Feeding mature snakes?

CosmicOwl · 01-17-14, 08:18 PM

I wanted to get some opinions on a question I've been pondering for a little while. I feed my adult corn snake 1 large mouse every week. At around 3.5 feet long, he's not a particularly large snake. Even though he eats more often than most adult corn snakes, he's not fat. He is powerfully built and has great muscle tone and strength. Is there a correlation?

A lot corn snake keepers recommend feeding an adult once every 10-14 days, but now I'm wondering if that might be a reason why a lot of adult snakes get kind of chubby. If they're getting fed less(not just less often) than maybe their metabolisms are slowing down enough that they aren't burning off the calories that are coming in. And on the flip side, if they're fed more often, maybe their bodies aren't conserving energy and are thus burning calories and staying lean and muscular. What do you guys think?

mclund · 01-17-14, 09:21 PM

And then you have to consider the fact that a snake is locked in a cage all day and probably doesn't get exposed to the amount of exercise a wild snake does; albeit I have seen some very nice setups with lots of room, but most of the time cages are the bare minimum. We also have to consider genetics, maybe some snakes just carry a fat gene. Captive breeding produces some wacky stuff you see(colors/patterns) and stuff you don't. Truthfully I really think it's much simpler. If you overfeed your snake it will get fat. Breeders will often push an animal to get it bigger faster to breed sooner(power feeding). Sounds to me like you are doing it just right.

Sharlynn93 · 01-17-14, 09:26 PM

I think it depends on their metabolism, too..I have 2 corns..1 eats more than the other and is actually surpassing the other in size and is about 4-5 months younger...she also digests faster and is hunting much earlier that the other...

mclund · 01-17-14, 09:35 PM

I have raised a lot of corn snakes and I have never noticed any one snake to digest quicker than the other. Some were better feeders than others, but if they eat more often they poop more often and grow faster. I think that, to some degree, comes down to genetics. The first blood red corns were notoriously hard to get started feeding as hatchlings. It was clearly something to do with genetics.

CosmicOwl · 01-17-14, 10:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mclund

And then you have to consider the fact that a snake is locked in a cage all day and probably doesn't get exposed to the amount of exercise a wild snake does; albeit I have seen some very nice setups with lots of room, but most of the time cages are the bare minimum. We also have to consider genetics, maybe some snakes just carry a fat gene. Captive breeding produces some wacky stuff you see(colors/patterns) and stuff you don't. Truthfully I really think it's much simpler. If you overfeed your snake it will get fat. Breeders will often push an animal to get it bigger faster to breed sooner(power feeding). Sounds to me like you are doing it just right.

This is definitely true and I'm sure there are plenty of variables at play. Ultimately, a snake's weight will come down to the amount of calories going in and the amount being burned. I haven't played around with his feeding much, but he seems to be one of those snakes that is always ready for more food. He also has a pretty good sized enclosure and is fairly active. I'm sure he's burning more calories than a similarly sized snake stuck in a 20 gallon tank.

That being said, I think metabolism has to be a factor here. We know that snakes have a mind boggling ability to conserve energy. The question is, how soon does it kick in? How long after feeding does a snake enter "conservation mode" and how does that effect the way they process and store incoming calories? I don't have the answers to this question, but I know there are plenty of people on this forum who have kept thousands(possibly millions, collectively) of snakes over their lifetimes. Then again, everybody seems to have their own opinion on what is the best method, so maybe there is no answer.

mclund · 01-17-14, 10:55 PM

We also have to consider environmental variables, temperature, humidity, barometric pressure. I can go on and on.

CosmicOwl · 01-18-14, 10:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mclund

We also have to consider environmental variables, temperature, humidity, barometric pressure. I can go on and on.

This is true, but I think there are probably large causes and small causes for obesity and snakes. If we're looking at corn snakes specifically, they're generally kept in fairly consistent conditions. It would be interesting to see if somebody with a large collection of adult corn snakes would undertake such an experiment.