Aussie Pythons & Snakes Forum

Help Support Aussie Pythons & Snakes Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Status
Not open for further replies.
This belief that many people hold of a definitive weight for age relationship is simple not applicable to reptiles. I suspect that it comes from the weight for age categories that are drilled into us via the monitoring of human growth – in particular that of our kids. Reptiles and amphibians are not endotherms and are therefore not governed by the same sets of rules related to regularity of food intake and their fore age-related weight.

In nature, a given ectotherm will vary markedly in weight for age, based upon the opportunities presented to it for feeding and the frequency with which these occur. The feeding regimes suggested by most care sheets are designed for ensuring longevity and good health. Snakes in particular will invariably eat more than what these recommend if the opportunity avails itself. This is due to the opportunistic feeding response that has developed as a result of uncertain time intervals and feed amounts under natural conditions. So they eat whatever they can when it is available. It is therefore important that we as keepers recognise that the desire to eat in a reptile does NOT necessarily equate with the need to eat.


Highly excessive feeding of young snakes produces rapid growth rate and correspondingly earlier maturation and the capacity to breed. Anecdotal evidence indicates that this also results in considerably reduced life expectancy and reduced reproductive period. The same sort of feeding regime with mature snakes will continue to push their growth but will also result in obesity.


What a keeper should be aiming at with mature snakes is that you have and maintain good body condition. For example, in pythons, there should be a discernible slight hollow that runs parallel either side of the visible backbone processes. If the animal is round in cross-section, like a garden hose, it is obese. If it is triangular in cross-section with lots of loose skin then it is underweight. These are far more important indicators than weight for age or weight for length.


A proven healthy feeding regime for python is feeding them 10% to 20% of their body weight once week as juveniles to once a fortnight as matured snakes. The % administered (within the stated range) should be determined by how active they are – the more active, the higher the % of body weight they should be fed, within the suggested range. Obviously replacing condition on females that have reproduced is also a major factor in determining the amount and frequency of feeding.


In nature, siblings form the same clutch tend to vary dramatically in size and weight after just one year, as a result of their random luck in finding regular food items. Yet such individuals of remarkably different sizes can all go on to be productive parents over a substantial period for each.


Just a few things that I believe a worth bearing in mind when one responds in a thread such as this.


Blue


 
hey gravo how are you...well than mine is quickly becoming a monster lol he doesnt look fat so i know im feeding him right...looks like he is going to be a very big bredli when he all grown up....
 
I think my male bredli was 700g @ 16 months, he's now 25 months and 3.5kg
 
hey gravo how are you...well than mine is quickly becoming a monster lol he doesnt look fat so i know im feeding him right...looks like he is going to be a very big bredli when he all grown up....
Im doing good how about you.
I think I might have to start feeding mine a little more food then :)...
I've just started her on weaner rats a couple of weeks ago.
 
Thats a great sized snake... I thought females where suppose to be bigger then males?

Mine is 3 months younger and less then half that weight!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah he packs on size. He's eaten about 35-40% bodyweight feeds once a fortnight since he hatched and went off feed both winters. He's a bit over 2.1m long (measured with herp measure) and has the best muscle definition of all my snakes. He is going to
be a big snake.
 
im good thanks mate...and yeah my feeding was the usual upsize when i thought he was ready until the last order of rats my supplier was out of the size i needed which i think were 120g-160g that what she writes on the packets..so she told me she only has the next size up so i was thinking they are about 200g they looked huge but smiley loved it no trouble getting it down....
 
Yeah he packs on size. He's eaten about 35-40% bodyweight feeds once a fortnight since he hatched and went off feed both winters. He's a bit over 2.1m long (measured with herp measure) and has the best muscle definition of all my snakes. He is going to
be a big snake.

I think you'll have a monster once he has all grown up lol
 
im good thanks mate...and yeah my feeding was the usual upsize when i thought he was ready until the last order of rats my supplier was out of the size i needed which i think were 120g-160g that what she writes on the packets..so she told me she only has the next size up so i was thinking they are about 200g they looked huge but smiley loved it no trouble getting it down....
Man I am only feeding my girl 30 - 60 grm weaners rats. They look big for her but she gets through it quite well ( 10 minutes to swallow down ) and in 2 days the bulge is all gone. I give her that every 10 days... Might just up it to weekly!!! Im not cooling her down so she can keep growing. :)
 
yeah i would move to weekly aswell smiley is fed about every 8 days since i moved him to his permanent home cos he is not on 24 hour heat now temps overnight get down to about 20c so he takes 1 day longer to digest his food
 
So I checked the weights of the biggest MD and Jungle last night
Turns out the MD is up from 1.100 - 1.225kg (despite not eating for 20 days).
Jungle was up from 850 - 990g.
 
Weights and lengths of my 3 small snakes below:

Spotted Python: 33 grams, 44 cm. 4 months old

Cape York Jungle Python: 50 grams, 60 cm. 2 months & 3 weeks old

Port Mac (Intergrade) Diamond: 48 grams, 61 cm. 2 months & 2 weeks old.
 
cold-b-hearts...are these accurate weights cos my bredli 15 months old and he is eating rats that are 200g
yeah haven't been pushing these two much but they could put on weight very fast they will probably double there size in the next 6 months :)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Latest posts

Back
Top