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i feed all my snakes irregularly, generally a week or two or sometimes three. I follow their actions usually, if i see them "hunting" in the evenings then i will give them food, rather than just plopping another rat in front of them on the same day each week. I feed them rats/mice proportionate to the size of their body, and usually only one per snake per feeding.
 
i do poo feeding or whatever they call it.
feed day or 2 after poo and never have probs

If i waited for some of my snakes to crap before i fed them they would never grow. One of my animals only craps once every 3-4 weeks but when she does it's a beauty.

It doesn't harm snakes in the first year of their life to feed them every 4-5 days (depending on the food size). After that then i feed mine once every 7-10 days again depending on the feed size or whether they have knocked back feeds the previous week. Breeders renowned for feeding 4-5 days in the first year of a snakes life have never lost animals to "powerfeeding".

I figure if my animals are healthy and breeding then I'm doing nohting wrong and i'm not going to change it.

Simone.
 
I was originally told at a pet shop to feed weekly. Later I read the previous threads and I accepted the suggestions of some of the "older & wiser" members who suggest less handling and less feeding. My snakes are now around 3 years old and get fed every 3 - 4 weeks (sometimes shorter periods to mix it up). They seem quite healthy. I like sleek looking snakes - not fatsos. They have usually well and trully pooed by the time they get fed again. I also tend to wait until they seem to be "on the prowl" before feeding.
 
I think you could even up their sizes through feeding but the fact of the matter is this would have to be done over time. The question is a bit open ended as you haven't mentioned what the size difference is either.

So long as both snakes are being fed an amount that will keep them healthy (i.e. your not overfeeding or underfeeding) there should not be an issue. There is no exact amount to feed a snake so you could feed the smaller one in the upper range of what is healthy and the larger one in the lower range.

Reptiles biological systems move slowly and therefore any quick results are often unhealthy.
 
Reptiles biological systems move slowly and therefore any quick results are often unhealthy.

This is dependant on ambient temperature which is much more variable in the wild! In captivity their metabolic rate is in overdrive particularly in small box like enclosures.

As for no set rate to feed in some way i beg to differ. Obviously the way of the wild is eat when you can eat. Wild feeding rates have been averaged out to around 10% of bodyweight consumption per week. We all know reptiles don't eat like this, but averaged out this is what they are getting. Generally these wild snakes are under-fed in my opinion and this is simply nature. They tend to have smaller clutches (always exceptions) and high mortality amongst the young.

Captivity can be viewed as a production system. You can precisely control their environment and their food intake. This is the way of the scientist with everything. If you have control of the important factors such as constant temperature and treat all individuals similarly you can draw conclusions.

We are investigating this with children's pythons with some very interesting results. These will be made available down the track as the trial progresses. It's based over 3 years at set feeding rates. It will also examine the reproductive success of individuals and look at fat storage and body morphometrics by ultrasound.

I personally weigh my animal and weigh the prey size (approx give or take 5-10g or so) that i am feeding. I check and record their growth each month and adjust when required. I also don't see this as a hard practice to do. If you breed your own rodents, you cull at certain sizes and pack at various weights.

From our studies using CP's as a model i beleive the best feeding rate is between 15-25% of bodyweight per week for hatchlings at a constant 30 degrees celcius.

It depends whether it is a hobby for you or a production system. And lets face it, it is a business for some. In the latter case it's no different than maximising your production of honey from bees or meat or milk from cows IMO!

Hopefully down the track the science will be there for many species to make an informed choice.
 
Never ever feed your snake 2 days in a row or god will kill a kitten.


BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I wish she would!!

Hatchies, every 5-7 days
Juvies, every 10-14 days
Adults, every 14days plus
Old buggers, once a month
 
I feed all my snakes random amounts at random times -But feed fat rats to a snake over a long period of time you get a fat snake - you are what you eat

Overfeeding in my eyes would mean a fat unhealthy snake not a fast growing snake - Larger random meals are a more natural way than a standard feed every 7 days , but each to there own! :D
Some of my snakes get feed every week or so some only every few months , depends on the snake and alot of different factors.
 
