# Corn snake feeding schedule?



## lauren1313 (4 mo ago)

Hi all! This is my first post on this site. I have a 7 year old corn snake that I recently adopted from a family friend. She was bought unsexed so could very well be a male, but they assumed female. She is about 1-1.3 meters long and about 2.5-3 centimeters in diameter at her widest (not 100% sure on measurements as I have not physically measured her and she just ate so I can’t measure for a few days). Her old owner had been feeding her 3 fuzzy mice every 3 weeks, and she would eat them back to back in one sitting. She seems healthy, is drinking and exploring her enclosure plenty, and her last shed was healthy and came off in one piece. No eye/tongue/mouth/scale issues that I can see. I attached a picture of her (sorry for low quality). I figured I’d go with what she is used to for feeding, but after doing some more research I’m wondering if 1) I should be feeding her one mouse once a week instead and 2) if she needs bigger mice. I’m not sure how big adult corn snakes are supposed to be, especially if I’m not sure on the sex, but I did just feed her and she ate them all pretty quickly and there are small bulges on her body where the mice are so I feel like they aren’t too small? Please let me know, and forgive my ignorance! If this feeding schedule is fine, it would be very convenient for me but I will absolutely feed her more often if needed, and absolutely willing to size up mice if necessary. Thanks in advance!


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## Malc (Oct 27, 2009)

A mature corn snake will easily take an ex-large mouse or weaner rat every 7/ 14 days respectively. 3 fuzzies every 21 days is under feeding it.

A mature corn averages 1.2 to 1.6m (4' to 5'). There is a very good sticky post at the top of the snake section on keeping corns - well worth reading that as a base line in your research


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## lauren1313 (4 mo ago)

Ok thank you for your response. I will look for larger mice and feed her once a week. I was able to read that thread a few days ago but there wasn’t much info on what to feed adult corns.


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## Elly66 (Feb 27, 2021)

As Malc said, fuzzies are not ideal for a fully grown corn snake. I feed corns weekly with weaner rats or extra large mice. Weight wise, I'd say between 30 - 40 grams and prefer closer to 40g.


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## ian14 (Jan 2, 2008)

If your snake at its age has only been fed 3 fuzzies every 3 weeks, be wary of suddenly leaping to large mice.
Increase the food gradually. Perhaps 3 fuzzies a week for a few weeks then offer a medium mouse a week for a few weeks, and so on.
Leaping from such a minute and irregular meal to a larger and more substantial meal does risk regurgitation, which then brings further feeding issues


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## Elly66 (Feb 27, 2021)

ian14 said:


> If your snake at its age has only been fed 3 fuzzies every 3 weeks, be wary of suddenly leaping to large mice.
> Increase the food gradually. Perhaps 3 fuzzies a week for a few weeks then offer a medium mouse a week for a few weeks, and so on.
> Leaping from such a minute and irregular meal to a larger and more substantial meal does risk regurgitation, which then brings further feeding issues


Yes, we all should have said do the change gradually


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## lauren1313 (4 mo ago)

Yes thank you all, sorry for the late response but my plan was to increase the size of the mice each feeding and decrease the duration gradually after doing more research. Thank you!


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## DragonFish66 (Sep 13, 2009)

Once up to size i feed mine every 2 to 3 weeks this was done with 2 corns from the same batch one i fed every 2 weeks the other every 3 weeks both were the same weight and fed the same if i fed the one i fed every 3 weeks every 2 weeks it would soon get over weight, through i go by how the snakes look not how care sheets state care sheets are just a guidance which is just a starting point


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## ian14 (Jan 2, 2008)

lauren1313 said:


> Yes thank you all, sorry for the late response but my plan was to increase the size of the mice each feeding and decrease the duration gradually after doing more research. Thank you!


That's too fast and risks regurgitation. The snake will not grow enough from one meal to then take the next size mouse.
You need to do it gradually.
To give you an idea I bought a 2 year old pair of Aesculapian snakes years ago. However when I picked them up they were literally hatchling size, thanks to the owner having only fed them on a pink a week. It took me 2 years to get them to the size they should have been when I bought them.
Had I jumped to a fuzzy then straight to a small mouse the next meal they would both have regurgitated as the food would have been too big. You then have to leave the snake for about 10 days before offering food again.
Slow and gradual will give you a much better long-term result as the snake can put on weight gradually.


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## lauren1313 (4 mo ago)

Not sure if anyone is interested but I have been slowly sizing her up; she is currently at a medium mouse and is doing well. After a bunch of research I have been doing two mice every two weeks and she is healthy and happy. Just weighed her for the first time today and she is at 240 grams. She gets lots of exercise and looks to be a healthy body shape (can’t see her spine and her stomach is still flat). The last several feedings have been the two medium mice every two weeks; should I start her on the next size since it’s still such a small percent of her body weight? I would prefer to keep feeding every two weeks if this is ok.


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## ian14 (Jan 2, 2008)

The general guide is a 6 week stage.
So for example, from hatchling offer a single pink a week for 6 weeks.
Then give 2 pinks a week for 6 weeks. That could be either 2 pinks per feed, or 1 pink twice a week.
Then up to fuzzies, again follow the same guide, so 1 a week for 6 weeks, then 2 a week for 6 weeks .
And so on.


