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Insights on a very small adult snake?

Miqote

Miqote

New member
Two weeks ago we adopted a new snake from Craigslist. My friend had told me about the ad, she knew Pineapple had passed away and I had been thinking about getting a bigger, established snake.

Well, I spoke to the owner a bit and the snake was 6 years old and ate regularly, came with a 40 gallon tank and heating pad and hides. My husband and I made the drive to see her.

The girl scooped the snake out of her cage and plopped her in my hands. I wondered to myself if adult corns were supposed to be so small! I asked if she was the 6 year old snake, and the girl said "Yeah, around that" and I asked how often she'd been eating. The girl said, "Oh yeah, I have some extra mice too!" and she went and grabbed them from the freezer. Fuzzies! And she only fed her 1 fuzzy every 2 weeks.

I knew immediately I was probably getting in over my head, but I had to take her! She didn't have any signs of unhealthiness besides her small size. We loaded the tank in the car, and now named Emily had already crawled into the bottom of my purse, so we were on our way home!
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I weighed Emily as soon as I got home: 181g. According to the munson chart, she's big enough to eat adult mice so I gave her one, which she ate with no problem! I figure I'll just keep feeding her an adult mouse every 7-8 days.

Has anyone had/heard of a similar experience with an extremely small adult snake? She doesn't LOOK thin - no spine showing or wrinkly skin, she's just small. Is it safe for her to start gaining a regular weight at her age, or should I expect her to retain her small size?

Thanks all for reading my long post, I'll get some pics of Emily soon. The pictures online really don't do classic corns justice. I love her colors!! They are very soft and pretty. :)
 
Here are some pictures of Emily! Also, just to clarify, I didn't feed her until 7 days had passed. :)

Emily1.jpg


Emily2.jpg


Emily3.jpg


Emily4.jpg


I'm not an expert, but I just don't see her as looking emaciated, just small for her age!
 
She's lovely! IMO far too many corns are obese, she looks lean and healthy. As she's an adult, I'd go for a medium mouse 10-14 days to let her grow nicely without getting those nasty 'hips'!
 
diamondlil said:
She's lovely! IMO far too many corns are obese, she looks lean and healthy. As she's an adult, I'd go for a medium mouse 10-14 days to let her grow nicely without getting those nasty 'hips'!
Click to expand...

Great!!! I'm glad to hear this! I just would read about 500-600g corn snakes and was a little alarmed for Emily's sake. She is quite lean and seems to have a good muscle tone however, not squishy at all.

I just fed her second meal (day 8 since her last), but I will bump her up to 10 days after this one. :) She has a great feeding response!! Squeeze that mouse, Em!!

Emily5.jpg
 
Looks like Emily's body adapted to the small infrequent meals by growing more slowly so she is in proportion to herself, just small. With good meals & exercise she will grow longer.
 
She looks small but perfectly proportioned. Like the others, I think her metabolism has adjusted itself to her food intake. I wouldn't expect her to get much bigger if she really is six years old.
 
bitsy said:
She looks small but perfectly proportioned. Like the others, I think her metabolism has adjusted itself to her food intake. I wouldn't expect her to get much bigger if she really is six years old.
Click to expand...

That's fine with me. :D I just want her to be healthy!
 
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