This is one of those subjects where people just wont agree, the problem is what length of time between meals is considered 'normal' ? If a snake eats every 3 weeks in the wild should we then feed ours every 3 weeks ? On top of that what size food are we talking about ? Is it OK to feed a snake a pink rat every 3 days or the same snake a weaner every 14 days ?
My hatchlings get fed every 5 days and continue at that rate until they are 18-24 months and then it gets extended to around once a week or longer depending on the snake.
 
I totally agree with Hazzard on this one, we some what control our reptiles metabolic rate by the amount of heat we give them, as hatchies in a click clack, being heated 24/7, their bodies are wanting to grow. Once they are adults, we have to take into consideration the lack of exercise they are getting and manage their feeding accordingly.
 
Feeding every day is okay, as long as you only use white rats. Black ones aren't too bad, grey ones should never be used. Multi-coloured rodents will usually cause sudden death in pythons, but elapids can eat them fairly safely (probably because the venom neutralises the colour-related issues, but I'm only guessing). Colubrids should never be fed anything, ever.

Make sure you don't give out advice on the long-term affects of over/under feeding unless you have been keeping snakes for less than one year and certainly not at all if you've ever actually bred anything. I see many people are sticking to this rule, which is good to see :)

Don't ever bring the differing needs of different species into this frequently discussed issue as it will only serve to help people. Good to see that not one person has broken this rule :D (other than me - sorry! :oops: !)

Happy Skarfing/starving :) Remember that whatever you do, you'll have people telling you off about it unless you stay quiet ;)
 
One of mine has always been a fussy eater and very small for her age , until a month ago now she is ravenous and cant get enough . l have been giving her small to medium feeds every 3 - 4 days and she is growing like a chook on hormones .
 
I have a really stupid question for you experts? Will a snake keep eating if its not hungry?
 
I also agree with Hazzard.........nothing like s good Skaarfing I'd say. ;):lol:
 
i normaly feed weekly but havent fed anything for about 3 weeks now. Will go get more food and start them up again.
 
meh, I feed when I remember to do it ;) the youngens are every 2 weeks or so, the adults once a month or so..
all snakes have grown/are growing well, and all seem healthy with no fatso's :D

my adult coastals are both 2meters long and have grown up nicely (almost 5 years old now) and they were both raised the same. so I see no need to feed the youngens any differently.
 
This sounds like your softing it boy! Tell us what you really think! Please :)

I've powerfed, I've 'starved'. Snakes are adaptable creatures, they cope with just about anything in the remotely reasonable range. Don't believe the hype unless you know how to filter it. The vast majority of everything you'll ever hear is a load of garbage and that's especially true of what you hear from reptile people!

Remember: no feeding multicoloured rodents to pythons! It kills them!
 
Sdaji, How big is that water python that you had in a powerfeeding thread some time back?
 
Ha - Sdaji has it one... or is it 2?

Basically juvies will put a huge amount of what they eat into growth, not fat. Graham Thompson at UWA did a lot of work on python metabolism through the various stages of digestion and during non-feeding periods. This demonstrated clearly that snakes which are unfed for longish periods can and do change their metabolism to suit the prevailing circumstances, and this prevents harm to them.

I worked with him (I had a group of 8 neonate M.s.imbricata which were unfed when I got them) and supplied these critters over a period of about 4 years as they grew, in various stages of "fedness" or unfedness", preslough, etc, and he produced some very interesting results.

I also weighed, to the gram, every food item each snake ate for the first 4 years of life, and the total food intake came to about 84kg average, per animal, over the 4 year period. Almost 650kg of rodents for 8 medium sized pythons in 4 years. They would no doubt have eaten more if offered, but the largest animal after that time was a female at about 2.9kg - not a bad size for imbricata.

So - snake metabolic rates can vary by a factor of 5 or 6 if I recall (a huge range). Basically you can feed them however you like. Juvies will grow faster if you feed them more, and adults may become excessively fat if fed very large amounts of food frequently. That's about it...

Jamie.
 
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