Cornsnake Advice please

[krazymuttzpuck]

Alright, i have read a few different things on the net, i want to get some of your guys opinions. I have been feeding pinkie mice to our corn snake since September, shes young. now i am realizing that when she eats them it does not show as much of a lump as before. Does this mean she needs more pinkie mice....she eats about 1 every 5-7 days, or do we need to get bigger mice? if she needs bigger, what is the next size up? I appreciate your help, Thanks

[monster]

someone once told me that bigger prey is better then more prey. snakes stomachs can stretch very wide when needed, i don't beileve the same is true for length.

[marigold]

so Julie, do you mean that feeding more would take up more length, but feeding bigger would cause the stomach to expand which it can do?  i have an adult corn that i adopted from petco, and it had only ever had live food.  i was able to switch it over, and i now feed it two frozen adult mice every 7 to 10 days.  because it is not large in girth, i do this instead of feeding a rat.  what do you think?   (hope i didn't hijack, since this is connected to the topic...)
thanks,
marigold

[warnersister_2000]

i have heard the opposite - more small items are better than one large item - easier to digest.  samantha, the next thing up from pinky mice are fuzzy mice - depending on where you get them, these could vary greatly in size - there are peach fuzzies with barely any fur, and then large fuzzies.  what you want to do is feed your snake something about 1 1/2 times the diameter of the thickest part of its body and no larger.  if you can't find anything that big, 2 smaller items are better.

marigold, you may want to try to get ahold of some jumbo mice.  some of the larger corn snakes can handle a small rat, but my first really struggled with swallowing them.  so feeding him 2 of the largest mice you can find would be fine.

[monster]

Amber is right. sorry, i had to re-read the message.
i thought you were feeding multiple mice in one meal.

[Geckogal]

someone once told me that bigger prey is better then more prey. snakes stomachs can stretch very wide when needed, i don't beileve the same is true for length

I disagree. If you feed more instead of bigger, it is like pre-digeting. This rule gets truer as the prey size gets bigger.

[cml3.0]

For corns I don't tend to do any rats, except some that are 5+ years and are massive (and only then they were weanlings). Jumbo adult mice are the way to go with big adult corns.
As for hatchlings I would just do two pinky mice, till you can't tell where he ate them (like you are doing with the one pinky) then I would move him up to a bigger size.
With snakes one to two prey items are fine, when you have to start feeding them three prey items it's time to get a bigger item. That is just what I abide by. But monitors I don't really follow that rule

[portal_reptiles]

she eats them it does not show as much of a lump as before.

...i have always feed them just alittle bit bigger then the snake, there should be some sort of lump, but not giant.....you could try alittle bit bigger and she what she does and watch her...

[Geckogal]

I'm pretty sure that the rule of thumb is a rodent whose girth is 1.5-2 times bigger than the snakes widest girth.