Maintenance Diet for an Adult Non-Breeding Female

I looked around for an answer to this and I have not found anything. Most people say small to medium rat every 1-2 weeks, but provide no details on the weight of the snake or the rat. Rat sizes can vary depending on the supplier, and of course snake weights vary too.

I have a female that I do not intend to breed. Her last weigh in (Oct 20th) put her at 1236g. She's not quite 4' and will probably grow some more over time, but at 18mo in age, she's nearing adult stage, if she isn't already there.

I know of the 10-15% rule for a growing snakes. Is there a similar rule for adults?

She is somewhat of a mouser. I have gotten her to eat rat, but that was after a month of offering nothing but rat. She prefers mice though. She'll perk up at the smell of mice when I have them out for the other species in the room. During the transition stage, I would offer her a rat, and she would ignore it, but then I could put in a mouse (even a fuzzy!) and she'd strike and gulp it down. At this point I don't care what she eats, but I would like to know a proper weight and frequency. I feel if I went to only mice she would eat herself sick.

A 50 to 75 gram rat once a week is decent sized meal for a non breeding adult female in the 1200 gram range.

Adults don't follow the 10% rule ...

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but if she's 18 months, she still has a lot of growing to do. Until about 3 years? And I've also heard they never really stop growing it just slows down dramatically

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Originally Posted by Flikky

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but if she's 18 months, she still has a lot of growing to do. Until about 3 years? And I've also heard they never really stop growing it just slows down dramatically

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correct :)
The prey size I gave was in relation to her weight, not age.

Well this is the quandary I am in. If offered a rat weekly, she seems to only take it after 3-4 weeks, which also leads to lots of wasted rats. She'll eat mice it seems as often as I offer. I really don't want to undo all of the work that went into switching her off of mice, but I don't want her to be underfed either.

At this point 60g worth of mice isn't much more work than 60g worth of rat. But when she is an adult and her growth is slowed, how many grams of prey is she going to need? I don't want to be thawing 6-8 mice in the future, but I don't want her underfed now because she's stubborn about rats.

I figured she was nearing the end of her major growth because i've read female BPs top out at 4'-5' and she's almost 4' now. I really don't know though. So much of it depends on feeding frequency and genetics. But, if I am to be giving her 10-15% still, then that's 4-6 mice now and she has not been eating that and I'd have to step up and give her mice. There is no way she would touch 120g of rat even if it was covered in BP crack. I've treid pre-killed, rats that spent time in mouse cages, rubbing mice on the rat, and of course the zombie dance rat. It seems like she will only eat rat if the other option is a vegan entree. :)

Should I give in to her stubbornness and feed her mice? And if not 10-15% (120- 180g) then closer to 5%? (60g)?

P.S. I've had people tell me I should just be happy she's eating, but I don't want my BP to survive, I want her to thrive.

be happy she does eat, a small rat once a week will be fine for her. My PH albino female goes off feed every october to march but march - October she eats med rats every week with no problem. Shes also 9 years old and has been doing this since i have had her(since a baby). Yet she still sits around 1400-1800 grams empty.

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a small rat once a week will be fine for her

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Just so I am clear. Holiday shopping has fried my brain :rolleye2: So from now until March a small rat every 3 weeks is normal, but by spring she should be back up to a rat every week.

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Originally Posted by captainjack0000

Just so I am clear. Holiday shopping has fried my brain :rolleye2: So from now until March a small rat every 3 weeks is normal, but by spring she should be back up to a rat every week.

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Correct.

I have an almost 10 year old female who pretty much keeps herself on that type of diet lol. It can be tough to deal with BPs like that if you don't breed your own feeders or have a tank or cage to keep them in if they are refused. If she adamantly refuses to eat every week then just do like the other poster said and only offer her a small meal every other week. She will let you know when she's ready for more.

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Originally Posted by captainjack0000

Just so I am clear. Holiday shopping has fried my brain :rolleye2: So from now until March a small rat every 3 weeks is normal, but by spring she should be back up to a rat every week.

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Yeah, unless she starts to lose a huge amount of weight to quickly she will be fine. Weigh her now, just for an idea then weigh her again in march/april and you will see it is not that much weight loss(just make sure if she defecates you take that into consideration for a excess weight loss)