whats the best food for my bhp and olive

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someday

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hey ive got a 5month old bhp and a 6month old olive and they where being fed quail so ive been feeding them quail for about a month now and started to look at other shops if they had and some guy told me to switch them to rats whitch im kinda debating he says that olives are hell to switch foods.and rats are better from what i no if its even correct rats are more fatty and quail are healthier "comes to mind rats would be a better grower"

should i mix up there diet between quail-day old and rats - baby fuzzys or put them on rats

when they both get to a nice size would they be ok on rabbit aswell theres 1 guy that goes to the vet with his olive and feeds it 3 rabbits a year and ways 20kilos "im told"


give me your wisdom thanks.

extra advise would be nice incase im missing somthing

hopfuly the image isnt to disturbing
 
My Olive is getting a mix of rats, quail and chook and my BHP's get the same with the addition of fish :)
 
Monitors and wallabys but failing that what you're feeding them will suffice.
 
I rotate the BHP's between Quail, Rats and Fish. Will be adding chickens and rabbit into the mix when they get bigger
 
I feed my black headed pythons a mixture of home breed rats, chicken necks from woollies, and occasionally kangaroo sausages.
 
There is nothing wrong with feeding rats to your snakes right through their lives. There is also no probs mixing up the feeds as well! What you should look at is how to get fur/bone/gut etc into your snakes diet as its these things that will make it grow, Chicks at that size are nothing more than a yolk wrapped in a bit of fuzzy skin.

Where people get the rat/fat thing confused is with all the BS that people post on here!

Rats up to 240-250 grams are fine to feed it is when they get to 300gram plus the have excess fat stores
and may pose a very small issue (if any)
 
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someday;2221726 should i mix up there diet between quail-day old and rats - baby fuzzys or put them on rats [URL="http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/98/dsc01105u.jpg/" said:
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Those food items are way too small for the snakes in question.I would switch them to at least fuzzy rats.
 
3 rabbits in the whole year :shock: is that how much your meant to space out an adult olives feeds?
 
'there's one guy that goes to the vet with his olive and feeds it 3 rabbits a year and ways 20kilos so i'm told'

hmm look familiar in the original post newtolovingsnake? :rolleyes:
 
The choice is yours but, as stated, there is absolutely nothing wrong with just rodents at this stage and for the immediate future.

BHP and Womas eat mainly reptiles in the wild. As a result, they are intolerant of high fat levels in their food and can develop a condition called “fatty liver disease” which is invariably fatal. This issue only arises once they get to the stage of eating rats of 200g or more. Whether rats of this size or greater carry a significantly larger percentage of fat than smaller rats will depend on how they have been fed and raised. So when you get to that stage you basically need to either speak to the breeder or do an internal examination and comparison with a smaller rat.

Feathers, fur, skin and chitin (nails and beaks) are not digestible and are called roughage. In combination with thick bone that are not completely digested, as it would take too long and the amount of bone already digested is sufficient, they make up the faecal wastes that are passed out of the bowel. All vertebrates need this for their large intestinal to function properly. It actually produces certain essential chemicals from these wastes, such as Vitamin K. Pinkies provide little to no wastes, so are suitable only in the short term, although frequent feeding of young pythons i.e. once a week, tends to provide more food than is required and the excess is expelled as wastes.

Contrary to the belief of some, day old chicks do provide sufficient wastes. The faeces does tend to be smelly and high in liquid. Week old chicks do not result in the same problem, the wastes being firmer and having less odour. I have seen carpets raised on a diet of both and there was no difference in health, growth rate etc.

Things like chicken necks and kangaroo sausages are only suitable as an occasional alternative. The internal organs of feed items contain some essential nutrients for snakes. For example, vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin, like A, E and K, and is stored in the fat cells of the liver. So to maintain good health, whole vertebrates should be the mainstay of the diet.

Just a final comment on the Olive. At 60 kg it is an extremely snake. If it is bromated, it is only going to eat for 6 months of the year. Rabbits vary markedly in size and there are some very large varieties around. So one particularly rabbit every 6 weeks during the active season may be well and truly adequate for that animal. You need to take into account how active the animal is and therefore what its energy requirements are. Kept in a restricted enclosure, that feeding regime may well be well and truly adequate.

Once olives reach a size where rats are no longer really adequate as a food item, then guinea pigs make a good alternative until rabbits can be used.

Blue
 
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