At what point to space out feedings for a Dumeril's?
I don't have an exact hatch date on Memphis, other than I'm pretty sure she was a late 2017 hatchling. She's currently about 350ish grams and is doing well with a smaller weaned rat every 7-10 days or two smaller rat pups, depending on what we have on hand.
I think her body condition looks really good. She's solid but seems proportional. At what point should we space out her feedings? I don't want to underfeed her, but I definitely don't want to overfeed her. The only reference point I've been able to find online so far is based on length vs. weight (ie, feed every 2 weeks when she hits 3 feet or can take a small rat). She was 155 grams in mid-May when we got her.
Here are a couple of recent photos of her. I can try to get a better one in a day or two, she just ate last night.
Thanks!https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...32fa71f23e.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...c76d8edd87.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...ae068c1e34.jpg
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Re: At what point to space out feedings for a Dumeril's?
What a beauty! I used to have a pair of Dumerils years ago. I regret selling them and my Cuban boas...such great patterns.
With the exception of babies, I feed all of my collection twice per month (1st & 15th). I usually switch over at one year. My snakes aren’t as heavy bodied as some others I’ve seen, but they are healthy with good muscle. I typically feed 1-2 prey items per feeding. My 7’ Colombian redtail gets one 2X rat, my adult ball and Colombian rainbow get 1 medium rat, and everyone else gets 2 mice per feeding - 3 corns, a Solomon Island ground boa, and a 3 yr old albino ball (picky bugger won’t take rats yet and refuses a third mouse). The 3 baby balls I’ve gotten this year are offered fuzzies weekly, sometimes they eat and sometimes they don’t.
Re: At what point to space out feedings for a Dumeril's?
Thanks everyone! It sounds like I've got a while before needing to worry about spacing out feedings. I'll continue to monitor her body condition and go from there.
I really wish I had gotten a photo of her last night at feeding time. We normally feed in alphabetical snake order, so Memphis had to wait a little while. The first 1/4 of her body was raised and smushed up against the glass, like "Feeeeeeed me." Reminded me of a puppy begging for food LOL. 🤣