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## Elly66 (Feb 27, 2021)

lauren1313 said:


> Not sure if anyone is interested but I have been slowly sizing her up; she is currently at a medium mouse and is doing well. After a bunch of research I have been doing two mice every two weeks and she is healthy and happy. Just weighed her for the first time today and she is at 240 grams. She gets lots of exercise and looks to be a healthy body shape (can’t see her spine and her stomach is still flat). The last several feedings have been the two medium mice every two weeks; should I start her on the next size since it’s still such a small percent of her body weight? I would prefer to keep feeding every two weeks if this is ok.


240g for an adult corn is a low weight, I'd expect a good 500g. At 7yrs old the snake should be fully grown. You're definitely doing the right thing in increases the feed size steadily.


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## Malc (Oct 27, 2009)

I'm going to be non conformist here.... if the snake still has an active drive for food then offer it a large mouse or small weaner rat. I have an adult female Bairds rat that was given an "adult" mouse ever 7 or 10 days... I over counted the rats one feeding session and rather than dispose of it I offered it to her to see what interest there was. It was frantic - normally she would take the mouse by the head and just start to swallow, hardly any constriction, but this time she moved so fast and threw three or more coils round the rat and waited several minutes before she consumed it. I then left it two weeks before she was offered he next meal (back to mice). - Worth a try


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## lauren1313 (4 mo ago)

Thank you everyone for the replies! She takes the medium pretty well (strikes and coils when I dangle it in front of her, also not a shy eater at all) and it has been several feeding sessions so I’m thinking I will size up to a large mouse in the next few weeks. Question if anyone knows; will she grow at a slower pace since she is an adult, or will she continue to grow as if she was under a year old? Just wondering how big I should expect her to get at this point in her life.


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## Malc (Oct 27, 2009)

Most snakes grow to the average size for the species in the first 4 years, often with years 2 or 3 seeing the fastest growth rate, sometimes doubling their length in either of those growth spirts. Once the snake reaches it's adult size the growth really slows down. I was told that they actually never stop growing, but the amount is quite negligible. So for your corn it will grow from the size of a pencil when hatched, to around 5' by the time it's turned four. It will then remain around that size for the rest of its life. There will be variations, much the same as in humans, in that whilst most of us are around 5'6" as adults, some are 6' tall, others 5' nothing


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## peterson (Feb 28, 2018)

Snakes in captivity are more likely to be overfed than underfed. If she's adult, looking healthy, acting normally, and not breeding, I would rather feed once every 2 weeks than once every week, and maybe even once every 3 weeks depending on the behaviour of the snake and possibly time of year as well. Even if it's small for it's age (relative to other captive snakes of the same age), that doesn't necessarily mean it's unhealthy. I do agree with bigger prey, and slow transition towards it, but missing a meal, or feeding a bit less frequently than what people normally do, is probably better (or maybe less bad) than feeding more frequently.


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## ian14 (Jan 2, 2008)

lauren1313 said:


> Thank you everyone for the replies! She takes the medium pretty well (strikes and coils when I dangle it in front of her, also not a shy eater at all) and it has been several feeding sessions so I’m thinking I will size up to a large mouse in the next few weeks. Question if anyone knows; will she grow at a slower pace since she is an adult, or will she continue to grow as if she was under a year old? Just wondering how big I should expect her to get at this point in her life.


As she gets more food she will grow.
I always use the example of stunted growth that I experienced. I bought a 2 year old pair of Aesculapians, so at that age should have been near enough adult, ready to start brumation for breeding the next spring. When I got to the seller, I was shown 2 snakes which were the size of hatchlings.
Turned out that these were the 2 year old pair. The seller had only ever fed them a pink a week as that's what he was told they needed!!!.
So I treated them as hatchlings, grew them on as I would do with hatchlings, and 2 years later, they were at the size they should have been when I first bought them.
Yours is the same, she just needs to catch up!


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## Elly66 (Feb 27, 2021)

peterson said:


> Snakes in captivity are more likely to be overfed than underfed. If she's adult, looking healthy, acting normally, and not breeding, I would rather feed once every 2 weeks than once every week, and maybe even once every 3 weeks depending on the behaviour of the snake and possibly time of year as well. Even if it's small for it's age (relative to other captive snakes of the same age), that doesn't necessarily mean it's unhealthy. I do agree with bigger prey, and slow transition towards it, but missing a meal, or feeding a bit less frequently than what people normally do, is probably better (or maybe less bad) than feeding more frequently.


That would be fine if the corn snake was actually the weight it should be. Currently, it is underweight for an adult.
Personally, I've always fed my corns weekly and my current on eats a 50g rat easily.


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## peterson (Feb 28, 2018)

Elly66 said:


> That would be fine if the corn snake was actually the weight it should be. Currently, it is underweight for an adult.
> Personally, I've always fed my corns weekly and my current on eats a 50g rat easily.


