Is this normal??

So my female [about 3 years old] ate two large adult mice about two days ago and then today ate the small adult rat my male refused to eat. Is it normal for a female to eat this much? Last year she would barely eat a mouse a week, now she's pounding back mice AND rats all of a sudden this feeding. Is this because she's trying to gain weight for breeding season? She's the first female we've had [my bf's had a male for 10 years and I got my female about a year ago], so I have no idea when/if she'd be ready for breeding and we're not breeding our snakies until we have the time, money, and space to dedicate to a clutch.

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Originally Posted by maverickgtr

So my female [about 3 years old] ate two large adult mice about two days ago and then today ate the small adult rat my male refused to eat. Is it normal for a female to eat this much? Last year she would barely eat a mouse a week, now she's pounding back mice AND rats all of a sudden this feeding. Is this because she's trying to gain weight for breeding season? She's the first female we've had [my bf's had a male for 10 years and I got my female about a year ago], so I have no idea when/if she'd be ready for breeding and we're not breeding our snakies until we have the time, money, and space to dedicate to a clutch.

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Our female Samantha did the same thing last year too....she was a pig for about 2 months and then just stopped eating. this year, she has already stopped eating but then again, we might have eggs soon...heeheehee. :D

If she is taking rats now, I would try just offering 1 rat that weighs about 80grams each week and no mice...

Well we gave her the two large mice because we were working on slowly upping her to rats. Well this week I zoned out and got a live rat for our male forgetting he's in hardcore shed and not eating. While it was in our male's tank our female was eyeing it the entire time. Even when we put it in the critter carrier and put it across the room. So we pre killed it for her and offered it today and she readily ate it. So we're officially moving her up to f/t rats next time we order her prey.

best way to tell ( i think) when they are ready to bump up in prey size is you feed it the usual 1 mouse or rat a week and it is hungry roaming around half way threw the week. then it is very clear your snake needs bigger food. i try to keep it where mine start roaming around around mid-day day 5 to 6 that way they get some exercise at least instead of just eat and lay there all the time. i also skip a meal once every 2 months (but i also feed couple different prey items mice for babies then large rat pups asf rats and baby rabbits when snake can handle them and theres any around) my blood wont touch a baby rabbit dead or alive but throw a mouse or any kind of rat in there and she hammers them live f/t or pre-killed seconds before she gets it

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Originally Posted by ice#1

best way to tell ( i think) when they are ready to bump up in prey size is you feed it the usual 1 mouse or rat a week and it is hungry roaming around half way threw the week. then it is very clear your snake needs bigger food. i try to keep it where mine start roaming around around mid-day day 5 to 6 that way they get some exercise at least instead of just eat and lay there all the time. i also skip a meal once every 2 months (but i also feed couple different prey items mice for babies then large rat pups asf rats and baby rabbits when snake can handle them and theres any around) my blood wont touch a baby rabbit dead or alive but throw a mouse or any kind of rat in there and she hammers them live f/t or pre-killed seconds before she gets it

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We're already bumping up her food size. I was trying to gauge if she would take a rat by offering two mice and get rid of the last two f/t mice we had. We're ordering from Big Cheese Rodent Factory soon. I posted in the husbandry thread on how to up her food size in the last week. My question is why is she eating two mice and a rat that's more than big enough for her this year when last year at this time she would barely take ONE mouse a week?