How often should I feed a 12 inch pencil size new corn snake? I got him two weeks ago and he has already eaten twice, but he is acting like he is hungry again. So how often is too often? Plus, shouldn't I have seen some poop by now? Thanks for any help.
Yes, you probably should have seen some poop by now. For a snake that size, it might not be much. Snake feces is a lot like bird feces, soft solid with a lot of liquid. As for feeding, my rule of thumb has always been, if they're hungry, give them another. Don't overfeed, but sometimes some snakes will take more than one food item at a time. What are you feeding? What kind of set up do you have?
Yeah, biochic's right, basically if they're hungry, let 'em have it, but don't overfeed. Corns will literally pack themselves full of food at every chance they get (as will most snakes, but corns tend to go over the top, heh). It's just a natural instinct because they never know where or when their next meal's going to come. I usually stick to a schedule of a pinky every 7-10 days, until they're at the stage of taking 2 pinkies at a time. Once they're at that stage, it's every 10 days. Once they're big enough to handle 3 pinkies at a time, I switch them over to a fuzzy every 7-10 days.
I am feeding him pinkies. One every four or five days. I s that to much? He seems to want it. My tank is a 10 gallon with Jungle mix lizard litter (is that okay?) He has a hide a house, waterbowl , a silk plant to climb on,, and a very expensive uv light. He has escaped once so we really taped down the lid. When do I know if he needs two pinkies at a time?
That's a pretty quick feeding regime... It will make him grow much quicker, but "power feeding" (a technique used to bring snakes to a sexually mature size quicker than normal) can shorten the life of the snakes drastically due to liver/kidney failure (they have to work overtime to process all the extra food). So, I'd slow down to about 1 pinky per week for now. This will also give you an extra coupla days each week to play with the snake and get it used to handling. Some people even feed as little as once every 2 weeks which will see them reaching sexual maturity in about 3 years - but they live happy long lives
Axe is right. Accelerated growth is way too hard on the kidneys. I agree that one pinky a week should be plenty. Especially in such a small snake. Pinkies do slightly vary in size. Not much, but you know, the difference between say a 'runt' and a healthy older pinky. Maybe try just finding a larger pinky, not too big that he can't eat it, but also not a fuzzy. I hope that makes sense.
ok i will start feeding every 7 days. he is 3 months old we were told today. hand he gets handled 2 to 3 times a day. thanks for all the help you have been great.
Make sure you don't feed him for a couple of days after feeding. It can lead to regurgitation, which can cause refusing to feed completely, and other dietary problems.
you might wanna vary that off of 7 days a lil too. Make a plan to feed him 7 days and on some weeks go 6, others 7, and sometimes 8. It just adds a lil variety, b/c in the wild, snakes never eat on regular intervals. Like the others said, once every 7 days is a good schedule, b/c it gives you plenty of time to handleit in b/t feedings(just not 48 hrs after) It should grow slowly and happily into a quality pet. Good luck.
