Feeding larger snakes

[DeadCricket]

Obviously in other states they have the luxury of having rabbits available but what about us qld'ers? Are jumbo rats the biggest food you use. My carpet can scoff 2 jumbo rats already, I can't imagine how many an adult olive, scrubby or even a larger costal would eat in a sitting.

My snakes largely vary in size and I don't have many yet so a breeding colony is going a bit over board for now but if my coastal can smash $20 worth of rats a sitting then it would be nice to come up with some options before I'm feeding $50 to an olive every 10 days.

Whilst cats would be something they ate naturally I can't imagine having an easy time trying to feed them regularly, cats and rats seem to be thought of very differently. How about guinea pigs? Would they be a viable food option?

 

[nagini-baby]

pet city mt gravatt sells rabbits

 

[saximus]

How about chickens? I know of at least one member here feeds them to his scrubby

 

[Scleropages]

Frozen rabbits. I could do with 30 of them atm.

 

[-Katana-]

Yep, chickens or ducks.

There are always people willing to give away excess roosters.
Just look for advertisements on the notice board of the local produce/feed store.

 

[longqi]

Chickens are good but very light in body mass
We use them more as a treat than staple food as the faeces is also usually messier
BIG Guinea Pigs are very solid with great body weight for size
If your local pound puts down cats and small dogs using gas they are fine to use
but not if they use lethal injection

 

[Cockney_Red]

How big is the carpet, you are overfeeding

 

[DeadCricket]

Around 2.5m. They aren't the biggest rats I've ever seen but he handles them fine. Leaves a little bump and he continues to be active as early as the next day. Everyone I know who has a carpet agrees that they are bottomless pits

 

[nico77]

Pet shops sell frozen rabbits but its cheaper to buy food grade rabbits from the butcher . There is also a few members that sell and frieght boxes of them to brisbane , i think i worked it out to roughly $8 each ( for medium 500grams )if you buy a foam box full and that included the shipping cost .

 

[Joemal]

Frozen rabbits. I could do with 30 of them atm.

Yep put me down for the same .Cost me $235.00 for the last lot of rats i got .That will last me 3 or 4 feeds .Food bill usually is up around $300 plus .Be a good little sideline business selling frozen rabbits here in Queensland

 

[DeadCricket]

I was thinking more about something breedable and won't be able to keep live rabbits to breed. I've heard talk that guinea pigs aren't good for snakes but I honestly can't think why they wouldn't be.

Does anyone know much about guinea pigs? Do they breed often? Average litter size?

 

[saximus]

I think that's their big downfall. They only have a couple of babies at a time and they have a long gestation period

 

[Helikaon]

i have fed guinea pigs, to my carpets but they are high fat especially as you get the bigger ones but they also smell funky not all my snakes would eat them. I just feed rats. i jumbo rat is more then enough for an adult carpet if your worried feed two, or one once a week instead of fortnightly.

they breed quite a bit if fed right, average litter size is 2-4 but i have had one have 8 need extra females to help feed them though. gestation is 9 weeks. and they take a while to get to adult size.

 

[-Katana-]

Home-Breeding Guinea Pigs

I have heard that guinea pigs need plucking before they are feed.

Sows come back into heat as soon as they give birth and yes, they can give birth to 1 to 6 offspring but remember the mothers only have 2 nipples.
They don't produce their own Vit. C and so veges and fruit high in Vit.C are a requirement.
Actually breeding sows require 5 times the level of Vit C that non pregnant sows and boars do.
Rosehip granules (which can be brought from feed stores) added to grain mixes gives a Vit C boost without the mess of adding Ribena to the sows water bottles.
Protein requirements are almost the same as rats except that it needs to be of a vegetarian source.
Soy meal is a very good protein and fat addition to their ration.
Like rats they are very sensitive to heat and breeding through the summer months has sows aborting litters and are prone to heat stroke.

 

[DeadCricket]

Plucking? As in remove the hair?

I would assume the hair would be fine.... Roughage for digestion? Could run the clippers over those long haired ones though. I know I don't like to eat anything that hairy...... That sounded worse than I thought it would. Lol

As far as food size, I was more thinking along the lines of what to feed olives/scrubbies. Though the largest recorded coastal carpet in captivity was apparently somewhere around 4.2m. I couldn't imagine how much my guy would eat at nearly twice the size, he is such a guts.

 

[Dragonwolf]

DeadCricket, the PetBarn at Toowoomba sell frozen bunnies. Stumbled across them will looking for cheaper rats. Think the price was around $40 for 2 - which made me glad I didn't need them (yet) - but they didn't look much bigger than a jumbo rat.
I was chatting with a guy in the store and he told me he feeds his Scrubs suckling piglets, I think he said he sourced them from the abbatoirs.

 

[Bel03]

Thanks for starting this thread, i was starting to wonder the same thing for when my bredli is full size. She is now 10mnths old & just had her first weiner rat last night. Im amazed by how fast she has grown in the 4mnths i have had her, & it got me wondering about rabbits also.......i havent seen them in the petshops around here, although i havent really looked either! I may have to start asking around though for future use! Mt gravatt isnt far from me though, so if they sell them at pet city there, that will be good! About the butcher rabbits........would they be the same as buying from a petshop? I have never bought one, i dont eat rabbit stews or anything, but dont they 'skin' them or something.......like arnt they hairless?

 

[wokka]

A Jumbo Rat a month will maintain most large snakes. If they are breeding females add about 3 times the egg mass to rebiuld the body weight which would make there needs about a jumbo a fortnight.
By promoting Rabbits we've created a monster. They are inconsistant breeders and expensive to freight.

 

[Bel03]

Thanks 'Wokka' So there isnt really any need to have to upgrade from jumbo rats then? I havent even looked at the size of them yet, i just guessed, from what ive heard, that eventually they are not enough for a full grown large breed snake......if they are though, i may save myself the hassle & just stick with rats for the rest of her life!

 

[Dragonwolf]

Thanks for the insight Wokka, like Bel711 I was looking towards the future. I'd rather not have to worry about sourcing rabbits down the track.

Bel711, the rabbits at the butchers have been skinned and gutted - not much left of them really (even for human food) :cry: