Quick feeding question...

[Hannahmania]

I have just moved my 2yo spotted python (about 1.2m) from 2 adult mice a week onto one small rat, basically just to save a bit of money on food. I gave her her first rat this afternoon, and she took it quite happily (meanwhile I was sitting there in absolute amazement - I still don't know how she managed to swallow something that massive!)

The rat seems a fair bit bigger than the two adult mice, though, so I am wondering, should I be using this as a time to space out her feeds a little as well? How does one actually decide how often a snake should be fed? I have just been feeding her two adult mice a week because that is what I was told she was generally getting at the shop when I got her (I think the comment was "we just throw all the leftovers to the spotteds, so she would have been getting about two mice a week"). Are there any ways of being able to tell if a snake is hungry? Or does it basically come down to basically the owners choice of feeding schedule?

I don't really want to be wasting food/money by feeding her more than she needs to be... but I don't want to under-feed her either.

Thanks!

 

[saximus]

There are a few signs that a snake is hungry. The easiest one to work out is when they try to eat you instead . I don't know how to explain it but you can also see them cruising around their enclosure with that "hungry look". You'll learn to see it with a little bit of experience. For now though, an adult could drop back to a small rat once every ten days or a fortnight. If you're over feeding it, it will start becoming fat so if you notice that you can also use that as a bit of a guide

 

[Hannahmania]

Thanks!!

I had wondered if her (literally) climbing the wall behaviour the last couple of days was a hunger thing - she was a couple of days late being fed because the pet shop didn't have any suitable mice or rats in stock, and she had a normal meal last week, but skipped the previous one because she was shedding, and only had a small one the week before.

She is the worlds most easy going snake - in the couple of months I have had her she has never even looked like biting, so I am not sure how reliably I could use that as a sign.

I might see how she goes if I drop her back to every 10 days, and just watch for any more wall climbing behaviour in between.

Thanks for the help!