I have a 5 feet or some corn snake I feed her with 5 mices weekly, should i turn to a couple of small rats?

She eats the 5 of them very easily, but i think they're to small for her.


(I supose if you're gonna answer, already know the following):


pinkies, fuzzies, mice, small, medium and regular rats, and so on, (correct me if i missed one).I have a 5 feet or some corn snake I feed her with 5 mices weekly, should i turn to a couple of small rats?
First off, smaller is better. It may cost a little more, but it's better for the snake. It doesn't have to strain to swallow the prey and possibly injure itself on an item that's too big. It happens.





Second, that's WAAAAAYYYY too much food! Are you trying to turn your Corn snake into a Burmese python??? One large mouse per week is enough for a full grown adult. A breeding female could get two medium-size mice during breeding. Anything more than that is just going to result in a grotesquely overweight snake and a shortened lifespan.





Just because the snake will eat them doesn't mean it needs them or that it's good for the snake. They eat that way because, in the wild, they may come upon a big feast like that once per year, if they're lucky. So, they gobble up everything they can catch, because they may not catch anything else before it's time to hibernate. In captivity, that instinct doesn't turn off, even though the feasts keep coming, week after week.I have a 5 feet or some corn snake I feed her with 5 mices weekly, should i turn to a couple of small rats?
Thanks to spagetti o, mscuriou...,havealit...,all you're answer were just great.

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I agree with Ms. Byrd! Also some local petstores may give you pregnant mice for a large corn snake. Mine could eat very small adult rats, but i only fed them bi-weekly.


Also betwee fuzzies and mice there are 'hoppers'.
how about small ...()
A snake can eat twice the width of its body. I usually feed my snakes a mouse or rat that is the same width as her body. I feed once a week. If yours is eating 5 per week, she is getting more fat then protein. You should try a small rat or large mouse that is equal to your snakes body.
OK these people above me are talking about feeding rat pinkies ... In case you did not know they are smaller than mice.





Now general rule of thumb... a snake should eat a rodent about the size of his widest point on his body. Offer her a small rat if she doesn't have any problems eating it I would give her two. This would knock the equation from 4 to 2. But once you offer her the rat, watch to make sure she doesn't have any problems getting it down. If she gets it down and its to big most likely she will vomit it back up.





But I think a rat would be fine.