when feeding mice

[ADEE]

how big were your snakes before you started feeding multiple mice? Cameron is approx 24" but weighs near 200g (not fair to weigh her now as she just ate 200+g right now at least) we picked up two mice tonight.. i always get at least two so i dont have to run back to the pet store in 5 dys.. well i got home and opened the bag and the mice were VERY small.. she ate the first one very quickly and was still in feeding mode so i dropped the second one to see if she would take it and she did almost as fast as i could drop it in she tagged it. It had been about 7days since the last time she ate and we usually feed on 5 day increments, i just hadnt had the chance to get to the petstore before tonight, as i do like keeping her on a regular schedule.. so my question is, she had no problem taking down those mice should i continue to offer her two every time she eats? What happens when the snake is much larger and you DO NOT want to feed rats, do you just offer multiple mice at a time, if so how many at once, per hundred/thousand grams?

[Stewart_Reptiles]

It really varies from one person to another, I have 4 that are still on mice and I started feeding 2 adults at around 500 grams.

BP can do just fine on mice there is not obligation to feed rat, you need to feed what work and is convenient for you.

As for adult they either get a small rat 45/65 grams or 2 to 3 mice (which is the equivalent to a small rat depending on the mice size).

[SatanicIntention]

I feed exclusively mice to my crew. Here is how I kind of group them:

Hatchlings: 1 hopper/small adult until about 100g
After 100g: 1 medium adult mouse
After 200g: 1 large medium adult mouse
After 300g: 1 large adult mouse and maybe another small adult if they are a garbage disposal(black pastel *cough*)
After 400g: 1-2 medium adults
After 500g: 2 medium/large adults
750g: 2-3(varying every week from 2 to 3) medium adults
1000g: 2-3 large adults
Male adults: 2 large adults
Female Adults: 3-4 large adults depending on size

[PythonWallace]

It depends on the size of the mice, and on your snake. I have a female pastel mouser who is growing faster than all but one of my rat eaters. I just switched her over to rats, but she was eating 1-3 mice at a time since she was about 200-250g. If she got a visable lump I's wait for 10 days before offering food again. She's an '06 at about 700g right now. I never offered my 05 pastel mouser more than 2 mice at a time. He's on rats now too, but he's a year older and only at 850g. It just depends on the snake.

[bearhart]

you can also alternate between 2 and 1 every other feed.

You can definately tell if your snake is starting to get fat because it will start to get soft and mushy along the sides. When that happens, you can just start throttling the amount of food down and it will lean right up. I've had good luck just reducing the prey weight or count while sticking to the same schedule.

I also look for activity level as an indicator. If I don't see a snake showing a bit of hustle (relatively speaking of course) towards the end of the week then I'll usually feed light that time around.

(I'd say my experience has been roughly the same as SatanicIntention. In fact, I did the appetizer small followed by a large for the main course thing for some time.)

[Halfdawg]

Becky
Thanks for the great info as far as snakes in grams to amount of prey!!

Thanks Richard

[Argentra]

Yes, I agree that the chart is quite helpful...thanks Becky. Don't mean to hijack thread, but does anyone know of an ideal weight to age ratio list?? I just want to know if my snakes are within good weights for their ages.

[bearhart]

yea, I'm not totally confident with the love-handle test I've been using. I wish I had more information on ideal weight. I'm guessing it might be weight-to-length though.