that he won't hide less just because there are fewer hides. It just makes his decision of where to hide a little easier

Thanks for the replies! My sister and I decided to try both options: removing two of the hides one week, switching them around the next week. We'll see how it goes from there.

If Esteban reacts like zwyatt suggested it would, then we'll probably consider changing the feeding times.

Thanks again!

Can we see a picture of your viv?

I dunno, do you really think you need to send your snake to fat camp?

To me, it seems logical for a snake to stay hidden through this point in their life. Baby snakes are bottom of the food chain. Anything that eats meat would be a predator. In addition, they seem to have a pretty high metabolism at this age and since corns are opportunistic feeders, its probably hardwired into their brains to conserve energy.

Seems to me if you reduce his food and shelters, he may stress a bit. However I am still a newb when it comes to snakes so I may just be talking outta my butt.

Can we see a pic of the snakey? I think we should first write down some opinions on wether he/she is fat or not... And if there are no pics available, size + weight will do well to make some judgements...

I sincerely doubt your 7 month old is too fat. They tend to use everything they eat to grow, and less than a year is not even close to slowing down. If you're feeding one appropriately sized meal once a week, you should be fine. Take him out and handle him more if you think he needs more exercise.

I wouldn't take hides out. Corns hide all day, so if he doesn't have suitable places to curl up then he'll get stressed which could leave him with health problems.

From what I've seen, Corns are individuals - either they're active or they aren't. You can't force them into being more active than they are. Taking hides away won't do it. If you have an inactive snake, then he'll just burrow under whatever you've left him and stay as still as he was before.

A photo would be really helpful - one fuzzy a week for a seven month old shouldn't result in a bloater!

You can take him out for some supervised exercise if you really think he's overweight. Someone near me takes in rescues and she has sessions of "walking" them up and down the stairs, which seems to work off the excess flab over a few months and improve muscle tone.