how fast do they grow..

how fast does a baby corn snake grow? mine is about 12 inches long right now and im probably overfeeding it (once every 3-4 days) because i want it to grow faster lol.

Please be aware that over feeding a snake is not healthy. A over fed snake will go off eating so it's body can catch up. Most baby snakes are fed every 5-7 days. Also not all snakes grow the same rate. My first corn snake took off in growth and he wasn't being over fed. My b/f's corn snake is a few months old and is still very small... she's just a slow grower.

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Originally Posted by dorado29

how fast does a baby corn snake grow? mine is about 12 inches long right now and im probably overfeeding it (once every 3-4 days) because i want it to grow faster lol.

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You will not make it GROW faster but you could kill it by overfeeding it ;).Why rush enjoy the snake and allow it to grow at its own rate :D

Actually Don soderburg himself told me that you can feed younger corns every 3 days.... Just saying.. Every four days is fine up to about when they hit larger fuzzies or smaller hoppers. I feed my Baby corns very 4-5 days and they are growing like weeds, but certaintly not overfed, just watch them.

Why rush a snake's growth. I feed mine every 7 days so that all the snakes are on the same schedule and mine grow just fine. My snow corn gained 180g over the course of 2007 from me feeding once a week. She is now half grown and doing well. Excellent feeding response and still growing like a weed. So, don't rush. Just sit back and enjoy your corn snake.

Every 4 days is the fastest you should do.

And your snake will grow longer first then start getting wider.

You can feed corns between three and seven days. I personally choose to feed my hatchlings every five days. Most people that feed more often usually do to get them past the pinky stage faster. As long as they've pooped and haven't regurged it can be done, but if it's just a pet why not enjoy it being a baby a while?


hana

Another thing you can do to make them digest faster is make slits on the pinky's skin so the acid can seep through in easier and digest it faster. Also makes them grow faster. Or something.

I think any young snake can be fed more often, especially when you are noticing a growth spurt.

If the animal is growing slowly, don't overdo it. You may be tempting a regurge or worse.

I bought my corn about 8 months old, so he's been growing steadily, and he is on a 7 day schedule. If your baby is growing fine, pooping fine, and isn't heavily sedated between each feeding, you may be feeding him fine.

Just don't purposely feed him too much to make him grow faster. He can have heart, liver and kidney problems from being overfat.

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Originally Posted by _Venom_

Another thing you can do to make them digest faster is make slits on the pinky's skin so the acid can seep through in easier and digest it faster. Also makes them grow faster. Or something.

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I would like to know where you got this info? Why would you want to make cuts when the skin is very thin :confused:.How do you figure it will make the snake grow faster? I would think it would cause more problems and a mess ;)

There is proof, joe. I'll pull up the thread with the articles.

Ok, I won't post up the articles, because I can't find them or the thread...LOL.

Here's some graphs from another forum.
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/sho...5&postcount=12

Yep thats it! I poted in the ball forums about it, but couldn't find the post.

Connie(Hurley) happens to be a vet too.....

I have also seen that in the Kathy Love book. I have used the slitting method and seems to work for me.

That would be a hard thing to prove. I'm not saying this person is a hack or anything, but she gave no proof to whether these animals were related, or their physical conditions, or husbandry set up going into this experiment.

There are a lot of variables at work, and when she gave some very minimal data, it's hard to say that the slitting is "releasing" nutrients any faster.

I'm a skeptical person, and when I see things like this, not all the factors are being taken into effect.

It's at best, a 5th grade science experiment. The data she provided us with is hard to substantially correlate to growth rate.

Other things that have to be considered are her testing methods. Again, we have no history on the snakes or their setup. She very well could have made the evidence agree with her views. We just don't know this.

Just because we increased the number of slits or (A), the growth rate increased as well (B). It doesnt not mean that the number of slits directly correlates and influences with the growth rate. (C) A+B does not always equal C in the case of experiments.

My first thought was, the stomach acids digest most if not all of the rat regardless on how many slits are used, the amount of nutrients is not growing or being depleted by the slitting, and to prove that the skin is harder to digest should have an experiment all to itself.

So, the primary experiment that should have been used as solid evidence for slitting, is the amount of time taken to digest a slit pinkie versus a non slit pinkie.

After this has been done, it would be easier to make a direct correlation between slitting for faster digestion and the growth rate of a snake.

Coming from someone who uses the cutting/slitting way of feeding I can say that I noticed a marked increase in their growth and how much of the food is 'used'. I have some snakes that refuse anything that's not live and some that will eat anything. The ones that have had their mice cut have grown more in the same time period than the live only snakes. I do understand that there's a difference in every snakes growth rate, but my evidence is coming from clutch mates that I hatched. Neither of which was much smaller or larger than the other when they hatched. I'm not saying it's perfect proof, but it encourages me to keep cutting. :)


hana

ok i have decided to feed every 4 to 5 days using a sort of slitting method (i use a pin instead and just poke some holes lol) its not as messy but it would probably* make him grow a tiny bit faster i guess. hes perfectly healthy as far as i can tell, active, he defecates regularly and i have seen him drinking from his water bowl.. haha i even took a video of him drinking because it looked kinda funny.