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Hungry?

F

Fletcher

New member
I definitely have first-time-parent anxiety, but...

Phoenix has been super active ever since I brought him home; he'll take breaks to go hide, but within a couple of hours at the most he's back out again. A lot of what he's doing looks like trying to escape, but a lot of it is just looking around, poking his nose into crevices, etc. I know you're supposed to wait ~5 days before feeding a new corn (I got him on Saturday, so it's only been 2-3 at this point), but I don't know when he was last fed and I'm worried he may be hungry - would it be a bad idea to try and feed him tomorrow/the day after? Should I just wait the full 5 days?
 
hungry for a snake is not like hungry for you and me. Most of us eat 21 meals a week. Your snake will eat maybe 1.

A snake can go many weeks, even months without eating.

I would stick to the game plan and schedule. If you get into the habit of feeding him because "He looks Hungry" you'll end up with a fat overweight unhealthy snake.

Corn snakes always look hungry.
 
I know, and once I start feeding him I'll stick to a schedule, but I wasn't sure what to do for the first feeding since I don't know when he was last fed.
 
Being a little hungry, especially for the first meal with a new owner, is not a bad thing at all. Corn snakes are opportunistic feeders and will often be out 'hunting' only a few days after eating. But they can go a very long time without eating with no ill effects. I would wait the full five days before offering food. And I know it will be hard, but try not to peek in on him while he's eating. After the first few feedings with you, you can try watching him eat, but for the first feeding, I recommend making it the least stressful possible for him.
 
Fletcher said:
I definitely have first-time-parent anxiety, but...

Phoenix has been super active ever since I brought him home; he'll take breaks to go hide, but within a couple of hours at the most he's back out again. A lot of what he's doing looks like trying to escape, but a lot of it is just looking around, poking his nose into crevices, etc. I know you're supposed to wait ~5 days before feeding a new corn (I got him on Saturday, so it's only been 2-3 at this point), but I don't know when he was last fed and I'm worried he may be hungry - would it be a bad idea to try and feed him tomorrow/the day after? Should I just wait the full 5 days?
Click to expand...

Hey Fletcher! How ya been?

Welcome to you & Phoenix!

:welcome:

Don't know if I said that on another thread, but just in case, there it is!

I understand your anticipation and anxiety! I'm normally more nervous than a nun in a cucumber patch, but that's just a part of who I am! At work, I seem to have a paradoxical response to tense situations and I'm usually the one they call on for any type of crisis intervention (I'm a licensed clinical social worker in NYC), but that probably comes from the therapeutic effects of long distance running and skydiving over many years (anti-anxiety drugs never worked for me). That being said, I remember recently that when my female snow was gravid and appeared to have a respiratory infection, the vet told ME to take a valium! (She's fine now but the point is that we don't usually do our pets justice when WE get anxious over them in any way).

However, if your snake is in good shape, meaning its not really thin as if it had to rent a shadow or if it had legs could tap dance on razor blades, then what's a couple of days, right? I normally would have responded that if you already have waited 2-3 days then what the hell! But I have to defer to the posts prior to mine who wisely encouraged you to wait awhile before serving up a rodent to your little sneaky one. Better safe than sorry, no? :shrugs:

Let us know how your snake's first meal with you finally pans out!!
 
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