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How often ??

G

grahama

New member
Hi all,

This is my first post on here so hello to all :wavey:

My son, or should I say I have had a corn snake for 3 years now, female, yellow and very nice, see pics. However I am constantly having the same disagreement with my wife over feeding intervals.

Itend to feed once per week with a gerbil, (just gone up from big mice) but she thinks that we should be feeding her at least every 4 days or so. Can you tell me the correct intervals please ?? I have also thought that to mimic the wild we should be varying the feeding intervals too ??

Hope you like her, she's called Yuna.

Graham
 

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She's a very pretty girl! Seven day intervals are pretty standard for adult snakes. I wouldn't go less than that. You don't want her to get fat. Does she skip a meal when she's blue? That would give her some variation every once in a while.

Nanci
 
She is gorgeous looking :) I would advise that every week to ten days is sufficient if she is getting a gerbil. She looks a healthy weight, and is certainly not small or skinny so at least every 4 days on a gerbil is too much and would risk her getting 'fat'

So... 7 - 10 day intervals. Hopefully someone will agree with me here...

As for varying the intervals, theres not much in it, you cuold vary them a little if you wanted.
 
At three years she's adult size, so you don't need to keep increasing the size of food now. Large mice are standard for adult Corns - gerbils are OK as a treat but more expensive and not really necessary.

My adults get 1 large mouse every 10-14 days. The only ones that get weekly feeds are females leading up to or recovering from laying, or anyone recuperating from an illness or period of fasting that resulted in significant weight loss.

I'd suggest that a one gerbil per week regime might lead to her putting on a bit of excess weight, which can shorten their lives. If I were you, I'd gear back on the food size as well as frequency. Once every 4 days is the sort of feeding regime you'd have for a hatchling (they need little and often) so I'd politely suggest that your good lady is well off the mark with that idea.

Don't forget that a Corn will always be hunting for food - in the wild, this is an ongoing survival mechanism. They'll east as much as they can, because they don't know where the next meal is coming from. However, in captivity, we have to act as the arbiter of their food intake for their own good. Tell your wife not to worry if the snake "looks hungry" - it won't be. Whilst not recommended in captivity, nature has designed healthy adults to go without food for several weeks before suffering any ill-effects.
 
Hi,

Many thanks for the replies folks, I will take your advice and go back to large mice and reduce the feeding a little.

Graham
 
Hi again,

just to answer a couple of questions I forgot, yes she does skip a meal when blue, (I assume that means when shedding) and yes she is a butter corn.

As for the gerbils, they're not that much more expensive than big mice here, 95p and 85p at my local reptile place and at 4 feeds per month, ish, thats not too much difference. However yes they are difficult to get regulally, not that I will be feeding them now anyway :)

I looked at the 'hips' link and see what you mean. Yuna is I would say fine at the moment although her latter half is bigger than her front half, (this may just be the snake make up), but near the tail section there is no bump of build up of fat and the progression from body to tail is smoothe and lump free.

I am taking this that I have caught her just at the right time !!

Graham
 
Wonderful snake you have there, but yeah, Bitsy is right, you should lighten up on the feeding. As others have said, every 4 days is a feeding schedule for a hatchling, not an adult. Just feed her on large mice every 7 - 10 days.
 
You've got a beautiful snake there! I agree with everyone else, 7-10 days is good. Maybe for some variation you could feed every 7 then every 10 :shrugs:
 
Once a week

I was just in a pet shop and saw a corn the owner said the previous owner had gotten tired of; the poor thing was so grossly overweight it was terrible. Please do not confuse feeding with loving. Better too little than too much; she looks great just the way she is.
 
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