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Overweight Snake?

M

MorganMaple

New member
Hi, I've been looking at my snake lately, and I think he may be starting to get overweight. I know that corns can often get this way, so I'm a little worried. He eats one large mouse every 7-8 days. Here are some pictures I just took:
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I think I see some hips starting to form on him, and he seems a little too thick in his middle region. I was told that he isn't overweight, but I feel like I should make sure. These pictures were taken a couple days after a shed.

If he is overweight, what can I do to help him lose weight? Feed him less, feed him smaller mice, or both? I am a novice snake owner, so I haven't had to deal with this before.

(PS: Sorry for the poor pictures, he never wants to sit still!)
 
For tags to work you have to link directly to the image. I also recommend adding a lowercase L or H just before the extension. I'll fix 'em for ya:

[QUOTE="MorganMaple, post: 1706736, member: 38849"]
[IMG]http://imgur.com/3mM3TpYh.jpg
ycqd2uZh.jpg

ghnOIy7h.jpg

kn7R058h.jpg
[/QUOTE]

He looks big but not quite what I'd call overweight. In fact he looks well muscled. I'd consider bumping him down to one mouse every 10-14 days. I don't know how big your "large" mice are, since sizes vary by company/breeder, but a ~30-40g mouse should be quite sufficient.
 
How much does the snake weigh?
How much do the mice he eats weigh?

A full grown adult snake can eat about 12% of it's body weight every 10 to 14 days.

Thus, if the snake weighs 400 grams, it can eat a mouse or rat that weighs around 48 grams.

If the snake is younger and still growing, most of us follow the Munson Feeding Chart which lists the weight of the mice along with the weight of the snake. For the younger snakes, they tend to eat more, and feed on mice that weight 15% to 20% of their own weight.

So if you had a younger snake weighing 35 grams, you could feed it a small mouse weighing about 7 grams every 5 to 6 days.

If your snake needs to lose weight, you can just space the feedings out to 2 or 3 weeks apart. But right now, we really have not determined if he needs to lose weight or not.

He looks fine to me.
 
The food he eats should be around 20-30g each, and he is an adult. It's been a while since I last weighed him (I know, slacking), but I will weigh him as soon as possible. I've owned him myself for about 4 years, and I was only recently told that he looked overweight (then told by another person that he doesn't, quite confusing).
Thanks for the info on the percentage of food weight to body weight, by the way. I thought Dragonling fixed the photos for me in his reply, but I will try to fix them when I get home.
 
He looks big to me, but corn snakes vary is size. Okeetees are known for being big and beefy. I've noticed many of the morphs and other localities are decidedly slender.

Per. Soderberg's book, I feed my mature male a mouse every ten days. Even so, he has put on a couple inches of length and 30 grams since I received him.

Mine is in a large enclosure with branches and ledges to climb on, and he gets out for exercise twice a day. I think it is always a good idea to get them out and moving, if they are up for it.
 
I will start feeding him every 10 days from now on as you all suggested.

On the topic of exercise, he is a little unwilling. He does have a large enclosure with things to climb around on, but I can barely get him to do anything outside of the enclosure (when he isn't in my hands).

I'll try a few new things to see if he's interested in some more exercise than usual as well.
 
A really good analogy is the round-bread-tent.

An underweight snake looks "tented"
A "just-right" snake looks like a "loaf of bread"
An overweight snake looks round

I definitely agree with the recommendation to have him move some more. Even if he is not overweight, its just better for their body condition. I have several logs, PVC tubes and hides that I move around every couple months for variety. And sometimes I let my snake try new things for fun exercise, ie. climbing up an ottoman.

And welcome to the forums!
 
He looks big but not fat to me. I'd feed one adult mouse every two weeks. Something in the 25-28 gram range.
 
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