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 Newbie question.....which size mouse?

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T O P I C    R E V I E W
danablett Posted - 19/11/2014 : 17:50:50
Hi,

I've had my first corn for 3 weeks now. I fed him on Monday and didn't notice a bulge. The shop where I got him from had been feeding him on medium mice so I continued with this.

I weighed him today and he comes in at 420g. Reading the general guide to feeding on here, it says he should be on a larger mouse than a medium. Struggling to work out the 1.5 wider than the biggest part of him bit.

My question is.....should he be on a large mouse? If so, at present he gets fed a medium mouse once a week, should I continue this pattern but just with a bigger mouse. Worried I might do him some harm if I feed him a mouse that's too big.

Thanks in advance

Dan
7   L A T E S T    R E P L I E S    (Newest First)
danablett Posted - 22/11/2014 : 18:16:23
Thanks for the advice, just purchased a couple of large mice.
Razee Posted - 21/11/2014 : 07:59:35
At 420 g he should be able to take a large mouse easily ( though 420 g at 18 months seems quite a big snake ). :-)

When you say you're struggling to work out the 1.5 wider part - it's only a rough guide. If you were to lay the mouse next to him - they can safely eat a mouse that's 1 and a half times thicker than the thickest part of the snake. They can actually eat even bigger mouse, but the 1.5 rule keeps everything on the safe side... when you have an older, adult , and fat snake, you might end up doing the opposite, giving them a mouse smaller than their thickness, to try to slim them down...

General rule, with a growing snake like yours, is that when you no longer see a bump, when the mouse has settled in the stomach ( and also the snake eats it pretty fast ) - it's time to move one size up.

If you can find a friendly reptile shop, they will let you choose your mice - there are some "large " mice, that are actually almost the same size, as mediums, so like Kellog said , choose the smallest Large to start with, and see what happens - I bet you he'll have no problem with it. :-) Good luck with it :-)
danablett Posted - 20/11/2014 : 11:30:28
Thanks for the really useful advice. The shop told me he was about 18 months old.
Kellog Posted - 20/11/2014 : 08:20:29
It does sound as though he could handle a large mouse Dan. Get a few large mice and then choose the smallest out of them. I know it's nerve-wracking but it is surprising how big a prey item they can swallow. If you do offer him a mouse that's too big there are 3 things that might happen. Either he'll ignore it or he'll try to take it, find he's struggling and back off or he'll swallow it and may then regurge.

How old is he? If he's still young and growing personally I'd leave his feeds at weekly. Best way to judge whether you need to increase the gap between feeds is to see how much weight he's putting on. If it's a lot then stretch the feeds to every 10 days. You can try and see what happens weigh-wise.

Xxx
danablett Posted - 19/11/2014 : 19:54:53
Fab. Thank you. Think I'll move him to a large mouse.
Donnie Posted - 19/11/2014 : 18:38:08
Found them (some of the old posters brought back memories)

http://www.thecornsnake.co.uk/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=24822&SearchTerms=Munson

http://www.thecornsnake.co.uk/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=27833

Donnie Posted - 19/11/2014 : 18:23:24
If you don't see a bulge off a medium mouse then I would up to a large. I would decrease the frequency of the feeds as well, every week is to often. There is a good guide on here somewhere with weights of snake to mouse size and frequency of feeds. If I find it I will post the link.

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