All thanks to you and everyone that’s chimed in. He’s been eating 2 pinks for about a month. I’m sure I’m going to have a few more questions coming lol.
Bring um on! This is my personal opinion but I think it is better if your snake is able to eat 1 slightly larger size rodent than to eat 2 smaller rodents. But again mho. I’m sure others will disagree…….
I would probably just put an extra big bowl of water for him while you’re gone and just have your mom keep an eye on it, since sometimes non-snake people accidentally let them escape while pet sitting! Or if you have a screen top, she could just pour water right through it into the bowl.
It sounds like he’s doing well with handling and you’re doing well with catching him!
For moving up feeders, I like to weigh mine. I move mine up to fuzzies when they’re 25 grams. You can also eyeball it, as Caron suggested. You want to pick a prey size that’s about one to one and a half times as wide as the thickest part of your snake.
I generally agree, though I do doubles here and there. There’s a stage for corn hatchlings between pinks and fuzzies where single pinks aren’t enough and fuzzies are a little too big. It’s also the stage of development where I think it’s hardest to get them to gain weight. So double pinks are practically necessary.
Yes I agree. Even though ideally one rodent is better than 2 there are circumstances as well……
Glad to hear things are going well! Sounds like you’re doing exactly what you should be doing for getting him used to being handled.
As far as feeder size, I’m like @solarserpents and go mostly by weight. When the snakes are about 18-25 g I feed them either large pinkies, or double pinkies, or sometimes peach fuzzies. Kinda depends upon what is available and/ or what’s in my freezer. I move mine to small fuzzies of about 5 g when the snake gets to about 25 g. @deanaii is right, there is a kind of awkward phase between pinky and fuzzy meal size. Once you do get them on fuzzies, they usually have a growth spurt.
When I go to the next size should I go with rodent pro peach fuzzy or the big cheese rodent factory feeder fuzzy?
I’m not sure how weights compare. That’s what you’ll need to look at. Unfortunately, naming of sizes isn’t standardized - not that small, medium, large are really standardized sizes for human clothing either.
Big cheese is 4-6 rodent pro is 3-4.49
Do you know how much the snake weighs? Also, are you feeding just the one snake?
No I don’t know his weight yet. He’s just eating two pinks a feeding. I just wanted to stock up the freezer for when I make the switch. I do not own any other snakes or animals that eat rodents
Get a weight before you order anything, that way you know what best to buy. As you’re only feeding one snake, I’d say consider using a supplier that offers smaller quantities such as Layne Labs (they offer 10 & 25 count packages). You’re not going to need 50-100 fuzzies for one snake, he’ll be sizing up again before long. You may end up paying a bit more per mouse, but you can order multiple sizes that way.
As for what size to feed and when, I like to give folks this chart from the Corn Snakes Advancing Husbandry FB group. Age/length are pretty irrelevant here, I use the weight of snake as the guideline:
Agreed, you need to order by *weight which means you need a way to weigh your snake. You don’t have spend a bunch of money or buy anything fancy. A cheapo kitchen scale which weighs in grams can be had for under $20 from Target, Walmart, Amazon. Then you’ll know what your snake needs whenever it’s *fed.
Edited typos. Sorry.
Alright I finally got a weight on him. He’s 17g
Is he getting easier to catch?
A little bit lol
Lol hopefully he’ll keep on getting a little easier every week.
At 17 g, he is about ready for an up-size in meals.
I have about 12 pinkies left. Hoping I get through those within 6 feedings (2 each) then order the next size up. I checked out Layne labs, yikes on the shipping! 25 small fuzzys for $62 shipped. Oh well
But if you bought them at a big box store it would probably be double that price!
Solid plan to feed off the pinkies. Shipping costs do add up on stuff that’s got to be kept frozen at all times. Still, you’re saving gas money and wear and tear on the vehicle right? That’s part of my logic to my husband anyways. There are deals sometimes for free shipping if you order a certain amount, like $100. It’s hard to do that with just one little snake.
Consider that those 25 fuzzies at 1 per week, with time off for shedding, is roughly 6 months worth of food. I love my dogs and cats, but honestly the snakes are the least expensive creatures in this household to feed.