Feeding Too Much?

I feed my snakes every Wed. and Sat. The python is eating 1 adult mouse; the corn snakes eat pinkies. Dilyn is older and bigger than baby Calypso, Dilyn gets 2 pinkies (because a fuzzy looks too big). Calypso gets 1 pinky because she's a little bitty thing.

They each get their amounts each Wed. and Sat. Is this too much? I don't want to overfeed; however, I don't want to under feed either.


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I cant talk about the cornsnake but the BP doesnt need to eat so often. Depends on the size but 5-7 days is a good feeding schedule. I use the "eyeball" test to pick food items. I look at the widest part of the snake and match that with the hips of the feeder. Thats the way I do it. Others may do it differently.

Yeah the other guideline is feed every 5-7 days until adult 10-15% body weight of snake :) You're not doing wrong, specially BP will refuse to eat if not hungry or not at will :P No clue about cornsnake tho.

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Originally Posted by Gerardo

I cant talk about the cornsnake but the BP doesnt need to eat so often. Depends on the size but 5-7 days is a good feeding schedule. I use the "eyeball" test to pick food items. I look at the widest part of the snake and match that with the hips of the feeder. Thats the way I do it. Others may do it differently.

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U know what I started doing is feeding a little smaller but more often and ive seen my girls putting up weight like crazy one jumped from 600 to close to 800 in about a month and I also got her eating live more ...

What Gerard said about the BPs.

Your corns are getting 4 pinkies and 2 pinkies/week respectively? Is that correct? That doesn't sound like overfeeding at all. You could probably offer more to see if they'll eat it to find out how they may progress to a larger size or quantity.

I think the 10-15% rule is for hatchling (not 100% sure) Ive never weighed the rodents. At first I was freaked out all the time about the right size food but after you have more experience you learn to just look at the rodent and know what is a good size. I havnt tried feeding smaller more often but like I said there is more than one way to do it. If it works for you then go for it.

10-15% rule goes for hatchling and also somewhat sub adults ;) there was no specification to the post what size, weight and age are snakes at.

I think ball pythons and corns vary here.
I have both, and I feed my young ball every 6 days, at 10-15% body weight right now (as mentioned above).
Young corns can be fed every 5-7 days, but I don't think either should be fed more often than every 5 days. If it is easier for you to feed on a regimented schedule weekly, then go ahead and feed them once on the same day every week. Probably better than feeding twice in the same week!

Here is a helpful guide for corns:
http://medusa-corns.webs.com/feedingchart.htm

It can be seen as somewhat of an aggresive feeding plan. I follow it pretty closely, or somewhat on the lower end. If you are feeding more than the chart though, I would cut back to at least what the chart suggests.

Best of luck :)

I wouldn't worry too much about overfeeding a ball. They will not generally over eat on there own. Force feeding or adding a second item while they are swallowing the first is totally different and shouldn't be done, but if they are eating it on their own you are ok.

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Originally Posted by Jay Mechtly

I wouldn't worry too much about overfeeding a ball. They will not generally over eat on there own. Force feeding or adding a second item while they are swallowing the first is totally different and shouldn't be done, but if they are eating it on their own you are ok.

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You may not want to keep it up for too long though. Sounds a bit like power feeding to me :confusd:
But it is different for corn snakes. They will get fat. It sounds funny (and it kind of is... :oops:) but it's not healthy! I don't think OP is in danger of that now, but for the future when they're closer to adulthood.