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m.punja

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Fact or Fiction. I have always believed and understood that elapids aren't as elastic as pythons and that they should be fed smaller feeds. Recently, however I have experimented and am starting to think that this is fiction. What are other keepers opinions.
 
Whats the experiment Marc?
i feed elapids smaller feeds than pythons because they may regurge the meal if its to big.

Ive had a few that can handle the bigger meals but i dont take the chance since i lost a favourite tiger last year.
It disgorged a large rat and died soon after.

Necropsy showed the process of disgorging the last meal may have torn the stomach lining.

It will be interesting to know the results of your experiment.
 
Coastal Taipans would give a few python species a run for their money in this challenge, and the Inland Taipan is capable of taking large meals as well.
But most of the elapids would struggle to match it with a python of equivalent body size. But they can certainly take larger prey items than most people realise.
 
Id say snakes that predominantly feed on mammals would be able to take larger meals, in comparison to snakes that feed maily on reptiles and frogs.
 
I do not know of any physiological reason that this would be true, but suggest that any tendancy here may be more a behavioral trait.

Many pythons are sit and wait predators and as such it would be expected that they would feed less frequently than more active elapids, and that any loss of mobility from ingesting a large meal would be less of an issue for them.

So a large python that was lucky enough to eat a small wallaby or the like could comfortably sit back and ingest that meal for weeks without any problems. It may be a long wait until the next meal.

Whereas more active elapids may prefer smaller meals in order to be able to keep active. More smaller meals on a more regular basis and inline with their active behaviours.

I guess this would get interesting if you looked at some of the sit and wait elapids such as Death Adders. They are not known for taking large prey but I wonder whether that is a function of choice, or a function of the fact that their terrestrial hunting grounds are more likely to produce rats and mice than other larger mammals.

Regarding captive animals I agree that it is best not to take chances here and personally I feed more smaller meals rather than less larger meals.
 
No real experiment sssnakeman, just upsizing food. There have been times where I have run out of smaller rodents and only had larger ones so taken on the dare to feed them the larger food iteam. Today was one of them days where I offered my young Taipans some mice that I thought would usually be too big for an elapid of that size and the tais sucked them down before my eyes. I was amazed. One of my rbbs surprised me by scoffing a big feed the other day, but it struggled with it. It must be as you say Shane, some elapids can take bigger stuff, some can't. Interesting to see what other people say as the thread progresses.
 
I can't really comment on death adders but my tigers struggle with big food items and I've rarely been able to feed them anything bigger then an adult mouse. Never tried my browns on big feeds, might see how they go.
 
I have a young tiger that took whole baby chickens when it was about 400mm long. Thats all it would eat. Previous owner can confirm this.
 
They can as long as they can show they can safely handle them.
 
No you have to be over 18. BUT...as long as the license is in the parents name there is nothing stopping anyone under 18 keeping them.
 
No I'm serious, I think you will be surprised at the amount of experienced ven keepers out there who were keeping vens as kids.
 
LOL hey my dad has a taipan but im allowed to play with it arrhhhahahaha
 
apparantly adders can be tamed , sorry couldnt help myself

all the power to the little fellas that handle elapids IMO not a really wise move
 
Come on,, Which one of us wern't playing with vens as kids, I know i was....Anaway,,

I agree with Shane,,my taipans are definatly pound for pound the bigest eaters.. However my other ones can still shock every now & then... I personaly just dont push the size issue,,,I dont see any worthy benifits & yet we have just heard the experience from sssnakeman...(by the way thanks for sharing that).... For me the risks outway the benifits.
 
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