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Is she overfeeding?

M

mommyof2

New member
My neighbor(who just had to get a snake after she saw Eddy) got her first corn about a month or month and a half ago. It was only about a month or less old when she got her and only weighed about 14 grams. Well I watched her weigh her today and she's at 59.6 grams and is REALLY fat. I asked her when she fed last and she told me today. She also told me that she's feeding a fuzzy and a pinky twice a week. Is this safe? Her snake doesn't seem any longer than Eddy, but Eddy only weighs 39.9 and he's at least a couple months older than her snake. If she is feeding too much, what's the best way to tell her? And what exactly should I recommend? I thought about printing out the Munson Plan and giving her a copy.
 
Yes she is feeding too much, and there's not really a pretty or polite way to go about it. Just be blunt and say 'I think you're overfeeding your snake and should cool it a little, here's a copy of an ideal feeding plan that I recommend you follow'. Oh and by the way, 14 grams for less than a month old is monstrously huge, are you sure that's right?

But if you say it's fat and you're concerned then do what you said, give her the Munson Plan, get her to weigh her snake again, then recommend that she follow it. That's all you can do without breaking the law really lol.

All the best

David
 
14 grams...! At a month old? That can't be right. My baby is a month and a half old and I really don't think he's more than like.. 7 or 8.
 
well, I have a baby that at 2.5 months old is at 20 grams and I dont over feed.... but to be only a few months old and almost 60 grams?? that isnt right my goodness! maybe she didnt subtract the container she weighed in or something?? I am not sure its even possible to powerfeed that much in such a time with a baby corn :shrugs:
 
I think printing her a copy of the Munson plan sounds like a great first step, then you could point her in the direction of this site and show her some of the pictures posted of obese snakes.
Then explain that obese snakes suffer loads of health problems just like us humans do.
Hopefully once she realises this, and if she cares about her new baby, then she will curb her enthusiasm for feeding too much, too often.

best wishes,
 
Some corns hatch out at 10-12g. This is on the high end of the newly-hatched weight range, but it's not uncommon. So it's possible that the age estimate was correct. I'd be more inclined to believe that there was an error in weighing the snake today (or initially). I think it's unlikely that you could get a 14g corn to gain 45g in 4-6 weeks even on the most aggressive power-feeding schedule.

I wouldn't feed a corn snake more aggressively than the Munson Plan suggests. There are some who believe that even that plan is too aggressive. There are those who believe that power-feeding a snake to get it to breeding size is not dangerous as long as a more sensible schedule is adopted AFTER the snake reaches breeding size. I won't comment on this except to say that you should tell your neighbor that if she doesn't intend to breed the snake as young as possible, there's absolutely no point in expending the money and effort to feed that aggressively.
 
I had 10 gram hatchlings out of the egg so it is really possible they weighed 14 grams after a couple of weeks...

Going from 14 to 60 grams in 4-6 weeks however seems impossible to me...
 
My two yearlings are on the small side at about 50 grams +or- each. They were extremely small when I got them and after research I realized their previous owner had them on a "maintenance diet" vs. the "growth diet" they should have been on. However I made the mistake of giving each of them 2 fuzzies instead of their usual one a couple of weeks ago. The female (who is about 5 grams heavier) handled it fine, but it took the male several extra days to digest that much. I decided to continue with only one fuzzy for quite a while. I don't want to endanger them and honestly he was so uncomfortably full and sluggish that I felt horrible for them.

For the weight it sounds like she's feeding her little guy two Thansgiving feasts a week!
 
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