Feeding in general

[NoOne]

To everyone,

Just a few of questions to get a thread happening.


How much do you feed your snakes at each feed and how often do you feed them?

What would you class as power feeding?

Do you prefer rats or mice for young snakes?

Do you feed your young snakes through their first couple of winters?

Do you prefer to feed adults one large prey item or several smaller items?

Do you feed your snakes outside the cage?



Theres been a bit on feeding lately so it should be interesting to see what you all think especially about the so called "power feeding".

 

[Alexahnder]

How much do you feed your snakes at each feed and how often do you feed them?
I feed my childrens twice a week on 4 fuzzies each time as she will only eat fuzzies.
I feed my coastal twice a week on 1 fuzzie each time

What would you class as power feeding?
Feeding more than would occur in the wild

Do you prefer rats or mice for young snakes?
mice

Do you feed your young snakes through their first couple of winters?
i will be

Do you prefer to feed adults one large prey item or several smaller items?
I would prefer to feed my adult childrens on adult mice, but she will only take fuzzies for some reason

Do you feed your snakes outside the cage?

No

 

[Artie]

I have Diamonds only.
I feed one large Item only, betw. two and three weeks.
Power feeding IMO is feeding every few days as much as they take.
I prefer rats, but have to use both at present, as they have not all converted. Actually only my 10-month old one doesn?t like rats yet.
As already mentioned, I prefer one large prey, compared with several smaller ones.
I also feed outside of enclosure.

 

[maximus]

i have a 10 month coastel, i feed her a fuzzy every 4-5 days,, soon ill up it to a mouse every 7 days.


Powerfeeding is where you feed your snake vigorously on large meals and often to get them to increase size quickly for whatever reason: to sell or to breed etc... this is a quote on the subject from another forum might be interesting :

"I have been breeding snakes quite some time now and I know the bigger the female the more eggs you are likly to get. To get the female bigger a lot of people "power feed" them. Personally I do not "power feed" any of my animals as I think it is unhealthy to do so. That is just my opinion. I also did some research on this subject and found out that many snakes that are power fed dont live near as long as a snake that is feed a normal size meal every 7-10 days"

I feed my snake in the cage, she has a spot where she goes when shes hungry (everyday) and she hangs over it... when i was starting her out i used to feed her outside the cage several times...

Definately prefer mice for young snakes..
I fed my python thru the last winter and i plan to for the next one or two maybe well see how it goes..

Duno never had an adult beforeee! :roll:

 

[ReptileRascals]

How much do you feed your snakes at each feed and how often do you feed them?

I usually feed my snakes once a week roughly 25-30% there weight

What would you class as power feeding?

more than 25% of the snakes weight more than once a week

Do you prefer rats or mice for young snakes?

I prefer adult animals for maximum calcium etc.So I will go with mice

Do you feed your young snakes through their first couple of winters?

Only through there 1st winter as I cool everything after there first year

Do you prefer to feed adults one large prey item or several smaller items?

Depends whats available but I prefer to feed several smaller feeds so long as the food are adult items

Do you feed your snakes outside the cage?
Nope,I feed inside the main cage majority of the time but I have in the past and sometimes still will depending on the situation feed outside

 

[Artie]

I forgot to mention, I don't feed through first two winters.

 

[Magpie]

Varies per snake, aprrox once every 7 days. 20-30% is alright for small snakes, but for the bigger ones, that would mean a 800-1300g meal.
Power feeding is feeding so much that the snake gets an unhealthy body girth / shape especially in relation to head size.
Mice, but I like to mix them up to reduce chances of getting a large mouse feeder.
First winter yes, no from that point on.
Divided on this point, large rats tend to be high in fat but it is easier to feed the one prey item. If I had access to rabbits (which tend towards leanness) I'd use one for sure.
No.

 

[wattso]

question! what are the pro's and cons of feeding thruout winter for an adult? why not? what benifits hibernation or brummation if not breeding? :?

 

[Stevethepom]

its natural....and isnt the key to keeping any animal except domesticated varieties to mimic is natural nabitat?

cheers
Pom

 

[wattso]

my snakey i s domesticated stevo, so mimic its natural nabitat?

 

[Magpie]

It helps to stop them getting overweight, mimics nature, seems IMO to make them a better feeder, may be important for the long term health of the snake, saves on heating costs, means that if you change your planes they are in condition to breed (not cooling may lead to long term sterility,) gives you a break from cage cleaning duty, saves on rats through winter when it can be hard to breed them and is generally considered to be a good idea.
PS I cannot "prove" most of this, it's just opinions and observed information.

 

[wattso]

Well put magpie, thanks, but imo a hibernating snake is bloody boring pet!

 

[Stevethepom]

then maybe you should get a different pet???

cheers
pom

 

[Magpie]

Surely the snakes health comes first wattso?

 

[zoe]

your pets health should be more important than your entertainment factor wattso

 

[wattso]

no, i like my snake, i just wanna like him all year round. actually as for savings on power and rats i was thinkin of letting him sleep next winter but have a concern. i.e. being inside, do i just turn off all heating but retain day/night light cycles? if so im worried that my house will not be cool enough for him to hibernate fully , but not warm enough without heating for him to eat, in which case will he lose condition? also how long or rather, what time should i stop feeding befor the cold sets in, to prevent problems with undigested food? march???? and do the actually go into deep sleep continually or not? is it dangerous to disturb them? do i let him wake up naturally or turn on the heat at some point???

 

[Pinkie]

i like my snake, i just wanna like him all year round.

I appreciate my pets so I give them unconditional love.

 

[Fangs]

Getting back to the original questions

How much do you feed your snakes at each feed and how often do you feed them?

I usually feed my snakes once every 8 days roughly 20% their weight

What would you class as power feeding?

more than 20% of the snakes weight more than once a week

Do you prefer rats or mice for young snakes?

I prefer to get them onto rats asap.

Do you feed your young snakes through their first couple of winters?

Only through there 1st winter,maybe the 2nd depending on the species and their
relative size for their age.

Do you prefer to feed adults one large prey item or several smaller items?

one large item.

Do you feed your snakes outside the cage?
No,we feed inside the cage because its faster.Also if you have a fussy feeder
they can tend to stress a bit by moving them out of their usual enclosure for
feeding.

cheers M.......

 

[NCHERPS]

Does anyone here just cycle(cool) their snakes by dropping the nightime low by say 15 degrees lower than normal and lowering the daytime high by just 5 degrees??

It seems from the replies that alot of people hibernate their snakes, and that's fine, I am not saying you shouldn't, but it isn't necessary to induce breeding, infact most breeders in Europe and the US would not hibernate them as such(Talking Boa's and pythons here, not colubrids), but just gradually reduce the nightime low over a period of say 8-12 weeks, say a few degrees at a time and then a constant, then raise back up, feeding is suspended through this period.
There are always exceptions to this, as it is found that hibernating Diamonds is usually necessary just to get them down to the required low temps needed.

Please don't think my comments are anything other than a alternative way of inducing breeding, I am not criticising hibernation, but was just curious to know if anyone used the similar methods that I have found so successful in the past.
Neil

 

[NoOne]

I was thinking that myself NC, most Aussie pythons don't hibernate in the wild anyway as daytime temps in their range stay high enough for them to remain active and this is when they search for a mate. Diamonds don't need to be hibernated either, they will search for mates during the winter as well, the only time i've seen diamonds mating in the wild was in july in the on the central coast.

Hence why it's called "cooling" not hibernating