Overfeeding = small head?

[waruikazi]

hmm. I guess its just best to judge by muscle definition and whether or not there is any skin folding or exposed skin between scales to tell if the snake is under/over fed or fed just right.

I'm not convinced that this is a good way to judge either and i'm not convinced that their is such a thing as over feeding in pythons when they are housed in an appropriate captive setup.

All Aus pythons go through a period of inactivity during the colder or drier parts of the year and during the wetter/warmer periods they will gorge themselves. At the end of the wet season in the top end you will find pythons that can only be described as obese. But then at the end of the dry you will start to find them again and they are far more lean. In a good captive setup pythons will follow this routine of gorging themselves and then fasting.

Here's some examples of pinheaded fat snakes at one time of the year and lean not pinheaded snakes 6-8months later.

A little blurred, but a good example of late wet season WP's

Sorry that first pic of childrens looked better in a thumbnail, here's a better quality pic.

 

[longqi]

Weigh her and use 20% as a guide. If she is 500g she will need a feed of about 100g of rat. If she cant fit a 100g rat, two 50g rats should be fine. When I feed multiples, I wait until the snake has re-set its jaw before offering the second, so the snake doesnt strike for the next rat with its jaw still out of place, miss the rat and hit something else on the 'follow thru' and damage the jaw

Longqi, Whats your take on feeding multiple rats to make up the amount (weight) needed?

Same as you we wait until the prey item is down and the snake has relocated its jaw
After seeing what a wild snake can actually consume. as against what we use as feeding parameters for pet snakes, we now feed huge meals less often unless they obviously are underweight
Most of the wild ones here carry parasites such as worms so they are often way underweight

 

[FusionMorelia]

overfeeding can also influence breeding productivity in a negative way, cause undue stress on body organs including fatty liver in larger snakes
imo routine feeding is not as good as feeding when the animal shows hunger such as stalking, ambush posture etc etc.
get yaself a coppy of the complete carpet python and start making friends with someone with alot of REAL experience not just alot
of fourm posts.

 

[pythonmum]

As has been said earlier, there is a big difference between feeding growing snakes and adults. The Western Sydney study showed this well, with young snakes simply growing more quickly when given more food. In the case of the OPs Bredl, it is a young animal which could easily take larger and more frequent meals. It will put the extra nutrition into growth. I powerfed a hatchling Darwin last year at the request of a buyer. I fed twice a week instead of once and it was soon twice the size of clutch mates, but still perfectly proportioned and NOT fat. It is a different matter with mature animals, which will grow little and put on fat.

A few years ago I got a ballot animal which the vet said had pin head. He was just fat. Having lost a bit of weight, the head looks perfectly in proportion. True pin head would be an unusual birth defect.