Deckert's/Florida Keys Feeding Frequency

I'm having some issues with Baljeet, my husband's baby Deckert's/Florida Keys rat snake.

I bought him at a local expo at the beginning of June, and had him feeding regularly on fuzzies. Then we had a mite explosion in late July. I got the mites under control fairly quickly after discovery, and am continuing with low-level treatment to keep things that way. Unfortunately, the mites and treatment seemed to have thrown the poor little guy off his appetite. A week ago today I finally got him to eat again, but only a small pinkie. I gave him another one on Tuesday - I didn't want to feed again too soon and cause more issues.

Baljeet was 31 grams before his fast, I haven't had the courage to weigh him since, but so skinny he's got wrinkles. I think, based on his head size, that he'd be capable of taking a hopper (Trying to reduce stress, so minimal handling/pictures), but I'll stick with the pinkies for now. How frequently do you think I can offer to get some weight in this little guy? Is every three days too often if the prey is small?



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I wouldn't feed him any more than every 5 days.

Thanks, Ziggy, sticking with every 5 days.

He ate again last night, which is three times in a row, and that was after cleaning his tub and a few minutes of associated handling earlier in the day.


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I think Baljeet is starting to put on a weight - still a little wrinkly, but not as much as he was. I'm going to finish out the current box of pinkies, then get a box of fuzzies - he's the only one taking prey that small, so I'm swallowing hard and buying Arctic Mice from PetWhatsit until he gets up to hoppers.

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How hot are you keeping the enclosure? It looks dehydrated, makes sure you do daily water changes before bed at night it will encourage more fluid intake.

As far as feeding schedule you can probably double up every 3-4 days for a few weeks to get some weight back on him but in reality its not likely to be necessary. I personally feed my rat snakes a smallish prey item every 7 days as babies for the first 4-6 months, every 10 days as yearlings/sub adults and every 14 days as adults.

Also awesome to see someone getting into an interesting wild type variant of the rat snakes!

About 82 F for the hot side. It was warmer, but I had the same hydration concern (the wrinkles plus he was soaking a bunch despite the mite treatment) so I lowered the temperature a while back, and since then he's been using the whole tub and I haven't seen him soaking.

Last night there were some patches of shed coming off his belly, so we'll also see how he looks post-shed.

Ate again last night despite handling immediately before feeding, so I'm much more confident we're back to reliable feeding.


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