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sheding ??

W

wmorrison

New member
im new to keeping snakes could some one tell me how often do snakes shed my corn is only about 17 inches long so still a baby i got him about 5 weeks ago and im sure he shed before i got him still had a little piece on his tall when i got him also how fast do they grow on avreage
 
In my case, my snake shed for every two weeks; or once every two feedings - BUT i've heard that that average is kinda fast, so It could be my particular snake. As for others snakes, once a month even for babies. Rember, every time they shed - they're growing, so in thickness, in a year, they should be about a roll of dimes thick(This is what I estimate for my little guy), and in a couple of years, I'd say a good Four to six foot in length, and the size varries.
 
Well, once a month is even a little fast for me. More like every 5 or 6 weeks here. I feed once a week. So a lot has to do with how often the snake eats and how much you are pushing the size of meals. So if you are giving it the biggest size mouse it can handle every 4-5 days it is going to grow faster and shed a lot more often than if you are doing the "maintenance diet" that a lot of us use when we have a number of hatchlings....
 
ghosthousecorns said:
Well, once a month is even a little fast for me. More like every 5 or 6 weeks here. I feed once a week. So a lot has to do with how often the snake eats and how much you are pushing the size of meals. So if you are giving it the biggest size mouse it can handle every 4-5 days it is going to grow faster and shed a lot more often than if you are doing the "maintenance diet" that a lot of us use when we have a number of hatchlings....
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why would you give a "maintenance diet" to a baby snake. That would be like saying a child only needs 3 meals a day, since that is what adults need.
 
I don't think "maintenance" should be taken in a negative way. It would be the feeding frequency it takes to keep a snake healthy and growing at a steady rate.

Some people with more time/less snakes may feed babies at a more frequent interval, resulting in faster growth. If you search for "Munson Plan" you will find an example of a feeding program that optimizes prey size to snake size by weight. A lot of people follow this plan, some more conservatively than others. For beginner keepers, it gives a good guideline of what size prey you should feed your snake at what interval, to achieve a "faster than maintenance" growth rate.

Some people "power feed," feeding as big a prey as the snake can handle without regurgitating, at as frequent an interval as the snake can handle without regurgitating, with the goal of having the snake reach sexual maturity in a shorter time than normal. Most people would deem this method unhealthy.

At the extreme other end of the spectrum, a very few people might brumate babies, for what reason, I don't know- save money? Save work? While this may happen in nature, I don't believe it is optimal for a captive snake that hasn't reached sexual maturity.
 
I don't know if anyone else picked up on this, but the skin on his tail that's left over from a previous shed - is that right at the tail tip? If it is, you should know that if that doesn't come off, it is likely he will lose the end of his tail.

Here is a thread started by Nanci with info and pictures, if you should need it:
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=56170
 
nrfitchett4 said:
why would you give a "maintenance diet" to a baby snake. That would be like saying a child only needs 3 meals a day, since that is what adults need.
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Because I do not believe growing them up should be a race.

I tried feeding every 5 days for a while. I did not like my results. More refusals from snakes not being hungry yet, and babies that were a little too fat for my tastes and in general I felt for me that an every 5 day schedule was growing them too fast. I get so frustrated when people try to grow their snakes as fast as possible. Or act like they will die of starvation if they skip a meal. Overfeeding can result in much more health problems later on in life. Those "hips" you see on overfed females, are next to impossible to get rid of once you have them.

The Munson Plan is a GUIDELINE. (And has actually been edited from its original version to a more conservative schedule.) If I choose to be a little more conservative that does not mean I am neglecting my snakes. I have had several people tell me they thought the corns they buy from me are nice and big compared to others they have gotten. I feed babies weekly, and some adults every 2 weeks.
 
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