Fat??

Hi,

When you say cut back frequency of feedings at 800g is that already taking into account stopping incresing prey size in line with the "widest part of the snake" guideline?


dr del

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Originally Posted by dr del

Hi,

When you say cut back frequency of feedings at 800g is that already taking into account stopping incresing prey size in line with the "widest part of the snake" guideline?


dr del

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Hey Del

You are correct in your assumption

A prey item as wide as your ball can have the potential to be more than 10-15% of the weight of the snake. When adulthood is reached I'd definitely feed a prey item smaller than the girth, my frequency would be 2 to 3 weeks depending on sex and season. When my balls reach adulthood I'll be looking for slow steady weight gain, even if it is 20g a month. IMO, as long as the snake is putting on weight it is getting all the nutrition it needs to be fit and healthy. My females would get maybe 10-12 more meals a years than my males.

Naturally one has to look at the nutritional needs of males vs females and what season they are in. Females use a lot of energy to produce eggs and I would aim to get the female to the same breeding weight each season with perhaps 10% extra weight year on year. No pushing hard to get up to weight for my guys n gals.

Understand the above points are my untested thoughts on the matter, and are subject to change but only via my experience....

Over the past month or so I have come to realize that we may be overfeeding our balls. We have just started the overfeeding debate here in South Africa on a local forum and it should be interesting....
http://www.sareptiles.co.za/forum/vi...136236#p136236

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Originally Posted by unrezt

makes me think there is still a 60g rat in its tummy.

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That's how I felt this morning after eating one of those Hardees bologna breakfast biscuits... :rofl: