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obese snake?

bitsy said:
Sorry if you feel put-upon, but we quite often get people here asking for advice on how to treat mouse bites to their Corns. Even if you stand over them, you won't be quick enough to prevent a bite.
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I understand that, and the rest of what you wrote... but to say "if you care about your snake you'll feed f/t" (as the other poster did) is ridiculous and insulting. Rather than giving absolutes to people needing advice, why not offer the benefits & risks of both sides? I've also seen posters asking "why won't my snake eat?" - but they've only tried f/t, and hadn't yet considered trying live prey. Those people deserve the suggestion of feeding live, along with advice on how to do it safely.

Why continue to stress & starve a (non-f/t-eating) snake, because you're afraid it might get a small bite? For the record, I've been feeding live for 2 years and haven't yet witnessed a bite. Not to say it doesn't happen, but the occurrences (when properly supervising) are somewhat rare & usually minor... especially when dealing with mice, which is what the majority of corn snakes eat.

Each keeper has to do what's best for them & their collection, so I feel we need to explain all options to new owners... you can have your preferences, but the bottom line is that snakes will ultimately eat what & how they choose. And while it's great to feed f/t to those who will take it, there's no need for attitudes whenever live feedings are mentioned here. Just sayin'. :cool:
 
but to say "if you care about your snake you'll feed f/t" (as the other poster did) is ridiculous and insulting.
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Absolutely. But at that stage, the person who wrote it didn't realise that you had a beastie that flatly refused f/t. Nobody would propose starving a Corn that insisted on live only.

We would always advise that people who ask here about live vs. f/t would consider all the tricks to switch to f/t. But if you have to feed live for the sake of the snake, then you just have to. I'm sure we'd all accept that.

Like you, I think it's good to present the options to newcomers. However, there are a lot of folks new to Corns who have been told that live is the only option and so have never considered f/t. If your snake arrives eating live, then it stands to reason that you'd just carry on doing that. I'd hope that our usual approach would be to explain f/t as an alternative and list the benefits. The main time that live feeding really grinds my gears is when it's done for kicks.

But I do agree that there are no absolutes with Corns or any other sort of snake. Whatever "rule" we see fit to invent, there will inevitably be those Corns who find a way round it or make themselves the exception. If only they read the same books!
 
bitsy said:
Absolutely. But at that stage, the person who wrote it didn't realise that you had a beastie that flatly refused f/t. Nobody would propose starving a Corn that insisted on live only.
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It shouldn't matter, since he wasn't talking to me & was speaking generally... so to make a blanket statement like that was uncalled for, IMO. And to be perfectly honest, I haven't tried that hard to switch my ball pythons - since I know they prefer live, and it's easier & less wasteful for all of us. I have tried with the picky corn (even "brained" a pinky), but she's just a stubborn little girl. Anyway, I'll stop hijacking the thread now! ;)

To the OP, I have a couple of FAT adults if you wanna see, but my juvies are all slender... pretty sure they can get fat, but I'd imagine it's not that common.
 
i see both points of view. If my snake doesnot take the mouse with in a miniute or two then Ill put the mouse in its seprate cage for a while..a day or two, then try again.
 
Lolo said:
I understand that, and the rest of what you wrote... but to say "if you care about your snake you'll feed f/t" (as the other poster did) is ridiculous and insulting.
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You're right. I apologize. I was kind of on a roll at that point because I was seeing this poor snake that had been fed too big of a meal and in blue being manipulated for a photo shoot while it still had a huge lump from the meal. By that point I assumed that they were one of those who feeds live simply for their own enjoyment. I've personally seen snakes with bad scarring from eating live, but I've also seen those without a mark on them.
 
okay guys, now that the snake shed, and i got better picturs, maybe you can tell me what size food to feed it. I currently feed it mice.



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Looks like a completely healthy, completely normal sized and shaped adult Corn to me. In the shots where he's moving you can see his spine, meaning that he doesn't have reserves of body flab, just some nice muscle tone.

I think he's fine to be on one large mouse every 10-14 days for the rest of his life (unless you see some major change in his size).

Handsome Corn!
 
