My Corn is a Chubb-o

[rattekonigin]

Okay, so I find a site that says that fit rat snakes are supposed to be relatively flat on the sides and bottom, and round on the top. My corn is like a tube at her middle, and she's kinda mooshy, umm, like, not a lot of muscle tone...not to mention that I totally noticed a difference in the toned-ness of my new LTR compared to my corn...now, I've cut back on her food to hopefully see a difference, but she was only getting 1 adult mouse per week...that seems like a normal feeding regimen, to me, for a corn...I don't get why she got so out of shape, any ideas? I'm rather confused, myself.

[SilverTongue]

That feeding routine is good, but you need to make sure she is getting enough excersize. Snakes in the wild do nto stay in a lil box all the time. Make sure she has some branches to climb. It couldnt hurt to make her swim about once a week (at the least) for 30 min. Just be sure to give a island to rest on if needed. If you have a yard ans she is an adult then let ir move around in the grass. or in the trees. (make sure it is one you can climb into to get her if needed) hope this helps.

[Nicky]

ya take her out more often and give her lots of room for example

some people i know have special cages just for exceress for there herps basicly they take a 3 foot long rubbermaid container fill it with with water and add floating cardboard and styrofoam islands and watch there snakes swim around and sometimes they bye big branches and let them climb anyway her diet seems find just like humans they need exceress. good luck

[Syst3m]

Yup Excercise... Sometimes also feeding them live food and letting them constrict on their own helps with muscle too. But over all just make her move more :)

[rattekonigin]

Ya, except I already do that too...and despite that she's still poodgy...it's weird...I was looking at some pictures from when she was smaller and it seems as if she's only started getting chubby in the last 4 or 5 months...

[rattekonigin]

...except feeding her live food, I don't think that would do any good...she already constricts the dead stuff, plus, I hate those stinky mice, I've been bitten many times and it causes some serious damage even from just one hit, I wouldn't want to risk it.

[Syst3m]

I understand the whole mice thing, I hate them too. As Long as she is constricting thats healthy. If your really that concerned you should take her to the vet and have them check her out. she probably just needs a little excercise so I wouldn't fret.

[rattekonigin]

I'm gonna take her to the vet soon to have her probed (she was popped when I bought her, but she was not a brand new hatchling and no hemipenes doesn't = female) , so I'll probably take it up with him then...hopefully her "diet" will remedy the situation... I'm not concerned, just confused because there doesn't seem to be much of a reason for it...