Feeding schedule

[digcolnagos]

When I got my snake, he didn't eat for three weeks, a combination I think of stress and going through shed. After two refusals, he easily ate last Thursday. I'm wondering if I should feed him one day early this week, on Wednesday, and again a day early the following week, Tuesday, to make up for his missing meals.

Related question, he eats F/T mice. I'm wondering if they're big enough. They seem small in proportion to the thickest part of his body. Then again, he's pretty svelte for the first four inches or so of his body. The previous owner told me he's six years old. He's between three and four feet long.

[xdeus]

Once a week is fine; no need to "make up" for lost time. However, at 6 years old and 3-4 feet, he could easily eat a couple large mice. At that age you may find it difficult to switch him over to rats, and there really is no reason to.

[digcolnagos]

Thanks. That helps.


I'm not quite sure how to go about giving him two at a time. Here's his normal routine: On Thursdays around 9 p.m., I pull him from his tank and put him in a feeding tub (he'd been doing the feeding tub routine prior to me adopting him, so I figured I'd keep it up). Dangle the mouse, when he takes it, I put the lid on the tub to give him some privacy. The last time he ate (the first time for me after a couple refusals), he struck, I let go of the mouse and it dropped to the tub floor, but no matter--he curled around it and ate it tail first.

If I do two mice, should I just go the routine twice; that is, after he's swallowed the first, dangle the second? Or should I put the second mouse in his mouth while he's still working on the first?

[elevatethis]

Let him swallow the first on his own, give him a minute or two, then repeat the process. Never try to "trick" a snake into eating a second prey item by shoving it down his throat as he swallows the first.

[digcolnagos]

Thanks. And if he doesn't want a second mouse, don't worry about it. Right?

[xdeus]

Thanks. And if he doesn't want a second mouse, don't worry about it. Right?

Right.