I think the snake looks like to have the right weight for its size. It might be small for its age, but it's not underweight. Yes, it's small compared to regularly fed captive animals who have always been kept under optimal conditions, but that doesn't mean that a snake which is smaller isn't healthy.


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## Elly66 (Feb 27, 2021)

peterson said:


> I think the snake looks like to have the right weight for its size. It might be small for its age, but it's not underweight. Yes, it's small compared to regularly fed captive animals who have always been kept under optimal conditions, but that doesn't mean that a snake which is smaller isn't healthy.


It may well be the right weight for its size, but if any chance of it actually growing to a more normal size, it needs to be fed accordingly. Maintenance feeding will just leave it as it is and 3 weekly feeding is barely maintenance in my opinion. My current corn (only got the 1 now), would be taking your hand off if you left it for 3 weeks 😉


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## Malc (Oct 27, 2009)

The problem with keeping anything in captivity is that whatever the animal is it's reliant on us providing the quality, quantity and frequency of the food. In the wild they would hunt and eat what it finds when it wants to or has the opportunity to. It's not uncommon for a snake in the wild to consume not only the young rats it finds in a nest, but also the adult mother. It may then be weeks before it hunts again. In captivity the snake lack the space to burn off the calories so offering too large a meal too frequent can be just a s bad as offering too smaller prey or not enough on a weekly basis. 

A lot of breeders will often power feed their hatchlings by giving a 6 month old snake a meal that is more suited for an adult, and after its finish digesting it three days later, will feed the same size meal again a couple of days after... the snake turns the bulk of that food into growth. But doing the same with an adult snake just makes the snake obese. In the case here a 7 year old corn could easily take a medium to large weaner rat of around 90-100g every 14-21 days without it becoming obese. It will give a nice little lump in its belly and take three or four days to digest its meal. But vary it up a little, at the next feeding session, offer a couple of adult mice, or a weaner rat that is around 50g. Also a snake will need and take on higher food content at different stages of its life such as a female building up reserves when breeding.

Don't be worried about offering too large a meal. A few years back my oldest female Royal was going through her gluttony phase and would think food every time the viv was open. One session my male Boa could not be tempted to eat his rat no matter what I tried. So it was washed in warm water, dried and then offered to the Royal. Now I thought it may be too large at nearly 400g, and she would just reject it, but no, she had a good go, and this was after she already had her normal feed of an ex lrg weaner rat.






Once she realised her eyes were bigger than her belly she gave up and rejected it so I could remove and dispose of it.


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## Elly66 (Feb 27, 2021)

@Malc Not sure I'd offer the OP's corn a 90-100g rat, it would be excessive for a 240g snake.
I'd be working my way up to a regular feed of at least 50g. For now I'd say around 30g, but hard to be certain when not physically seeing the snake. 
My preference has always been to stick to a regular routine of weekly feeding. I can usuallytell if the snake is ready to take on by its activity.

If the OP is 2 weekly feeding, I'd double up the current size feeding and go up a size in around 6 weeks.


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## Malc (Oct 27, 2009)

It's hard to judge by weights, but my adult Bairds, is 4' and can manage a 90g weaner with no issues - I haven't weighed her, but I guess she is more than 250g -


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## Elly66 (Feb 27, 2021)

Malc said:


> It's hard to judge by weights, but my adult Bairds, is 4' and can manage a 90g weaner with no issues - I haven't weighed her, but I guess she is more than 250g -


The OP's corn is over half the expected weight for an adult. 
I've not weighed my current corn, but I know she's a biggie andI the daft thing would probably try and eat a jumbo 🤣


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## Malc (Oct 27, 2009)

Elly66 said:


> The OP's corn is over half the expected weight for an adult.
> I've not weighed my current corn, but I know she's a biggie andI the daft thing would probably try and eat a jumbo 🤣


If that is the case then I agree 90g is probably too large a meal - and as you say 45-50g would be more fitting. Part of the issue is that the OP's snake is then effectively stunted in its growth. It won't matter what it eats, be that a mouse fuzzy or ex breeder jumbo mouse it's not going to reach true adult size as it's already 7 years of age.


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## ian14 (Jan 2, 2008)

Malc said:


> If that is the case then I agree 90g is probably too large a meal - and as you say 45-50g would be more fitting. Part of the issue is that the OP's snake is then effectively stunted in its growth. It won't matter what it eats, be that a mouse fuzzy or ex breeder jumbo mouse it's not going to reach true adult size as it's already 7 years of age.


Snakes don't stop growing when they reach a certain age. Growth slows down massively, but is still there. If this snake is fed properly its growth will accelerate and it will reach its true adult size.


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## Malc (Oct 27, 2009)

ian14 said:


> Snakes don't stop growing when they reach a certain age. Growth slows down massively, but is still there. If this snake is fed properly its growth will accelerate and it will reach its true adult size.


I know that they never stop growing, the point I was trying (possibly failing) to make was that maximum growth rate is normally in the first 4 years, by which time the same should have reached the accepted average full adult length. In this case the snake hasn't been able to achieve that, and thus the growth rate is stunted.


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