Please help me figure out how much to feed

[ravenzwife]

We've had our bp, Monti, for almost 2 weeks now.

We brought her home on Feb 17, and left her alone until the 25th when we successfully fed her a fuzzy.

We hadn't weighed her yet (oops, lol)...but did tonight. She is 119 grams.

Can you help me figure out a proper feeding size/schedule for her?

Thanks!

[ajeff]

The general rule is no more then about 1 and 1/3rd of the girth of the snake. So just enough to make a small barely noticable lump in the snakes belly. Fuzzy mice seem a bit small to feed, I mean thats perhaps just a bit bigger then a pen. A small hopper may be the ticket, or even a rat fuzzy (they can be kind of chubby though).

I like to keep my youngsters on a weekly meal, you don't want to feed your snake "when ever they seem hungry" or they will get fat. You probably could do something like every 5 days, but I mean dont stuff the snake as much as it will eat at each meal.

[starmom]

We've had our bp, Monti, for almost 2 weeks now.

We brought her home on Feb 17, and left her alone until the 25th when we successfully fed her a fuzzy.

We hadn't weighed her yet (oops, lol)...but did tonight. She is 119 grams.

Can you help me figure out a proper feeding size/schedule for her?

Thanks!

I'd bump her to a rat pup every 7 days until she gets about 150g then I'd bump her again to weanling size and the at about 200g I'd bump again to a small rat and stick there for a while. Hope this helps!

[starmom]

The general rule is no more then about 1 and 1/3rd of the girth of the snake. So just enough to make a small barely noticable lump in the snakes belly. Fuzzy mice seem a bit small to feed, I mean thats perhaps just a bit bigger then a pen. A small hopper may be the ticket, or even a rat fuzzy (they can be kind of chubby though).

I like to keep my youngsters on a weekly meal, you don't want to feed your snake "when ever they seem hungry" or they will get fat. You probably could do something like every 5 days, but I mean dont stuff the snake as much as it will eat at each meal.

Good point; I just thought rat fuzzy, but she never really said.... Heck, I don't know a thing about mice

[missi182]

I just bumped my 78 gram male up to a hopper and it was pretty big but he got it down! He was eating 2 fuzzies every 5 days which obviously wasn't cutting it. I'm so glad he got a nice big meal

[ravenzwife]

Oh yes, sorry...it was a mouse fuzzy...which I agree does seem a bit smallish.

[missi182]

Oh yes, sorry...it was a mouse fuzzy...which I agree does seem a bit smallish.

oh yea for sure! I was feeding my little guy(78 grams, like i said) 2 mouse fuzzes every 5 days and he wasn't gaining much weight. Don't be afraid to try something bigger, it may look huge compared to his head, but not the thicker part of his body.

[ravenzwife]

And then here's the next weird question...

How long after it eats, do they finally poop???

(There's no such thing as a stupid question, right? lol!)

[missi182]

And then here's the next weird question...

How long after it eats, do they finally poop???

(There's no such thing as a stupid question, right? lol!)

There is no such thing as a stupid question! I have heard many people say that juvenile bp's poop alot, about once a week. Mine only poops every 3 weeks or so but I think that has been because of the size of his meals. I'm hoping now that his meals are bigger and a little more spaced out he'll poop more on schedule. My little guy has been looking a little constipated so I gave him a bath and for the second time this month in the bath *woosh* everything came out, urates and poop.

I don't know how often other bp owners have had to do this but my little guy seems to go weeks without pooping if I don't give him a bath.

[frankykeno]

We've had our bp, Monti, for almost 2 weeks now.

We brought her home on Feb 17, and left her alone until the 25th when we successfully fed her a fuzzy.

We hadn't weighed her yet (oops, lol)...but did tonight. She is 119 grams.

Can you help me figure out a proper feeding size/schedule for her?

Thanks!

The first decision when feeding is what can you get regularily every week (unless you buy in bulk frozen). If that's mice, then go with that. I feed live rats so a snake that size I'd be offering a fuzzy rat to every 5 days until they hit 150 to 200 grams when they'd drop back to every 7 days and move up to small rat pups. Watch with rat pups, they can be a HUGELY varied size depending on actual age. For your snake, offering mice, I'd be going to a nice chuby hopper every 5 days for now (hopper is the size when their eyes are open and so forth but they are not yet weaned completely from the mother mouse).

You want the prey to be at it's widest girth (on rodents that's the butt/hip area) no bigger than the widest empty girth of your snake. Empty girth means not full of a recent feeding or full on feces.

And then here's the next weird question...

How long after it eats, do they finally poop???

(There's no such thing as a stupid question, right? lol!)

The only stupid question is the one you don't ask and your snake suffers for it, so always feel free to ask.

BP's will pass wastes three ways. Typical liquid urine (pee), a solid whitish mass that comes out soft but quickly hardens called a urate which is the solid form of their urination process and typical feces i.e. poop (sort of looks like cat poop really). They'll poop as often as they need to and that depends on things like being well hydrated and properly fed. If their food is too small there's not much left over to pass as waste product. Even a well fed BP will often go quite awhile then pass a pretty impressive dump.

Just watch for a bulge to develop just above the vent of your snake. This is generally a good indication that it will poop soon and you don't want it on your lap when that happens. LOL. They will also often poop when they shed. How a creature with no thumbs can roll up a shed around a center of stinky snake poop is beyond me!

Feed the snake well, make sure it has access to a fresh water supply and is being kept at the right temps and humidity and it will likely poop when it needs to.