I think I overfed my Anery Corn, now what?

The story: When I started the rescue I new a fair amount about lizards and only the very basics about snakes. The first surrender I got in was none other than a snake. He was thin, barely 3 feet long and 5 years old. The owner was told by the pet store to feed only live mice and only once a month...sound familiar? Thinking I was doing him a favor, I started feeding him one f/t mouse twice a week for about 6 months. I had a King in as well, same situation. I stopped feeding the King twice a week when he appeared to not be so hungry. The Corn, however, kept eating. He has quite a small head and a huge body right down to his vent, that ends in a bulge. I am feeding him one mouse every 14 days now, he's not happy.

Any suggestions?

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Val

http://www.reptilerescuerichmond.org

Corns will eat and eat and eat till they burst if you let them, just leave him on every 14 days for now and see how he goes, corn snakes can quickly become obese if allowed to.

How big is he now in length, maybe you could try him on a medium rat once every 2 or 3 weeks.

An adult corn should eat one large mouse-one large rat per week, depending on the size of the corn ofcourse, some capable of eating more some less..

You did what everyone would be tempted to do - you saw an underweight and undernourished animal and wanted to feed it up and get the food into it which should have been given from day one of its life.. however, when an animal has been fed so little, its digestive system would not have been used to the amount of food you gave it, and this may have resulted in obesity or worse.. the way you describe the snake makes me think it appears to be constipated - does it go to the toilet on a regular basis? Have you got any photos so that we can see exactly what you are talking about?

For now I would stick to feeding it one mouse every 14 days as you are doing, and see how it goes- it may just be that it needs to be on a diet, which it may not be happy about but would be for its own good, and remember that snakes are capable of going a long time without food as they would in the wild. I would also suggest you maybe visit a vet for a check up, just to make sure that the appearance of the snake is not down to some nasties rather than over-feeding.

Lastly, in your title you put "or.." ..does that mean you suspect pregnancy? > is it male or female? Has it been with another snake?

Hope we can help you, and don't feel bad - your interests were with the snake.

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"If you know everything you may as well blow your brains out because the reason for existence is to learn more everyday." - Mark O'Shea, 2004

Thank you for your encouragement. He/she is definately not pregnant, never been with another snake (I don't know the sex). He is at least 4' long now and I haven't weighed him lately. He poops a couple days after he eats, fairly regularly, his sheds have always been good except for one.

The or....is the bulge at the end of his body right before the vent, it's not huge but feels like it's fatty, it's squishy. I will try to post a pic here. I do plan on taking him to the vet but wanted to know how everyone here felt.

Thanks again for your help

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Val

http://www.reptilerescuerichmond.org

I have a corn with a fatty bump just before the vent, I took her to the vets where they said she had fatty tumors, heres a picture, don't know if you can see but does your look anything like this?

That's exactly what it looks like, thanks. Did your vet suggest anything?

BTW a beautiful snake

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Val

http://www.reptilerescuerichmond.org

Sorry, just noticed a typo in my last post - i meant one large mouse or one small rat per week, not one large rat, oops!

There's nothing you can really do for fatty (benign) tumours apart from an op to remove them however this is quite a big thing to put the snake through so unless it is causing any pain or trouble there's no harm in leaving it. You will still need to have the vet checked by a vet though, as we can't say for sure if your corn has the same problem as Donna's, and it's best to double check.

Not exactly sure what causes these fatty tumours - did your vet say Donna? Or if your corn is suffering from the same thing esbat, could you ask the possible causes of these fatty lumps? - it would be quite interesting to find out.

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"If you know everything you may as well blow your brains out because the reason for existence is to learn more everyday." - Mark O'Shea, 2004

LOL Rach you and your typos today... your as bad as me at times

The vet just told me they wasnt causing any pain and that they are just fatty tumours and no need to remove them unless they where growing and/or causing problems, they don't seem to bother her ne little bit, she is still healthy and active, and they have grown at all since I had her, in fact they seem to have shrunk slightly..

LOL oops! Too much time staring at a computer Donna! Ofcourse I meant get the snake checked by a vet - hehe having a vet checked by a vet would be quite humorous though

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"If you know everything you may as well blow your brains out because the reason for existence is to learn more everyday." - Mark O'Shea, 2004