I got her last year around late August or early September, I’ve been feeding her every week (first pinkies, but my aunt accidentally got me a few rat pinkies instead of the mouse pinkies so just finished those) and have started giving her 2 pinkies since the guy at the pet store near me said she was too small for fuzzies.
I got worried today because I took her out to handle her a bit today and I saw some skin get pushed around. She weighs about 32 grams. I don’t want to bother her much more today so I don’t have a new photo but I can search for some photos later.
I’m just a new snake owner, I don’t wanna be that lady that accidentally abuses her pets T.T
I also reccomend going ahead and taking a photo of the snake in her current condition as that will most accurately help with determining if her body condition is good or not.
I will say that at almost a year old, your Corn snake should definitely be able to move up from pinkies…
Hey there. At 32g, your corn can handle a 6-7g mouse fuzzy without issue. Or two smaller prey items totaling that weight.
Feed 15-20% of the snake’s weight every 7 days until she’s eating large adult mice. Then feed her one of those every 7 days until she’s 200g. Then every 10-14 days until she’s 300g. Then evaluate body shape and feed accordingly.
At 32g you can start feeding peach fuzzies (5-6g by weight) or stick with two pinkies for a bit longer. I personally don’t go straight to regular fuzzies because I’ve seen regurg issues depending on the overall size of the snake. There are a few corn snake feeding charts around, some better than others. The one that usually gets thrown around in most groups is this:
I don’t personally like the last few suggestions on this one. I prefer to go 51g-100g snake on smalls (7g-12g by weight), 100g-300g on mediums (12g-18g by weight) and any snake over that on larges (19g-25g by weight) but with the same interval as the chart. Feeding by a percentage of the body weight is fine, however I just find some folks prefer a visual guide.
I have said many many times here on the forums that the overwhelming majority of keepers in this hobby overfeed their snakes. This, as is so often the case, is primarily due to the MLM mentality of the hobby. You DO NOT have to use the largest prey possible to push your animal to adult weight as fast as possible. It is not healthy for your animal
This part of Jess’ guide is all that you really need to go by
There are also a number of scientific papers that show that smaller, more frequent prey items are a healthier diet pattern for most snakes, especially colubrids
You’ve gotten good advice. There’s a wide range of what’s decent for the animals. There’s also a huge tendency to overfeed across the hobby. I generally prefer to grow mine slowly and steadily.
A photo would be good to look at your snake’s overall condition.
I don’t live near many pet stores that sell reptile stuff so i don’t go very often and I just buy a bunch until I get low on her food. I got a few photos. Would I be looking at feeding her 3 pinkies until I can get some fuzzies, or just stick with the 2 pinkies?
The first image especially appears to me to show her as thin. I would feed two pinkies rather than three; larger meals in a thin animal might trigger a regurge. I would do this every 6 days for two or three feedings. After that if you still have pinkies I’d bump up to 3 of them.
For temperature it’s usually around 20-25°C (68-77°F) in the winter (what I put my heater on) and whatever it is in the house without my room ac on during the summer. (It’s been 25-28°C or 77-82°F outside). She’s a little slimmer compared to the “loaf” and the pictures of the healthy/normal look of her, but nowhere near that exaggerated spine showing that the other example was.
Also I’m worried about buying Velvette (ma snake) food online because I’m not always at my house and I don’t want the mice just sitting out for a while. I fed her 3 pinkies today, she ate them well, but I’ll keep an eye for anything.
Define “out for a while” - Do you mean that it might get delivered while you are at work during the day and so sit out until that night when you get home? Or do you mean “I have to leave town for a work trip for six weeks and they will be sitting there that whole time”?
The prior is not any kind of issue. Any good online feeder source is going to pack your order with enough dry ice to last a few days. I had a feeder package get lost in the system for a week and it still arrived frozen solid
If it is the latter, the solution is simple - Just do not order right before you are planning on leaving town
You might consider increasing her heat. This will help her to make good use of the food she’s getting and grow efficiently in a healthy manner. Optimum for corns’ digestion is usually considered 26.7 °C (80°F) at minimum or higher in the warm side. I keep mine set at 29°C.
As @t_h_wyman notes, any orders for frozen feeders arrive well packed in dry ice. If you’re simply away for a normal day, your shipment will be fine when you arrive home.
Well I don’t have full time work (still in highschool) so just worried about during the day because I’m gone from 6am-4pm usually (other than in July and August), my mom isn’t always home, and my dad works during the week. I’m also worried because I live in a small town in Canada and I haven’t seen any delivery services (aside from Amazon and other online non-food stuff) that even ship here.
I would definitely increase her heat, but her terrarium is in my room and I’m not used to that much of a heat difference in my room. It’s hotter than the rest of the house, but not too hot so I’m not dying of heat in the summer. TvT
Since you only have 1 rather small reptile in your room, upping the heat for that reptile a few degrees should not make much difference in your overall room temp. If it benefits that reptile’s digestion it should be worth it.
I don’t know what suppliers deliver frozen feeders in Canada, but any who do will pack them safely for delivery. It won’t hurt for the package to wait while you’re gone for a normal day.
No one is suggesting that you increase the ambient heat in your room. Your snake needs warmer temperatures for her health. You need to get a heat source and a thermostat. If you get an under-tank heat mat which covers about 1/4 to 1/3 of the bottom of her enclosure and set the thermostat to 85°F/29°C this will not raise the temperature of your room. And it’s important for the health of your animal.
Think about it this way: a human body is much larger and warmer than a tiny UTH. A human radiates significantly more heat than a tiny UTH. If someone is in your room does the room become unbearably hot?
I do have a heat lamp for her that keeps it warm for her, set for 80°F on a temperature sensor thing. I don’t like the idea of heat mats at the moment because I don’t have another temperature sensor or controller thing that stops it from heating up for no reason.
Also I don’t think my setup would work for that at the moment, I haven’t gotten a larger terrarium for her yet (being shipped as I’m typing this) and I’m not sure if the stand I got will be able to have a heat source directly above it. (Sorry if I phrased that weird)
Where are and how are you checking the temps? I don’t mean the setting on the thermostat.
Please consider increasing the temperature for optimum health. 80°F is generally regarded as a minimum for digestion. Especially with younger, growing animals it is best practice to give them an option nearer 85°F.
I know text lacks tone, so I’ll add that I don’t mean to sound argumentative. Your setup is your choice. You care about your snake. I’m just reiterating the importance of proper temps, which means higher than than bare minimum.
@ls_gotsneks I agree with @caryl Caryl’s solid advice. As kindly as I can put this, you came here for advice regarding the health of your snake. Your snake depends upon you to do the right thing and give it the best care possible. It is your responsibility to do just that. Right now your temp is sub par. It’s a grim possibility that if you don’t raise the temp as Caryl advised, your snake may become ill from compromised digestion ability. I’m sure you don’t want anything like that to happen because if it does you will possibly have to seek medical attention for your snake which will be costly, providing you can even afford it. It will be a lot easier on both you and your snake if you make the simple effort/adjustment now to raise the temperature to the degree Caryl advises.
We are here for the health and welfare of the animals first and foremost. Please take this as well meaning constructive criticism.
