| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| blito |
Posted - 21/12/2012 : 23:07:09
Jareth has only had 5 mice in 12 days! Time to move up a size I think!
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| 8 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| badwool |
Posted - 24/12/2012 : 17:05:01
What bob said.
Remember snakes are opportunistic predators. |
| blito |
Posted - 23/12/2012 : 12:57:44
Thanks for the tips there guys.
I rather suspect the medium mice are too small being about 15g and only 2/3 the width of the snake. The large mice I have in the freezer look a more suitable size for him so hopefully that will slow down his feeding schedule to the 5 days you suggest.
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| Lotabob |
Posted - 23/12/2012 : 12:15:11
It may not necessarily be overfeeding in the true sense of the word but its definitely not the right way to feed a snake.
My adult male has eaten 3 times in the last 6 months, not because he is a fussy eater but because that is all he has required to eat in that time. You have to pretty much forget what you know about getting hungry and needing to eat because its totally different in reptiles and snake in particular really throw that concept out the window.
First thing to note is snakes do not get hungry, hunger is a warm blooded concept, when a snake is not digesting its digestive system is shut down to save energy. Several organs shrink notably the liver and I believe even the heart. So its not wandering around with its tummy grumbling away. They are opportunistic eaters, basically if there is food and the right conditions to digest the food and adequate shelter to swallow it then they will eat (obviously snakes fast and wont eat during this period no matter the opportunity).
Its important to leave a nice gap between feeding to allow the whole body to recover from the transformations the digestive system and the internal organs go through and also digesting is a massive drain on energy reserves so to have a snake constantly digesting but only for small meals so only getting a small amount of energy back is no where near as good as digesting for a few days an appropriately sized meal, getting a good amount of energy back and then resting the digestive system until a week a or 2 later repeating the process.
The rule of thumb for feeding a Royal is feed them 10-15% of there body weight. The only slight complication is how big they are dictates the frequency of feeding.
upto 500 Grams is every 5 days
501-1000 Grams is every 7 days
1001-1500 Grams is every 10 days
1500+ Grams is every fortnight
If they dont eat for you just skip that meal and try the next scheduled feeding day, dont continuously attempt to feed as it will stress them out prolonging any fasting. |
| richard v |
Posted - 23/12/2012 : 11:37:25
I would second over feeding is bad for a snake, digesting a food item increases the stress on the whole snakes internal organs by an incredible amount, so feeding it every two days for a pro longed period is not a good idea, you need to find the correct weight of food for your snake an feed it every five days. Hope that's of some help. |
| Fezza |
Posted - 23/12/2012 : 10:26:04
What sort of weight are the mice?
If a royal's showing that kind of appetite, at that weight try going to rats at around 20-30gs every 5 days and don't let them con you with the puppy dog eyes "I'm sooooo hungry" look. Lol
Over feeding can be bad for the snake |
| blito |
Posted - 23/12/2012 : 09:55:58
H's had a couple of mice at 2 day intervals and a couple at 3 day intervals. I gather he should be fed this size mouse every 5 days or so but he repeatedly shows signs of being hungry and putting a still frozen mouse over the air vent of is viv sends him into a frenzy trying to get at it! I defrost the mice in tepid water for an hour before warming through with a hairdryer. He takes them without hesitation! There is just one more medium mouse in the freezer which I would expect him to have on christmas eve and then he's going onto large mice. He's 22" and 200g approx, hot end temps vary from 85-90F and humidity is 50-60%.
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| badwool |
Posted - 22/12/2012 : 11:30:13
Are you feeding every two days? |
| jbarlow91 |
Posted - 22/12/2012 : 09:25:27
Aint too bad lol my female has only had five rats in eighteen weeks lol |
