Can everybody chime in with what your feeding your BP and it's weight per gram?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BostonMacK

Azure,

I beleive our snakes both came out of NERD around the same time give or take a month or so. When I brought him home Kara told me he was around 6 months old and that was about5.5 months ago. He is rather large compared to your snake and I hope I havent been feeding him an unhealthy diet.

I am going to take a few pics today just for an excuse to show him off. I can't wait to get my next snake either, I am thinking a pastel from either NERD/8ball. Kara has been so good to me it would be hard to buy from anyone else yet on the other hand it could be fun to mix it up a little. This is only the beginning for me ;)

---

BostonMack,

I brought Auryn home in February, and I believe he was about 6 months old at the time, too. If your boy's been eating faithfully for you since you brought him home, and if he's been getting pretty largeish meals, I'm not surprised he's bigger than Auryn. I tried switching Auryn over to rats from mice a few months ago and he went for a month without eating anything for me. I tried again and he went another two weeks without eating...so hes' got some catching up to do! I decided he's a mouser for life--and he's been eating consistently for me since.

Please do take some pics! Kara said you picked out the nicest normal there when you came, so I'd love to see! I'm thinking about another BP, too. I'm graduating from UMass Dartmouth in the Spring...I'm thinking it'd be a nice graduation gift to myself ;) I'm thinking I'll get my next one from Adam (8Ball), since I've heard such good things about him, too. Then again, I'm planning on getting a rack from RBI next Spring, too...and there's four slots in one of those things! One for Auryn and three empties...And I can always put dividers in them--that's 3-6 empty spots for new babies ;)

Maybe one from Kara and one from Adam :D

My 4yo is about 1200 grams and I feed him one live small rat every Monday.

My other two are a yr old and weigh about 400-600 grams or so and I feed them 2 live mice every Monday. I get my live rodents at Petco so the weight of them change weekly.
On the advice of the breeder I got my two young ones from on about every third feeding I only feed one mouse that week. His point was that 2 mice times 52 is 104 mice a year and in the wild a bp would eat no where near that much.
As for my 4 yo I feed him a small rat every week just about because he will go off feed every winter no matter how I feed him, it's just his deal.
This seems to be working well for all my bp's so I stick w/ what works :)

I am going to feed my first rat next feeding! Augie just went into shed so he'll be skipping this week's feed.

I bought three frozen rats from the pet store...just weighed them and they are about 60g. If he eats these I will be sure to order a big box of rats that are closer to 40g. If he doesn't eat them I will order mice in that range.

I'm not actually afraid of a fast....should I be? (yeah I'm a NOOOOOOOB)

Jotay - it is interesting that your babies have been growing much more slowly than mine - I wonder if that is down to my overfeeding, a rat diet or just individual variation. I wish I had kept a monthly log of weight and length for Monty as he was growing. Ah well.

Fish - a fast is not so much a problem in itself as a BP can survive for many many months without food. But is it is frustrating, expensively wasteful, may retard growth and is worrying as although a healthy BP may just go off feed for a while you find yourself worrying that something more serious is going on as fasting may be a sign of illness/stress.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by kurgan

Jotay - it is interesting that your babies have been growing much more slowly than mine - I wonder if that is down to my overfeeding, a rat diet or just individual variation. I wish I had kept a monthly log of weight and length for Monty as he was growing. Ah well.

Fish - a fast is not so much a problem in itself as a BP can survive for many many months without food. But is it is frustrating, expensively wasteful, may retard growth and is worrying as although a healthy BP may just go off feed for a while you find yourself worrying that something more serious is going on as fasting may be a sign of illness/stress.

---

I am guessing on their weight. I don't have a scale so I may be off. I know the pastel who turned a year old in July is a beast but the albino who turned a year old in Aug is not growing near as fast. One of these days I will get a scale, right now I just go by the weights I get when I take them to the vet.

just weighted my little dude. he ate 2 days ago. hes at 76 grams.

Azure,

I just posted a thread in the general forum to show his size.

Congrats on finishing up school, that's a pretty big deal and defineatly deserves a snake or 3 as well as a rack ;) Seriously though, big congrats to you!

Irwin has eaten every week since I brought him home but his size for a year old has me slightly concerned, even more so seeing he's a male. I am sure every snake is different but I am definetly going to cut down on his food to one 40-45g rat a week. He has an unreal feeding responce to say the least, even when he's in shed he hits the rat as fast as I can stick the tongs in the tank.

Fish,

When I switched Irwin over to rats I just took a FT mouse I had left over and rubbed it all over the rat. He took the rat as if nothing had changed and hasnt looked back since. Hopefully your transition goes just as smooth.

Be sure to check out my pics in the general forum.


Thanks a million to everyone sharing info here, great stuff!

As far as fasting goes in my experience males fast more often and for longer periods than females. This is a generalization but in reality females need to produce much more body weight than males in order to lay eggs so it seems only normal that they would fast less.
Boston if your boy fasts don't stress out, it is very normal for adult boys to fast when temps drop in fall time. One of my boys didn't eat for 5+ months with no ill side effects. He bred like a sailor on leave but wouldn't eat. Now (summer)he is eating like clock work but I will bet $ that he will fast again this winter. I have over 30 snakes in identical enviorments and some eat and breed and some fast and breed, but once again my males eat way less in the winter and I have had females eat until they are gravid. Smaller meals is always your best bet for consistency.

I feed my adult snakes small rats every week. If the rats are a liitle larger I will wait 10 days.

My babies get mouse hoppers or pinkie rats every 5-7 days.

My juvy's get rat pups to rat weanlings once a week depending on size of snake and frequency of feeding. Larger food item longer in between feeding.

In the winter, when cooloing for breeding, my adult snakes get smaller food items rat pups/weanlings to make digestion easier in the cooler envioroment.

Thanks for that info WestCoastJungle. Yeah, if he fasted 5 months ago I would have been freaking out because everything was so new to me. If he were to fast now I would'nt enjoy it but I wouldnt freak either because I would atleat have an idea why it's happening. It'll be 40 gramers from this point on. Much easier on the wallet also, about 50% easier to what he was getting to be exact.

Thanks again.

Figured Id chime in about this too. (all FT rats from petsmart..suuuuper ripoff - bulk purchasing soon)

I feed lelu medium to large rats, depending on their size, and her weight. She was 1600grams at the beginning of this year, and is sig. bigger now. I moved her back to medium.

Chester who is a year younger generally gets mediums, since they are =or< his girth.

Cleo, at 680 is real skinny (didnt get her that long ago and shes in between sizes) so I have her on two small rats/wk and shes gradually getting to a good weight.


I'm actually haveing a problem deciding what to feed lelu. I am breeding her, shes developing, laying on her side, ect. A large rat is about her girth, at least it seems so, since the rat is frozen flat. It's hard to tell. I think I'll wait until tomorrow and give her a medium, but that just feels so weird, because mediums are real small for her, and are what I feed chester. hrm....Idk. If I posted a video or a picture in a new thread, could I get some help?