Prey size

Was doing some reading online (unfortunately did not save the link for this tho darn it!) and found some information I'd like an opinion on regarding appropriate prey size.

Basically it said that if you visually check your snake after 12-24 hours the lump should have subsided quite significantly if the prey size was appropriate. If the lump is gone prior to that time then the prey size was perhaps a bit small. If the lump is very obvious after 24 hours then the prey was likely a bit too big and that may lead to a problem with rate of digestion versus rate of decomposition of the prey.

Does this make sense as another good rule of thumb to help with decisions about prey size or is it a bit too generalized?

~~Jo~~

I've heard of another guideline that states a meal should be about 10% of the weight of the snake. Although I'm sure that varies depending on the age of the snake, and how often it is fed. The lump test seems a little more difficult to monitor as some of my snakes always seem a little lumpy. :P

I never feed a ball python anything large enough to leave a lump. ;)

-adam

Okay would the wording "thickening" be a better description Adam? I'm not talking a huge lump, at least on my two snakes, more of a thickening of the body immediately after eating that would subside as they digested?


~~Jo~~

Nope, I don't feed anything that large.

-adam

Okay now I'm totally confused. How can a snake like ours was when we got her, 17 inches long, eat an adult mouse and not have either a thickening or a lump that is visible for some period after it eats? I can understand a full grown adult snake eating multiple mice not showing any real difference due to larger body circumference but a young snake shouldn't show any (or am I totally missing something here)?


~~Jo~~

Quote:

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

How can a snake like ours was when we got her, 17 inches long, eat an adult mouse and not have either a thickening or a lump that is visible for some period after it eats?

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Either your adult mice are really big, or your snake is slender for it's age?

Either way, for babies like that, I wouldn't even worry about it.

-adam

my bp is just under 20 " long. i try and get the smallest pre killed adult mouse i can get. ussually she is not much thicker than before she ate but u can tell she ate. seems to be working fine for me.

Thats one thing when dealing with adult mice...ha ha...there are all different sizes. I usually start feeding young adults at about 20 g. but my breeders may weigh somewhere around 40 g. I weigh each mouse before I feed and record, so that I know what weight of food my bps have consumed. It is pretty cool to see how much weight is retained compared to the amount of food eaten.

I have been comparing and have seen weight gains from 50 g to 130 g. between feces deposits. I was trying to look for a trend so that I could predict how much weight a bp would gain for the amount of food eaten....but the data is all scattered....maybe once I get a few more bps and keep them for longer something will show :D

My rule of thumb ( just my personal opinion from experiances) is I will feed my snake prey that is no wider than 3x times the size of its head in thickness. I try to keep prey length at 1/4 of the snakes length or less. I want to make my snake's eating experiances very easy things, they are not wild so I keep their feeding habits tame ( I mean they don't have to eat extra because they can assume there will be a next time very soon... I know I know Snakes assume....lol) I hope this helps you out