Reptile Forum, Reptile Classifieds - CaptiveBred

Neffy · Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2007 7:47 pm Post subject: how much food?

I was wondering if 1 pinkie is enough for my corn Angel. She shed her skin 2 days ago and is on the hunt for food, it's been 4 days since her last feed.
I can't get her to stay still long enough to measure her so i measured her shed skin ( 14.5 inches about ) Should she be taking 2 small pinkies by now or is 1 enough?

Sorry for asking questions all the time, i just want to make sure i'm doing the right thing to keep her healthy.

christophermchale · Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2007 8:59 pm Post subject:

feed her one then try another. if she takes it, awesome. if not, try two the next week.
_________________
cardboard city.

lovesnakes · Key Member Joined: 10 May 2007 Posts: 323 Location: essex

I usually feed young ones every 4 days, then as they grow offer two pinks every 5/6 days, just how i do it, works a treat for me Smile

_________________
best of luck in the new season

Snowy · Contributing Member Joined: 03 Jun 2007 Posts: 179

Depends on the size of the pinky.

General rule of thumb is to feed an item upto 1.5x the diameter of the snake, never larger as it may cause regurgitation. Snakes will take more if there is any, mine has in the past and then it has regurged and so needed to be starved for two weeks before feeding again. You should see a nice sized bulge when the food is down, if no bulge then I would say time for multiples.

As to frequency given that pinkies are relatively small surface to volume ratio they are digested relatively quickly, so you can offer her another one. General rule for frequency is one every 5 to 7 days. I feed weekly I am not too interested in power feeding.

It is healthier for a snake to be slightly underwieght than over weight. Powerfeeding can be done to get them to grow faster but I tend not to agree with this method.

How good are the staff at the shop you go to? If they are a good type they should let you root through the food so you can choose a good size for your snake. I do at the one I use.

As with lovesnakes, before going up in food size, from say pinkies to fuzzies I use multiples of pinkies and move up the pinkie size scale (hence the above comment) as they grow and when they are upto two large of the food size I move upto the next size, and start at the small end of the next food size and work my way up the scale again and so on and so forth until they are one medium mice, which are what my male snow and anery can take at the moment.

You'll most probably find mixed advice as we there are different theories on what to do and we each may have slight differences in practise that suits ourselves and our snakes. You will find you settle into one yourself soon enough that suits you both.

Neffy · Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2007 11:14 pm Post subject:

The pinkies i was given seemed smaller than the last lot i got, maybe it's just me remembering them wrong.
Anyways i'm gonna stick to 1 pinkie for now every 4-5 days, she goes straight to her hot spot after eating and doesn't seem to be looking for more atm.
I'll ask in the shop i goto about choosing my own sizes in future, the girls there are really nice so it shouldnt be a problem.

Thx for your help ppl Smile

Snowy · Contributing Member Joined: 03 Jun 2007 Posts: 179

In the bags they have them delivered in the actual sizes do vary which means that you could get a large pinky one time and next time you could get a smaller one, depends what is grabbed from the bag. The manufacturers pack them and I don't know the criteria for it, whether it is weight or upto a certain size for them to class them as pinkies, fuzzies, small, medium and large on the mouse scale.