What do you feed your 9 month old jungles?

[sharky]

Hey everyone,

I just got my first jungle! She is 9 months old andI've just been looking at everyone elses 9 m.o jungles and they are huge compared to my little girl:| Mine is currently around 30-40cm and every one elses look so much larger and more bulky! So I'm wondering what you guys feed yours. I'm feeding mine on one velvet mouse every 7 days right now but I don't know if I should be feeding her something larger? Like rat pinks or fuzzies or ??????
So my question is what do you feed you 8-10 month olds?

Cheers, sharky

 

[Shotta]

hello and welcome i feed my jungles adult mice leaves a nice bulge in his belly
i usually go by feeding them meals that are a bit bigger than the snakes head hope that helps

 

[Variety]

i think the general rule is double + half of your snakes thickness is the thickness of their food, i may be wrong but my snake has never turned down a meal

 

[sharky]

Cheers, then i should probably be moving up her food sizes....

 

[lgrattan80]

my little girl is 9 months and around 60cm. i,ve been feeding her either weanling mice or fuzzie rats (rats beeing the larger)

she'd be happy with something a little bigger but i've still got a few in the freezer. . . .

 

[sharky]

What should I try her on? Maybe some large rat pinkies? I don't want to make it too big straight away incase it causes regurge....

 

[Sezzzzzzzzz]

most people use the 20% method. weigh your snake, and then feed it a food item 20% of your snakes weight. EG if your snake weighs 100gms you would feed it a 20g food item...

you can also feed 2 smaller prey items instead of one big one if you are worried, but i can guarantee that even going by drdittz's method your snake will eat it fine... I personally prefer to get them onto rats as they are easier to source and when your jungle gets bigger you wont have to feed it 10 mice to make up a good feed!

 

[Tobe404]

I got mine at about 6 months old - about 30-40cm at a guess. Fed her four Fuzzy Mice and she shed so I upped her to Weaner Mice.

She shed the other day (five weeks between sheds) again and is on Fuzzy Rats at the moment (I ran out of Weaner Mice so I gave a Fuzzy Rat a go, she took it srtraight away). She's about 50-60cm now and fairly bulky

Not going to up her food size again cause' I think she's shedding just a bit too quick (aiming for 6-8 weeks between sheds).

I feed her every six days, will change that to every seven once she hits 9 months old.

Hope this gives you some idea.

 

[sharky]

I'll use up the velvets I just bought. I'll try feeding her 2 at a feeding and see how she goes. Thanks to everyone so far! You guys are really helping me out

 

[leamos]

My female jungle was on fuzzy rats at that age, as Sezzzzz said weigh your snake and feed it a prey item 15-20% of its weight, my 6mth old is on weaner mice atm, will try him on fuzzy rats in the next few week once the mice are used up HTH

 

[sharky]

Jeez, the breeder I got her off hadn't been doing too good then She's been on velvets all her life and they told me to keep her on them! *sigh*

 

[Albino93]

Yeh velvets are def to small at that age, even my 9 month old spotted is a bit bigger at 52ishcm and she is on fuzzies at the moment.

 

[sharky]

Okay, I'm starting her on rat pinks Wednesday and then I'll move her up from there. I'll be giving the velvets to my little spotted.

 

[Chanzey]

My Jungle was on adult mice, but I just swapped over to rats so now it's on hopper rats.

 

[sharky]

I feel so bummed out My first jungle and she is so pretty but under-weight! My dad told me she was looking thin as well.... I just hope I can get her to healthy size. thanks for everyone's help! She probably would've got really thin if you guys didn't give some advice! Thank you sooooooooooooooooo much

 

[Raymonde]

There is no standard size for a snake at a particular age. Snakes are not like mammals or humans that should be at a particular size at a certain age. Snakes grow in relation to how much they are fed. A snake can be perfectly healthy on smaller amounts of food or being fed less regularly as long as it is not loosing weight, and usually it takes a long time before they start to loose weight as snakes are built to be able to have long periods of fasting in times when food is scarce. For example the Chappell Island Tiger snake feasts on Mutton Birds for about 6 weeks when the mutton birds come to breed on Chappell Island. Then the tiger snakes fast for the rest of the year till the birds come back to breed.

What i am trying to say is don't be worried, yes your snake may be slightly smaller than some others, but that doesn't mean that she is underweight. In fact, it may be that when we power feed our snakes, we are actually over feeding them. In the wild they would never get some many large and regular meals. I have heard that if you have reptiles from a cold climate like tasmania and keep them warmed all year round they actually live less long, because without hibernating for 9months of the year they use up their active time more quickly and it decreases their life span. It may be that power feeding snakes does a similar thing, not that I know of any proof of this, it is just a theory.

Just feed your snake a food item that is 15-20% of its body weight, that leaves a noticeable bump in its stomach, and your snake will be fine. Weigh it about once a month so you know if it is increase or decreasing in weight and as long as it doesn't decrease, you are going ok.

 

[Sissy]

They have growth spurts too, and every time I get a Juvi in the house my adults are at risk of getting overweight because it's easier to feed all together. I've had to miss every second feed 5-7 days for them as I don't believe that power feeding is good for them. When we got Sniper (cranky jungle) she was power feed and huge at 2 compared to our passive Gorgeous that was and I say was, alot smaller at 3 1/2 now she's caught up considerably. I don't think it's in their best interest to power feed and from what I can gather people do it to get them to breeding weight.
I have Jo Jo Jagger he's 8 months and gets a fuzzy rat every 5-7 days and he seems longer than my girl was at her age. My point is they're all different and I've never weighed my however can see belly bulge after feed or am happier to feed smaller items more often as well depends on what I've got in bulk at the time, will finish off smaller at two a feed until it's time to move up to the next size. I mix it up too for all of mine - they get quails every other or every third feed, Snipers the only one that won't eat chicks or quails.