How much to feed?!? plz help

[Amberjolly]

Soo i think ive put this up before when my baby was younger but now that she is older ive been reading around and theres so many different answers so i want to ask the followers of this site theres lots of people here that know much more then me so hopefully someone will know the right answer!

my snake is 3 years old? somewhere around there she is around 4 1/2 feet and weighs 442 G

i am feeding her 2 adult mice each time i feed her and i feed her every 3 weeks she doesnt seem to get hungry until a day or two before its feeding time so it seems like im doing a good job but im scared im doing it wrong because i hear so many different ways.

How do you feed your snake? does this seem correct? is there anything i should change?

please help me i want to be sure shes happy and healthy
ive attached some pics of her so you can see her size (shes in a 39 gallon tank)

P.s she sheds perfect shes active clear eyes healthy normal poop so everything seems fine but i want to know if this is the correct way to feed

 

[bitsy]

She does look quite large to me. Given that her head looks a little too small for her body, I'd cut down. It's not usual to feed two adult mice at once, so you can address that now by cutting down to one at a time. I feed my adults one adult mouse every 2-3 weeks.

Corns are "programmed" to hunt much of the time they're not digesting. The fact that she's only exhibiting this behaviour on a three weekly basis, may mean that she's not hungry enough to hunt. It's pretty easy to overfeed a Corn in captivity, so it isn't actually bad for them to be hungry for a while before feeding.

 

[Amberjolly]

She does look quite large to me. Given that her head looks a little too small for her body, .

i also just fed her 4 days ago or so before i took the picture so shes really big in that picure

Corns are "programmed" to hunt much of the time they're not digesting. The fact that she's only exhibiting this behaviour on a three weekly basis, may mean that she's not hungry enough to hunt, .

she also is out looking around moving around (moving for hours) at night and many times in the day time about 3 days after i feed her but she just seems like shes out alllll the time when its closer to the 3 week mark thats why i said it seems like she actually gets "hungry" a few days before then

i just wanted to tell u all of the info before i changed the feeding routine but it sounds like a good idea to me to feed only one mouse every 3 weeks do you still think thats what i should do? or is there something else?

Thank you soooo much for helping me out !! i really appreciate it

 

[disgurlchar]

Our corns are 3 years old not sure on weight but last time i weighed them they were around 250-300g and that was around 6 months ago. We feed ours every Monday and they get 2 fluffs each. Maybe I'm doing it wrong? Their head's don't look small in comparison to their bodies though.

 

[bitsy]

i also just fed her 4 days ago or so before i took the picture so shes really big in that picure

I'm really looking at her body as a whole, not just the middle bit which is where the freshly-eaten food would be.

she also is out looking around moving around (moving for hours) at night and many times in the day time about 3 days after i feed her but she just seems like shes out alllll the time when its closer to the 3 week mark thats why i said it seems like she actually gets "hungry" a few days before then

TBH it's better for you to keep a sensible feeding schedule than to feed on demand. Whilst most Corns will happily eat two or three adult mice at a sitting, one is healthier for them. They're opportunistic feeders and will try to eat as much as you put in front of them. In the wild, they wouldn't know when they'd next eat, so that makes sense as a survival strategy. However it's not necessary in captivity as we guarantee their next meal.

i just wanted to tell u all of the info before i changed the feeding routine but it sounds like a good idea to me to feed only one mouse every 3 weeks do you still think thats what i should do? or is there something else?

Thank you soooo much for helping me out !! i really appreciate it

Personally I'd go to one mouse every two weeks, which is a more usual schedule. I only use a three week schedule for those of mine which run to fat on anything more. You might find that you need to space feeding out further, but try a few months on fortnightly feeds and see what happens. Each Corn reacts slightly differently and they can take a looong time to change shape.

Good luck!

 

[Amberjolly]

Personally I'd go to one mouse every two weeks, which is a more usual schedule. I only use a three week schedule for those of mine which run to fat on anything more. You might find that you need to space feeding out further, but try a few months on fortnightly feeds and see what happens. Each Corn reacts slightly differently and they can take a looong time to change shape.

Good luck!

OK thank you! it sounds like a good plan im going to do that thanks soo much for the help!

 

[Amberjolly]

Our corns are 3 years old not sure on weight but last time i weighed them they were around 250-300g and that was around 6 months ago. We feed ours every Monday and they get 2 fluffs each. Maybe I'm doing it wrong? Their head's don't look small in comparison to their bodies though.

im not sure if that sounds like the best plan i would for SURE be feeding them one adult each it sounds like your snakes are around the same size and age as mine (maybe a bit older and bigger lol) but ya im trying what bitsy said maybe you should too? maybe you should ask other people on the forums? its up to u but i think it would be good for your snakes what do you think Bitsy?

Sorry i cant be more helpful i only have the one snake and im still new to it

 

[bitsy]

At three years old and at 250-300g, I'd have mine on adult mice, but it does depend on the general shape and condition of each snake - weight alone can be a bit of a blunt instrument. On paper they're big enough to swallow an adult mouse (which has a higher proportion of protein and a lower proportion of fat than a fluff) but it's difficult to know without seeing them. They sound about the right weight for their age but it depends whether that's toned muscle.