Can you overfeed a snake?

[Sdaji]

Originally Posted by 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?

They're too skinny and they're too small. I don't think they're suffering greatly, I'm not worried, but they'd clearly be better off if they'd eaten more. They're not copulating as keenly as they were last season when they were much heavier. I'll probably bring them out of cooling earlier than usual this year and get some food into them.

[SnakeWrangler]

I guess as has been said, everyone must do what they feel is right, but it just seems to me that a snake doesn't feed that often in the wild because it has difficulty doing so, not because because it doesn't want to or need to or because it would hurt it.

I am more interested in how people KNOW that too much feeding is bad for a snake, you can't just say that it doesn't eat so much in the wild so it must be bad. Most wild animals eat less regularly and thrive, bring the same animal into captivity and feed it more regularly and it also thrives. Take dogs, wild dogs do not eat everyday, they probably eat half as much as a domesticated dog, yet they thrive, but so do domesticated dogs. Sure a domesticated dog will get fat without exercise but provided it gets that exercise the extra food will have no adverse affects, the animal will probably be healthier. I mean why do water pythons handle more food better than others? How do you know they do? Unless the same feeding schedule has been given to many species and the results compared, you cannot know for sure.

I am not trying to cause an argument or anything I am just sick of seeing people who blindly accept what they are told because it is a mainstream idea, how many times in the past have people that have gone against the mainstream discovered something amazing, not that I think discovering snakes can eat more than previously thought would be amazing, but the same principle applies, mainstream ideas are only correct until proven incorrect, then they change (most of the time anyway, sometimes we stick to disproven ideas because we cannot bare to be wrong!!).

Also, I am not recommending that people go and start feeding their hatchlings until they explode or whatever, you are better to start with the tried and tested ideas and work from there.

Well theres my rant, now you guys can rebutt everything I've said .

Cheers.

[munkee]

I doubt there has been any proper studies done as there would be no money to fund such a study most likely. If a snake gets fed more it grows faster and subsequently would have a shorter lifespan. By this I mean that cells only divide a finite number of times in their life. Having an animal grow up in 2 years instead of four would mean that the animal would be likely to die two years sooner. As yet I have not seen a pin head python, I have seen some well fed ones though. I think there is less danger in overfeeding a young animal but by the time they hit adulthood or close to it they don't need all of the extra food and either put on as fat or eat it anyways and cost us money.

Feeding animals more makes the keeping of them more expensive too. If I feed my animals weekly I spend about $20 dollars a week, If I give them big feeds that cost gets to about $32 a week being six rats for BHPs and a rats of suitable size for the spotteds. I tend not to think it will hurt them necessarily but it does hit my bank account though.

They are opportunistic animals and will happily eat every time there is food available generally 'just in case it isn't there tomorrow' type thinking. It will always be difficult to prove the benefits/disadvantages of feeding rates.

A similar situation is bodybuilding supplements creatine for example some people will rave about how good it is, other will notice nothing from it and a small number of people accuse it of causing them kidney failure. No one can prove anything out of it as it as there has been no unbiased studies of an appropriate size.

That being said just because there is no proof doesn't mean that it is not theoretically and logically sound.

[boa]

Yes I agree with that Munkee. Obviously if an animal is fed enough to become obese then it will in all likelyhood shorten it's life but nothing has been proven.
I feed all my young stuff every 5 days or so and they seem to thrive, they grow well but don't look at all fat as you know.

[rexs1]

i am the same as boa ... hatchys about every 5 days or till they have had a crap.

nick

[munkee]

Since I have had my BHPs I have fed them every 5 days to weekly and I have always thought they were skinny in comparison to pictures of other I have seen.

[boa]

That's exactly what I have found, I have fed small snakes every 5 days for more years than I can remember and never had an issue and as you say there have been some animals on here much bigger, apparently fed less.

[kwaka_80]

Originally Posted by 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.

ohhh sorry mate... but the area was clearly indonesia NOT ASIA

[boa]

Would you like a clue as to exactly where Indonesia is ? :wink:

Originally Posted by kwaka_80

ohhh sorry mate... but the area was clearly indonesia NOT ASIA