We can't tell you what size mice to feed it by looking at a picture (unless you sat a mouse beside the snake). If the weight you gave before (160g) is accurate, it should be good with hopper mice or weanlings if those are available to you. Use the rule of thumb that it can eat something the same size as its thickest part or slightly bigger. When in doubt, go smaller. Once you hit adult mice, that's the biggest thing it will eat, regardless of if it leaves a bump or is smaller than the snake's girth.
 
okay....of course...every snake looks beautufil after it sheds... it is a little over 30 inch long...bitsy, you said it is an adult...but it is only abouta 1.5 years..
 
you said it is an adult...but it is only abouta 1.5 years..
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Well at that growth rate, yes, he's been power-fed and might have stored up health problems later in his life if, for example, speeded up food processing has stressed his kidneys.

But now he's at an adult size, I'd feed him the appropriate food for his size which comfortably look like adult mice to me. I wouldn't feed anything larger because he just needs to maintain that size/shape rather than grow any more. If he starts dropping weight then you might need to review - if his metabolism is used to working at top speed he may need to be fed more often to maintain his current weight.
 
coralife205 said:
okay....of course...every snake looks beautufil after it sheds... it is a little over 30 inch long...bitsy, you said it is an adult...but it is only abouta 1.5 years..
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My 09 Anery type female is about the same size as your snake and she gets one weanling each week. I figure it will be at least 5-6 months before she will be ready for adult mice.
 
bitsy said:
Well at that growth rate, yes, he's been power-fed and might have stored up health problems later in his life if, for example, speeded up food processing has stressed his kidneys.

But now he's at an adult size, I'd feed him the appropriate food for his size which comfortably look like adult mice to me. I wouldn't feed anything larger because he just needs to maintain that size/shape rather than grow any more. If he starts dropping weight then you might need to review - if his metabolism is used to working at top speed he may need to be fed more often to maintain his current weight.
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Whoa. You can not say for sure that snake has been powerfed. My 09 anery female has NOT been powerfed and is the same size as his snake. She has ALWAYS been fed once a week. Is that powerfeeding? If yes then I need to feed babies once every 10-14 days? Careful ok. Not all fast growing snakes are powerfed. Sometimes its just good growth genetics.
 
I wouldn't go so far as to call it power feeding. Power feeding usually involves feeding several very large mice/rats at once, leading another one down the mouth as it swallows one. This has proven to be extremely unhealthy.

He was fed a bit too much a bit too often, but I doubt it will cause any health issues so long as a proper diet is now maintained. Your snake looks to be healthy and beautiful. <3
 
To be adult-sized at 1.5 years is going it some though. Power feeding can mean different things to different snakes - they grow at individual rates. One adult mouse a week is fine for most Corns, but might promote unusual growth in a minority.

My largest male was about a third larger than my next largest, but they were on the same feeding regime of one large mouse a fortnight. I had to take the larger one down to one mouse every three weeks to prevent him piling on the pounds as an adult.
 
bitsy said:
To be adult-sized at 1.5 years is going it some though. Power feeding can mean different things to different snakes - they grow at individual rates. One adult mouse a week is fine for most Corns, but might promote unusual growth in a minority.

My largest male was about a third larger than my next largest, but they were on the same feeding regime of one large mouse a fortnight. I had to take the larger one down to one mouse every three weeks to prevent him piling on the pounds as an adult.
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I'm with Bitsy on this. I'd rather grow my snakes slowly and steadily.
Personally I really don't see anything good about a 7g hatchling being 200g as a yearling.
 
Well I agree that a normal yearling shouldn't be that big. But that doesn't really mean the snake has been power fed. I'm not saying it hasn't either. I'm just pointing out that all snakes are different and sometimes there is a weird one that comes along every once in a blue moon that breaks all the rules and is not normal. Maybe this snake is just a fast grower and is naturally going to be a bigger snake than usual. We didn't see the snake growing up so we can only take the word of the OP.

If the snake was power fed at some point in time, then at least it probably will no longer be as the OP posted here for advice. So it seems to me he cares about his snakes and wants what is best for them and is willing to learn how to achieve that.
 
i actualy only have one snake.


I havent..purpsly...power fed. I dident even here of what that was until i just read everyoens post...here are pics of the snake when i first bought it around pearl-harbor day last december....
 
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