What should my corn snake be eating

Hi all. I think I have a 2 and a half years old female corn snake, the reason I am unsure of her age is because I adopted it in February this year when the previous owner told me she was a he and also 3 years old. I took her to my local pet shop which specialises in reptiles and are really good say it's not a he but a she and she seems more on the 2 year old side as she was small.

When I got her she was on rat pups, now she is on small weaners I'm pretty sure (have to look on pack), I was just wondering if there is a feeding guideline I can go by and also to see if she is a healthy weight or underweight because I also have a 11 month old boy to so it would be nice to see if I'm in the right area

Thanks all

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Size is not an indication of age. Nutrients and frequency of feeding have a major impact on size and weight. I've seen pictures of young corns that were fed so often that they appeared to be young ball pythons. I've also see examples of older corns barely kept alive with infrequent feeding.

You will need a good gram scale both to weigh your corn snake and also to weigh the prey items. Search for info on the Munson feeding plan, and you will see general guidelines on feeding. Most of us use that plan.

I'm no expert, but my corn is just over 10 years old and has never eaten anything but mice. I give him 2 adult mice every two weeks or so. I weigh evey time I feed him and he likes to be between 450 and 500 grams. Hit 575 once a couple of years ago and was showing signs of being fat, so I like to keep him around 475. He's about 4 1/2' long.

Twolunger said:

Size is not an indication of age. Nutrients and frequency of feeding have a major impact on size and weight. I've seen pictures of young corns that were fed so often that they appeared to be young ball pythons. I've also see examples of older corns barely kept alive with infrequent feeding.

You will need a good gram scale both to weigh your corn snake and also to weigh the prey items. Search for info on the Munson feeding plan, and you will see general guidelines on feeding. Most of us use that plan.

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I agree with this and have always used the Munson feeding plan, mainly because I'm not great at eyeballing an appropriate size and it makes ordering online easy. The gram scales aren't expensive but do get one that has a good range so you don't have to have multiple scales. I want to be able to weigh a 2 gram pinky as well as my largest snake.

On a side note - does anyone know what happened to Munson? I always enjoyed chatting with Dean.

Good Luck!

-Tonya

rexracer said:

I'm no expert, but my corn is just over 10 years old and has never eaten anything but mice. I give him 2 adult mice every two weeks or so. I weigh evey time I feed him and he likes to be between 450 and 500 grams. Hit 575 once a couple of years ago and was showing signs of being fat, so I like to keep him around 475. He's about 4 1/2' long.

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Same here, mice only.

Rexracer, is that really your corn in your profile pic? That looks python size!

He's on my daughter's arm. That was over 7 years ago. She was 8 and skinny. He was about 2 1/2 .