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I think they are getting fat....

Ravenessa

New member
I have gone down to once a week for my corns except the baby babies that I got recently.. they eat every 5 days. However I feel that my corns are sort of getting chubby.... They sorta looks like deflated tire when they relax.. But I am feeding size appropriate prey and they are not that big yet either. Can babies get over fed on once a week? or am I imagining? I will take some pics tomorrow and post... Oh and I feel like they aren't tapering evenly.. that the part before the tail is a little thicker than it should be.
 
How old are they?
If they are adults and are looking chubby, it could be that they are overweight. Pics will help.
If there are "hips" near the base of their tail, that is an indication of being overweight.
Babies use virtually all of the nutrition. You can over feed/power feed them, and cause them to grow too fast, but a 5 day feeding schedule is not terrible.
What are you feedign the adults?
 
Snakes sometimes look fatter than they are and will drop a whole load of scat to remind you that they are digesting quite well.
 
These are babies.... less than a year old... I only feed once a week as well as size appropriate... the ones I have that is almost three were all underfed when I got them, they are now reaching normal size so two out of three will be on once every 8 9 days soon... the third one is still severely underweight (like 200 grams underweight I'd guesstimate). They just look chunky, I am busy cleaning so haven't had a chance to take pics.. I guess they will get a growth spurt soon enough then..
 
I have never seen a fat baby corn. I do not feel they *can* be overfed as long as they don't regurge until they're about 200 grams.
 
I have never seen a fat baby corn. I do not feel they *can* be overfed as long as they don't regurge until they're about 200 grams.

I agree. When you overfeed the babies (powerfeeding, some breeders do it to get their snakes bigger more quickly than is recommended, very debatable) they tend to grown in length, not width.
 
I am not power feeding I am using munson as a guide line, but I feed a day or more apart.... as soon as they hit fuzzies now I go to once a week after I had one regurg (I fed a day too soon after feeding a bigger prey) knock wood only regurg so far. I am very much against power feeding any animal... They might just be normal.. most of the babies were slim or very young when coming to me so this may be a normal size corn thing. I have now four on adult mice, one two year old female, one is the rescue female, she gets fed every 6 days (weight gain program), two god knows how old males who both were a tad underweight when coming but still I've only fed them once a week. One hit the 300 mark today so he will be moved to every 10 days now but he looks good.. he's muscular and even (my butter boy) he was under 200 when I got him 4 months ago. the girls that has "gained" weight are firm and have muscles, strong, but they sorta reminds me of me with a muffin top but that might be that they are relaxed but not sure... they don't fully taper evenly around the tush so to say, maybe they just retain bigger poops now? Here's the pics...


Squiggly 4 months ago
10484779_10204468892474322_7180140168951013691_n.jpg


Squiggly today
11045379_10205279335774898_4699107624153920338_o.jpg


Here's Butter boy who hit the 300 mark today, I think he will grow rather big in the end:
10845839_10205279308974228_3404773152715893150_o.jpg


11080471_10205279309014229_5668793533547593981_o.jpg


Red 4.5 months ago:
10848028_10204468866473672_5092640833884008566_n.jpg


Red now, look at that butt!!!
11080447_10205279302334062_8668655632087974312_o.jpg


10661780_10205279302174058_5871729514044732303_o.jpg


11074310_10205279302574068_972682840168579148_o.jpg


Avalon now, she also got a butt she flew up to 97 gram all of a sudden!
11103047_10205279403856600_9569780523897372_o.jpg


11103129_10205279403736597_4656054675653069099_o.jpg
 
Naw, they look fine.

I've never seen an overweight baby. They typically utilize the food. That said, I have seen some young (4-6 year old) snakes keel over and die for no apparent reason, and necropsy shows high fat in the snake.
I do think that only feeding rodents (especially when fed rats) they are getting higher fat than in the wild. For a few reasons. The rodents are captive, whereas their wild counter parts are more active. The snakes in the wild eat a variety of food, including birds, eggs, lizards, etc. Food sources that are lower in fat.
I think that alternating food source (adding in quail, chicks, etc) would be healthier in the long run for the snakes. I have ordered baby quail and chicks for that reason.

My opinion on babies, is that in the wild, they eat to grow (quickly). The longer they are smaller, the more of a chance they have of becoming a meal to another animal. The faster they grow up, the less chance they have of being eaten.

I typically feed once a week because of convenience, with my schedule. Sometimes I will feed after 5 days, and sometimes they go two weeks between meals, but usually it's once a week.
 
They don't look fat to me. The shape of Avalon looks a lot like my Marcy, she just tapers quite abruptly into the tail compared to a male shape.
 
Thank you guys... I am feeling better now..
I am paranoid, so sudden taper is more of a female thing?

I was looking at Red tonight, she's the fattest fat butt and I would hate to loose them to something like heart disease from over feeding.
 
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