Time for new food?

When is it a good time to go from fuzzies to hoppers to adults? I talked to one of the guys at the reptile place near me and he said that if your snake can completely eat the current food within five minutes, then it's time to upgrade to a larger rodent. Any thoughts or suggestions on the matter?

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Originally Posted by Basketball303

When is it a good time to go from fuzzies to hoppers to adults? I talked to one of the guys at the reptile place near me and he said that if your snake can completely eat the current food within five minutes, then it's time to upgrade to a larger rodent. Any thoughts or suggestions on the matter?

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The way that I determine is the thickness of the snake. I feed all of my snakes prey that is either the same, or just a bit thicker, than the thickest part of the snake.

Hope this helps.

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Originally Posted by Wh00h0069

The way that I determine is the thickness of the snake. I feed all of my snakes prey that is either the same, or just a bit thicker, than the thickest part of the snake.

Hope this helps.

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That's how I feed too..

Pretty much girth size. I can tell you my babies have all been taking adult mice since they were around 120 grams.

At what point do you go from adult mice to the next size up rat?
I was feeling the adult mice and the small rats and they felt to be pretty similar in girth, just the rats were longer

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Originally Posted by uafgrad

At what point do you go from adult mice to the next size up rat?
I was feeling the adult mice and the small rats and they felt to be pretty similar in girth, just the rats were longer

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I actually start my hatclings on rats. So they can take a rat that is the same girth as the snake.

Now that I have a good digital scale I go by weight. I feed a rodent that is 10-15% of my BPs body weight every 6-7 days. The girth estimation method is fine, I just like to be able to record exactly how much is fed and how much weight is gained from the food. I was very surprised when I first started weighing the prey items. They were sometimes very different from what I had previously estimated. It really helped me get a better eye for estimating prey item weights.

Hey thanks for asking! I was just worrying about this the other day. I've got a 160 gram male that I was feeding young mice. The mice aren't any thicker than the snake but watching them eat such a large item with there little necks is frightening!



Will a snake eat a food item that is too big for them?
:confused:

Rarely--but a food item that is too big for the snake would be much larger than the snake is around at its thickest point. We use that as a standard measurement because it's a size that is actually easy for the snake to handle and digest--they can eat something much larger than that.

This snake ate a huge meal successfully: http://img.thesun.co.uk/multimedia/a...82_443404a.jpg

So did this one: http://www.cairns.com.au/images/uplo...6/snake320.jpg

And this one--a skinny rat snake swallowing a huge rabbit: http://www.tanwater.com/wildlife/flo...0snake_105.jpg

None of them had problems with these meals--snakes are well designed to eat big prey items. It is more difficult for them to digest a really big meal, and it takes them longer.

This python DID swallow more than he could handle:
http://www.cryptozoology.com/forum/i..._copy_4573.jpg
Considering how sturdy alligators are, perhaps the alligator wasn't entirely dead when it was swallowed, which might have contributed to this result. If it started moving after it was swallowed, it might have caused internal trauma, and led to this.

Notice that the snake swallowed the entire alligator, down into its stomach, before it had a problem--the skin of their neck and esophagus is enormously elastic. So don't worry about that--no prey item only as big around as your snake is ever going to cause an issue passing through their throat.

Most snakes will not eat something they judge to be too big--it's extraordinarily rare for their judgement to be so bad that they eat something that bursts their stomach. It's more common for a snake that has eaten something too large to regurgitate it without suffering harm.
But in most cases they won't eat anything they can't handle in the first place.

Hey thanks for all that! WOW! :D I'm new to snakes and I picked up some mice for my 160 gram male. The young mice were a bit bigger than I was feeding him previously. I about had a heart attack when I saw that mouse in his throat! My god can they stretch!

You eased my worries :)

I'll have to check out the pictures when I get home! I'm using the Univeristy of Iowa's commuter lab and the girls sitting next to me think I'm a freak as it is. They look at my computer look at me, then act all weird :rolleyes: