Feeding question

[SirMontyPython]

I have a yearling who is 513 grams. Is this a healthy weight? He eats a small rat every 13 or 14 days. Is this OK. He seems to express more interest when he is more hungry. Is his feeding schedule unhealthy? Please advise.

[SirMontyPython]

anyone out there?

[harfieldthethirsty]

My year and 4 month old female eats 2 large adults a week. She is not fat and is growing like a weed. Feed once a week when young and every 10 to 14 days as an adult. I give her one and see if she is still focused and keen to food then ill give her a second one. Then let her be for about 48 hours. hope this helps.

[SirMontyPython]

I am pretty broke and I have heard that snakes can go a whole month without eating. I want to know if it is bad to feed every other week on an ongoing basis.

I can't feed him adult rats yet because he regergitated the last medium one I gave him. it stretched his neck way big.

[harfieldthethirsty]

oops i ment adult mice a bit smaller than rats. At a young age I dont know how healthy it is to feed every 2 weeks. I guess if he keeps growing and gaining waight its ok but not ideal. They can go longer inbetween meals if they have more body mass. Do you buy feeders from a pet store? If so it is way cheeper to buy frozen online in bulk. I use rodentpros and a bag of 50 after shipping works out to about 60 cents per mouse. When I was broke thats what I did. Shipping is spendy but in the end its far cheeper.

[rabernet]

My year and 4 month old female eats 2 large adults a week. She is not fat and is growing like a weed. Feed once a week when young and every 10 to 14 days as an adult. I give her one and see if she is still focused and keen to food then ill give her a second one. Then let her be for about 48 hours. hope this helps.

All of mine are fed every 7 days, regardless of age. If they are mousers, they get offered 2 mice a feeding (not at the same time, of course). If they are ratters, they get one a week. My 2800 female is my largest and gets fed a small rat a week, but never larger than that.

[rabernet]

I am pretty broke and I have heard that snakes can go a whole month without eating. I want to know if it is bad to feed every other week on an ongoing basis.

Are you saying that you can't afford to feed your snake once a week? At his size, I would be feeding once a week.

If you can't afford $3 a week (the price here for 2 mice or 1 rat) to feed your snake, then how will you pay for vet care when he needs it?

[rabernet]

I can't feed him adult rats yet because he regergitated the last medium one I gave him. it stretched his neck way big.

Why would you feed a 500 gram snake a medium rat? The largest rat fed to ANY of my snakes (including my 2800 gram girl) is about 5 weeks old and 50-60 grams (a small/small rat).

[frankykeno]

I am pretty broke and I have heard that snakes can go a whole month without eating. I want to know if it is bad to feed every other week on an ongoing basis.

I can't feed him adult rats yet because he regergitated the last medium one I gave him. it stretched his neck way big.

You need to rethink owning a pet if you can't afford less than $5.00 per week to feed one. No pet is free but there's not a lot of pets out there that are as low cost to feed as a snake!

As far as feeding a medium sized rat to a barely 500 gram snake, well no wonder it regurged! That's a huge meal and likely your snake could not digest it faster than it started to decompose inside the snake and triggered the regurge. It has nothing to do with "stretched his neck way big", it has to do with being an inappropriate prey size for that snake. We have a number of snakes in that size range. None of them get anything bigger than a almost weaned pup rat or young weanling once per week and that's sufficient for their needs without overstressing their digestive process.

Causing your snake to regurge due to inappropriate feeding is harsh on your snake. When they bring up that prey they also bring up some of the most potent digestive acids in the animal world. That acid burns their insides when it comes up, it can even burn their outsides if they lay on it in their tub. Snakes have died from regurging. I hope you gave it time to heal properly before offering food again and did some research on post-regurge care.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

I am pretty broke and I have heard that snakes can go a whole month without eating. I want to know if it is bad to feed every other week on an ongoing basis.

Being a responsible animal owner means provide to their needs however if having an animals becomes a burden, you need to re-think animal ownership. Did you know when you purchased your BP that you were making a 30+ year commitment?
Now I also understand that sometimes things happen and money can be tight however in this case the responsible thing to do is to re-home the animal temporarily or permanently.

I can't feed him adult rats yet because he regergitated the last medium one I gave him. it stretched his neck way big.

You might want to brush up on some basics about BP such as how to appropriately feed them.

You should feed a prey slightly smaller then the girth size once a week and nothing larger then a small rat (4 weeks old 45-65 grams) to an adult BP.

Because your BP can take a large prey does not mean he needs to.