Can you overfeed a snake?

[Bonustokin]

i reckon while getting coiled, that croc would have shut down and slowed his heart rate that much, the python would of thought it was dead, and while getting eating or in the pythons gut, (not being coiled anymore) could of came bak to life and struggled inside the snake, causing that to happen..... just a theory....

[Rennie]

Or in the struggle, the croc scratched or bit the python's skin or scratched internaly and when it swallowed and stretched out it opened the wound a bit too much.......again, just a theory.

[Bonustokin]

yea thats more logical. looking at the pics again,the croc looks pritty dead.... lol

[SnakeWrangler]

I am wondering, how does one determine that every 2 days is too often? If a snake in the wild had the opportunity to eat that often would it hurt it to do so?

I know a lot of people say that you should only feed every so many days or weeks, but who has actually done the research and studies to prove it? How do you know that a snake who has died relatively young died from being fed too much?

[Sammccarthy]

Originally Posted by Rennie

Every 2 days is way too often (except maybe for a water python but I don't know much about that), I've heard that every 5 days is alright but some say once a week is still too often, there is a bit of debate over this issue and other threads you can look up. Do a search for over or power feeding.

Maybe increase the meal size, give it bigger mice or 2 or 3 at a time but it needs at least a few days to digest before you feed it again.

when you say not a water python what do you mean, how often do you feed them

[Rennie]

http://www.aussiepythons.com/index.p...;postorder=asc

Sammccarthy - Read this thread on power feeding and you'll know what I mean, I'm not saying you should feed them more often, I've never even kept one.

SnakeWrangler - Certainly not me, I just go off the general consensus of how often more experienced herpers say to feed them (notice I didn't give exact instructions but said "maybe" and said to do more research, it also depends what species we are talking about, which hasn't been mentioned in this thread). The fact that some say that those fed too much can get "pin-heads" or worse, have organ failure and death from obesity tells me that over feeding is bad. Someone might have done some research into over feeding, read the thread in that link, Sdaji mentions some work Prof. Rick Shine did on water pythons, but I haven't read it so I don't know what it was about exactly.

[Sdaji]

Overfeeding is bad, you can overfeed snakes, yes, including Water Pythons. By python standards, Waters can eat a heap and grow very quickly (the one I was talking about in the thread Rennie pointed out was capable of eating 3-4 large adult mice by the time she was three months old and grew at a startling rate for quite a while). As an adult, I think it would be fairly easy to overfeed a Water Python, although I believe they'd cope with it very well and suffer much less than most other species. On the other side of the coin, I have two adults which I have underfed and I think they're suffering for it. I'll be being more generous with them next season.

[mauesha]

Thanks for the help =) btw, why do snakes die when they eat something too big?

[major]

i still love that croc pic

[Wrasse]

Originally Posted by SnakeWrangler

I am wondering, how does one determine that every 2 days is too often? If a snake in the wild had the opportunity to eat that often would it hurt it to do so?

But would it have the opportunity to do so very often? A snake in the wild is ungainly, slow and vulnerable after a feed and will look for a spot to curl up and digest dinner before heading off to hunt again.
Given that, the only opportunity it would have to eat again would be if dinner was plonked down in front of it (such as we do for our digesting babies).

Bottom line, unlike our pampered captives, a fed fat wild snake would not have a lot of opportunity to feed again before it's previous meal is digested.

[boa]

IT'S NOT A HIPPO. The Reticulated Python is found in South East Asia and the Hippo is found in Africa, the animal it regurgitated was clearly a Tapir.

Originally Posted by kwaka_80

on metacafe theres fotage of a reticulated python regurgitating a small hipo

[boa]

Every 5 days is fine but in the end you have to just decide yourself.

[Glimmerman]

Did I miss the species? I would say that depends on the species. If it was a member of ant. then I would say approx 1 pinkie / 5 days. If a morelia, I feed a rat pup / fuzzie approx every 5days. Than again, wot about if in between sizes. I have a few that eat 2 pinkies cause a rat pup or fuzzie are still a little to big.

This would also depend on temps, digestion rate, and individual growth rates.

I believe that this is up to the carer to decided. Use these posts as a guideline a assess the food intake for yourself. If you think it is growing to fast, decrease the food. When I first started out I was told to use the rate of sloughing as a guideline approx 6 - 8 wks for juveniles. Worked for me.

JMO - Hope this helps

Damian

[boa]

"And the LORD God said unto the me, Because thou loveth hybrids, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. "

[snakegal]

Curious as to why you think they are suffering for it? Are you meaning beacuse they are obviously hungry and underweight or are they ill?

Originally Posted by Sdaji

On the other side of the coin, I have two adults which I have underfed and I think they're suffering for it. I'll be being more generous with them next season.