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Weight Loss

7legion77

7legion77

New member
Has anyone had some experience with overweight snakes? Have you had success with helping a snake lose weight and return to top form?
I now feed my 2 and a half year old corn a hopper or young adult every two weeks. Snake is almost 3 feet, but seems rather fat for his length. I'm also trying to coordinate the feeding with the shedding cycles so I'm not feeding him while he's in shed.
Every time I see him prowl the tank I feel like feeding him but resist the urge, because I look at him and say: "you're fat. no mouse today"
 
You could always give him swimming exercise, it seems to have worked with other people on the forum.
 
My adult males get fed 1 mouse every 14 days, and I stretch it to a 21 day schedule during the winter. They stay nice and lean. Swimming is great exercise for overweight and gravid snakes!
 
Are you seeing your snake out "searching" for a meal crawling around the viv? How big is the viv? Does anyone else see that behavior in snakes of this age?
 
I have a couple of males which did run to fat, even on one adult mouse every two weeks. I now keep them on a general schedule of one adult mouse every three weeks.

They're pretty sedentary most of the year, but they're getting plenty of exercise at the moment, on breeding season "patrol" round their vivs.

I also tend to think that leaving them slightly hungry (from their shape, they're clearly in no danger of starving) encourages the hunting behaviour, and that's also good exercise.

Whilst they're not getting much smaller, the flab of a few years back has slowly become well-toned muscle. I think they're just naturally big lads but I do need to operate a Weightwatchers programme to stop them slipping back to their old condition.
 
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