Quick grow or long grow?

[Lewy]

What is the cause of fatty liver disease?

Fat:lol::lol::lol::lol:

 

[Retic]

To a large extent these threads are pointless and I don't mean any offence to the poster by saying that. What I mean is if you spoke to 10 different people they would all tell you something different, to tell someone that feeding thier snake too much will shorten it's life is misleading at best. How much is too much ? How much is enough ? Does it depend on the species, it's age, it's length, it's weight and even the temperature it is kept at ? The answer to all those question is yes.
I have heard people give others advice like 'if you feed your snake more than once every 2 weeks it will die' Obviously that is ridiculous, is it eating a pinky or a fuzzy or even a weaner ?
Who decides if a snake is growing too quickly ? How long SHOULD a carpet be at 12 months of age ? How heavy should it be ?
How long is a piece of string ?

 

[cris]

I some snakes every few days, others are fine for 6 months or so. IMO problems blamed on overfeeding are probably more to do with diet or husbandry issues than anything else. If the snake is fat its probably eating too much, if its skinny its probably not eating enough.

 

[wokka]

Like Boa says, What is too fat, too thin, too long, too short, too big or too little? Lots of opinions here but very little fact! Perhaps you need to feed enough to make them happy!

 

[cris]

Like Boa says, What is too fat, too thin, too long, too short, too big or too little? Lots of opinions here but very little fact! Perhaps you need to feed enough to make them happy!

If a snake has heaps of body fat(eg. loss of muscle definition) it is fat, if its muscle is wasting away then its its not getting enough food. I agree its unknown exactly what is best, but you can tell to some extent by the condition of the snake.

 

[tenacres1100]

im new to this. how often are you suppose to feed ya snakes. i have a coastal carpet python and i feed him once a week on a weaner rat. is that too much. he is around 4 1/2 foot and around 3yrs old.

feed him about 10-20% of his body weight, go up to small adult rats for a few weeks then go up from there.

 

[Lovemydragons]

My little 5 month old bredli man is on a pinky rat once a week, but it's only just showing lump now so I might upgrade him soon. And my 17 month old girl is on a weaner rat once a fortnight. The wearners are a good size for her and I think she's growing well.

I feed my snakes by food size. I figure if the lump left in the snake is good so is the food, too big of a lump the food is too big, and too small lump the food is too small. And time line, well I figure once they poo they're empty so wait a day or two and feed again. My little man empties after 3-4 days so that's why he's weekly, and my bigger girl poos after a week, so she gets fed every 10-14 days.

I think it's all simple, but as a lot of others have been saying, everyone is different and so are the snakes.

 

[Hooglabah]

i feed my snakes the first thursday after the poo.

i like to make sure all the waste has passed and they are empty again

for example the runt childrenii that no matter how much i feed it it wont grow i feed every 7 days so feed on thursday usually poos on the monday. hes only biggenough to eat hopper mice

the bhp i feed him every 14 days with a small rat so feed on thursday poos on the following sunday a week and a bit later. actually he poos a little between feed day and the following thursday waits for me to clean then does a wopper either the same day a few days later. its so deliberate .

 

[Retic]

That is something else I have never understood, why wait for a snake to poo before feeding it again ? It actually makes no sense humans don't do it, birds don't and I'm not aware of any living creature that does it.

 

[mattyf]

Well overdue for an upgrade, put him onto 150gm rats,weekly for now.

thanks for that mate.. i will upgrade him soon.

 

[mattyf]

feed him about 10-20% of his body weight, go up to small adult rats for a few weeks then go up from there.

i just gotta find out how much he weighs. i need some scales...

 

[fidzy]

i feed mine less than others. my gtp is 9 months old and 55 grams, each to their own, i just feel that they nature didnt intend snakes to eat every 5 days as they can go up to 12 months without a feed.

 

[Retic]

What do you base that on ? Hatchlings are often fed every 5 days in captivity but they certainly couldn't live 12 months without feeding.

As has been said a fat snake is overfed and a skinny one is underfed, it's not rocket science but we need to be careful when it comes to telling people what they should and shouldn't do based solely on what we believe to be right, a word we need to remember is commonsense.

nature didnt intend snakes to eat every 5 days as they can go up to 12 months without a feed.

 

[fidzy]

What do you base that on ? Hatchlings are often fed every 5 days in captivity but they certainly couldn't live 12 months without feeding.

As has been said a fat snake is overfed and a skinny one is underfed, it's not rocket science but we need to be careful when it comes to telling people what they should and shouldn't do based solely on what we believe to be right, a word we need to remember is commonsense.

12 months was based on an adult, but a hatchling could prob go up to 6 months.

the way i see it is that humans eat every day and so can not sustain long periods with out food. so if an adult snake can go a whole year with out food then were they really designed to eat every 5-7 days.

 

[wokka]

Surely in the wild it is often feast or famine in the wild. I know studies of water pythons at Fogg dam near Darwin, indicate that they eat to excess in the wet and then go without in the dry, so for a period of 6+ months they would be eating more than 20% of their bodyweight each week and possibly more frequently than every 5 days.
Once in captivity they live in a controlled feeding situation so the keeper needs to decide what are they trying to achieve and feed accordingly.

 

[Miss_Stripey]

Try tellling a Woma hes only allowed to be fed once a week!!!!

If i didnt feed my hungry beast he fed on me quite often hahahaha.

 

[Bax155]

What are you feeding your 6 month old? How big is she compared to mine? (see pic posted earlier in this thread)

i'm feeding 2 10gram mice at the moment as I have quite a few a mate gave me, mine is a lot shorter then your's as I,ve said she's around 60cm.

What is the cause of fatty liver disease? Are you suggesting it is influenced by frequency of feeding?or Quantity of feeding? or Quality of feeding?

The cause would be from to many jumbo sized rats with high fat content as I diet, so quality of feed and quantity would be the cause in my opinion although I'm no expert with only 3 snakes in my collection.
At the end of the day it's up to the individual how they feed there snakes everyone's points and opinions will vary, one not being more right then the other, as long as we all have healthy snakes at the end of the day, I guess all party's are happy, snake and owner!

 

[Sock Puppet]

i'm feeding 2 10gram mice at the moment as I have quite a few a mate gave me, mine is a lot shorter then your's as I,ve said she's around 60cm.

Cheers thanks, haven't measured mine & I'm not that crash hot at estimating it's length. I've downloaded that Herpmeasure (discussed on a thread about a month or so ago, also in last Reptiles Australia mag) which I'll get around to using at some stage.