Weight and Prey Items

I just weighed my snow corn, Zim and she weighs 156g. She is approaching her 2nd year. I have a bunch of hoppers/small mice left over from when she was still on those. Each weighs around 10-12g. I'm currently feeding her two per feeding and she gobbles them up like crazy. At her size, should I bump her up to full grown mice or stay at the weanling stage? What weight should the prey item be at to be an acceptable size for her?

Well, I'm not too sure myself, but both my corn snake boys are on full large adult FT mice. One is 16 months and 206g, the other is @18-22 months and 226g. The larger, older of the two is taking two adult mice eagerly per week, and the younger smaller takes one adult per week.

Feed a prey item that is ~1.5x's the widest part of their body. The largest prey I feed any of my snakes is a jumbo mouse; even if it's less than 1.5x's their width.

You can always try an adult mouse. If its too large to engulf the snake will stop trying and give up and then you will know what size of prey its comfortable with

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Originally Posted by fergie

You can always try an adult mouse. If its too large to engulf the snake will stop trying and give up and then you will know what size of prey its comfortable with

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Its never a good idea to "over feed" any snake :colbert:.The snake will attempt to eat the over sized meal and then regurge it and thats not a nice smell :puke2:.

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Originally Posted by joepythons

Its never a good idea to "over feed" any snake :colbert:.The snake will attempt to eat the over sized meal and then regurge it and thats not a nice smell :puke2:.

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I wasn't trying to encourage people to overfeed their snakes. From my experience i found that if the prey item is too large the snake will either ignore it or if its not able to engulf the prey item it will give up. Now i'm not saying to try a ridiculously large prey item, just something a bit larger to see what the snake can cope with

Here is a recommend prey weight to corn snake weight ratio that I got from another forum I'm on. :D Hope this helps.

Pinkie 2-3g every 4-5 days 4-15g snake
2 pinkies 3gx2 4-5 days 16-23g snake
small fuzzy 5-7g 5-6 days 24-30g snake
fuzzy 7-9g 5-6 days 30-50g snake
hopper 9-12g 5-6 days 51-90g snake
weaned mouse 14-20g 7 days 91-179g snake
adult mouse 24-30g 7 days 170+ snake

good luck.

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Originally Posted by Ladydragon

Here is a recommend prey weight to corn snake weight ratio that I got from another forum I'm on. :D Hope this helps.

Pinkie 2-3g every 4-5 days 4-15g snake
2 pinkies 3gx2 4-5 days 16-23g snake
small fuzzy 5-7g 5-6 days 24-30g snake
fuzzy 7-9g 5-6 days 30-50g snake
hopper 9-12g 5-6 days 51-90g snake
weaned mouse 14-20g 7 days 91-179g snake
adult mouse 24-30g 7 days 170+ snake

good luck.

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I'm familiar with that feeding schedule, too (I'm on the same forum! ;)). I personally think it's too aggressive of a feeding schedule. The snakes get too big too fast IMO. Why the rush to get them so big? I just think it borders on power feeding.

What I do (and have been doing for over 10+ yrs) is to start out feeding 1.5x's the width. Feed that size once a week until the lump is barely visible, then up to the next size, and so forth. I stop at jumbo mice and they continue to get those, even if they're huge.

heh yeah I've seen ya there. I dont think its too aggressive. My yearling bloodred is on it and he's grown nicely. Not to fast, just steadily. Besides it only a guideline. You can use it as a baseline and then just vary from it to fit your snake. :D Sometimes it helps to have a parameter to judge off of.