Prey size?

I just got a beautiful 4 yr old female corn, she's HUGE! She's my first snake (although not first reptile). I'm unsure about what size feeders to give her.

She's not a problem eater at all, she takes food immediately. She's only had one feeding in my care (weds). I gave her one fuzzy f/t mouse.
The meal was less than the size of her body at the largest point, so I'm wondering what to move to. Should I feed multiple fuzzies or move up to full grown mice? I dont want to starve her at all, but I also dont want to feed her too much or too large a prey item.

Sorry for the n00bish question, I can try and make it up with pictures later tonight. :D

umm... if she really is an adult corn, she should be on Large adult mice! Corns should be fed prey that is at Least as big around as they are...if not something half again that wide.

I have a yearling that's on fuzzies... a 4 year old should be getting the largest mice available.

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Originally Posted by Argentra

umm... if she really is an adult corn, she should be on Large adult mice! Corns should be fed prey that is at Least as big around as they are...if not something half again that wide.

I have a yearling that's on fuzzies... a 4 year old should be getting the largest mice available.

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thank you:) very much!

If you could get a weight on the snake, or post a picture with something in it for size reference, that would help.

But for the most part, I agree with Argentra: if it really is an adult corn, it should be taking adult mice. I did think the 1.5X girth thing was more for growing corns than adults, but Argentra has more experience with corns than I do.

EDIT: To clarify, the 1.5X girth thing probably would be appropriate for a breeding female from what I understood, but since you said you only have this one corn, I assume she is not breeding and only needs a maintenance diet. So hopefully Argentra or someone else with more experience than me will come back and clarify this.

:) For normal adults, and both of mine are males, I feed them a large adult mouse every 7 days. The mouse is usually no bigger around than the snake. This is maintenance to keep them growing but not TOO much...especially my Ghost male. :)

1.5 times the girth is something I've never followed, preferring to give my corns a food item that leaves a slight bulge no matter what their age or size. The largest prey item I'll offer is no more than 0.5 times their girth. :) Others do things differently, but this works so far for me.

A 4 yr old corn shouldn't be eating fuzzies. She's either extremely small for her age, or not really 4 years old. Best rule of thumb is to feed something that is 1.5x the widest part of her body. Feed that size once a week until you no longer see a bulge and then move up to the next prey size. This is what I do but I stop at jumbo mice. Even if I don't see a bulge with jumbo mice, they still only get a jumbo mouse.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Argentra

Corns should be fed prey that is at Least as big around as they are...if not something half again that wide.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Argentra

1.5 times the girth is something I've never followed, preferring to give my corns a food item that leaves a slight bulge no matter what their age or size. The largest prey item I'll offer is no more than 0.5 times their girth. :)

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Argentra! You are making my head hurt! Don't these 2 directly contradict each other or am I misreading something? 1st one says at least as big around as they are if not bigger. 2nd one says no more than half that. :confused:

Matthew, thank you for your explanation of what you do. It sounds pretty much like what I had understood, so that makes me feel good. :)

:D No no no... you saw my numbers wrong. What I was saying is an item as big around or half AGAIN the girth. 1.5x, which I don't do, means one and a half times the girth - so a snake that is 1" wide would be fed prey that is 2.5".

Half again, using the same 1" width, would be a prey item 1.5".

:D Sorry to confuse ya.

Ah! I think we are trying to say the same thing, we are just not using the same way to say it. I wouldn't give a 2.5" prey to a 1" snake either!

1 times 1.5 is 1.5 not 2.5, unless I am very confused. But we don't need to debate the math since we are trying to say the same thing.

I always did suck at math... :D

I go with large adult mice for an adult corn. I shoot for slightly larger than girth. Once I fed my monster sunglow male two large mice and I didn't see him for days!!! I cut him back to one a week and all is good.

pictures, as promised!

top:
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1.../deli-back.jpg

and bottom:
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...deli-belly.jpg

I think she's plenty big for her age, I just knew from the breeder I got her from that she was 'on fuzzies'. i know some keepers prefer to feed multiple small prey items rather than a large one, and it was a mistake not to have him clarify. she was used for breeding too early and got egg bound, but she's an only snake and will be a pet (not for breeding) so she doesn't need anything but a maintenance diet.

another question for y'all... whats her 'technical' color type? any/all opinions would be welcome! My boss (who has well over 50 snakes) couldn't tell me for sure and I was hoping to get some opinions from all you experts!

thanks again for everyone's help so far. i got a med mouse today to pop in the freezer for next week. :gj:

That is a Ghost...and a nice one at that. :) My big male is a ghost as well. If not a Ghost then a browned out Anery.

And yeah, that's an adult that should be on a nice adult mouse per week. :) Cool pix

Beautiful snake! I agree with Argentra that she looks like a ghost, although I'd also agree with your boss that I can't be sure!

Definitely big enough to be eating adult mice. I've heard that occasionally some snakes seem to prefer smaller prey and will refuse adult mice and take 2 smaller items to be an equivalent meal. Perhaps that is what the breeder meant.

Another possibility is that if the egg bound incident just happened, they thought it would be better for her to only have small meals until she was fully recovered. Sometimes snakes that are stressed will regurge a meal that would otherwise be a fine size for them.

Looks like an anery to me...

But it could be a ghost, but a really dark one.

:) Hence my saying it could be an Anery as well... I've seen adult ghosts before, but my Anery is still a little one so I don't know as much about their adult coloration. Thank you for adding your expert opinion there, Matt. :)

duhr!! I'm such a dolt. I was cleaning up today and found the little slip of paper the breeder had given me with his contact info. a short call later and i found out the following:

-She was getting 2 fuzzies instead of 1 mouse just because he had smaller frozen prey in bulk for the rest of his snakes, but she has taken mice before

-she's an anery! she had me fooled, i thought she was a ghost! she's also shedding at the moment, so that probably dulled things.

thanks for everyone's help! i'll try and get better pics once she's finished shedding.