Leaving and Feeding...

[Syka]

Hi All,

I will be leaving for a month real soon for placement. This means my husband will looking after my snakes all by himself. This worries me a bit. Hes great with them. I'm just worried about him feeding them.
He has been watching videos of snakes taking down large prey, IMO are too big for the snakes. Since watching these videos he figures bigger prey is great and makes for a big strong snake.
Im wondering how big is too big?
And can you refer me to any reading material that would be very strict against feeding too large of prey. I need concrete evidence!!
Everything I have read just says nothing larger than the largest part of the snake. He is determined that one day he will feed them rabbits. I am very against it!!

Thank you all so much!!

[littleindiangirl]

Since this is in general pythons.... what species of snake?

[Syka]

Our bigger girl is a normal BP.. she eats F/T rats and i have already stocked up, so I am not worried about her.

Our other one is a Carpet python, hes just a little guy feeding on fuzzies atm. He only eats live... a real picky eater. This is the one im worried about, since my husband has to go buy food. I know eventually his going to be a big boy, but for now hes just a little thing.

[littleindiangirl]

Why would your husband not respect your wishes and potentially put them in harms way? Just my thoughts. He needs to learn that you are the sole owner, and your word should be law regarding any animals you keep and what they should be fed. I would not have it any other way. Fortunately my BF is just as experienced as me regarding our animals. Good luck with that.

Snakes in captivity are incredibly overfed in my opinion. They are not expending the same amounts of energy as their wild counterparts. It's common sense really. An animal that is constantly hunting and eating all the meals they can will remain at a healthy weight yet grow quickly. If it is underfed, it will die. If it is overfed, it may become sluggish, fat and be preyed upon. That's just the way mother nature works.

Survival of the fittest. Young snakes will eat whatever they can in the wild to ensure they have sufficient energy to continue to hunt and kill, while growing as much as they can in turn raise the chances of their survival.

DOMESTIC snakes do not have the same experiences. They sit in a cage, thermoregulate, use their energy for growing. Over feeding is a reality with many snakes. Blood pythons have awesome feeding responses, and will easily become over fat. While this may not seem like it could happen, it does.

By offering prey no larger around than the widest part of the snakes body ensures the keeper that it is an appropriate sized meal with no injury to the snake from an over sized meal.
It ensures that the snake is getting enough nutrition to support their lazy captive lifestyle and limiting the amount of fat deposits around their body. Most notably around the heart and liver. Fat in these areas can lead to shortened life span and death at a much earlier age than possible.

Younger captive snakes do use most of their energy towards digestion and growth. I feed my young snakes every 5 days an appropriate meal. They are not fat, and they grow very quickly.

As they get older, I lengthen the amount of feedings to every 7 days. Older snakes are not growing as quickly and do not use as much energy for growing and it is deposited into fat groups.

There may be scientific papers out there, but I think the experiences from hundreds of snake keepers is reason enough to listen to their advice and not over feed their animals.

BP's shouldn't be fed rabbits. 10' retics get fed rabbits. Not 4' BP's. That's a good way to kill your snake.

I'm sure others will weigh in on this, since there are many schools of thought. I prefer to not overfeed my animals, allowing them to grow slowly.

[Colin Vestrand]

i'd say for the carpet, as long as it has proper heat, a meal as big as 1.5 times around is totally sufficient and will not cause any injuries or adverse conditions... you say he's a picky eater - have you tried experimenting with different sized meals? or have you tried chicks?
your BP on the other hand could regurge and go on a hunger strike if it's fed too large a meal.

[littleindiangirl]

DOMESTIC snakes do not have the same

I should not have used this word, snakes are by no means domestic! LOL, I meant captive.

[Syka]

Thanks for the input!
My BP I am not worried about at all. She eats for me.. and I have bought enough food for her for the next while.
Just worried about the carpet being fed too large of meals.

Well I just have to get my husband to obey me!! muhahah
When it concerns my snakes. I just want to come back to two very healthy snakes just as i have left them.

The carpet is eating live fuzzie mice. Refuses to eat F/T. I would love to get him to eat F/T but no luck. Haven't tried anything else.