BP acting incredibly hungry

I posted a few weeks ago about our female going nuts with food. She ate two adult mice and a small rat. She also ate two small mice the next feeding. And last feeding at a small rat that would be the absolute biggest size I feel comfortable feeding her. The ones we bought this time are barely smaller than the biggest part of her body. We just fed her two days ago and she's already out exploring, she was eying our male's live mice, even eying our bearded dragon. Normally she does some exploring during some nights after we turn off the lights, but we still have the lights on and it's her "I'm hungry feeeeeed meeeeee because see how cute I am?" exploring. I know the difference than her stressed exploring and her hungry exploring. I'm used to her doing this the day or so before feeding day, but it's starting to worry me that she's doing it just a couple days after feeding.

I don't feel comfortable feeding her two mice every 7 days. Would it be better to put her on a shorter feeding schedule? Like every 4-5 days instead of every 7 days? Also, is this because of breeding season is coming up? She's estimated at about 3 years. Is this when the females are old enough to start breeding?

at 3 years of age i imagine she should eat at LEAST a small rat every week... pics of the enclosure and even a 3 year old female BP would be cool and helpful

how much does she weigh?? usually 10-15% of the body weight is a good rule. try a big small rat or a medium rat. they can handle a bigger meal than u think they can. they will work it down. if not then they wont eat it. a lil bit of a bulge isnt bad, it just the very uncomfortable stretching stomache u dont want to see. unless u are feeding some serious jumbo mice, mice are too small for her i think.

How much does she weight?

At three years, she should be on medium rats, or is she was a picky eater (really picky) large small rats.
I have two year olds, heading up on three on small rats, some on mediums.

Anywhere from 1000grams and up can usually take a small rat easily and start moving to medium rats.

Mice just won't cut it, and feeding more often....well, just switch to rats, and see how she is.:)

They're small rats from Big Cheese Rodent Factory. I accidentally typed mice and then my internet crashed before i could edit it. The rats are between 50-90g each they said and I'm unsure of her weight because we can't find a decent scale that's big enough for snakes. All we have now is one that's best for hatchlings and our bearded dragon. She's not a skinny girl by any means, especially now, but she's not a big fatty like our male either [he's 10 years old and quite the glutton... haha]. She's our first female so we're not sure what's going on all of the sudden with these last few feedings. She's acting like she hasn't eaten in weeks and we've been feeding her more and more it seems like. She just shed about two weeks ago and it was a perfect shed and her poo's/urates are normal and not runny or anything. Everything else seems completely normal and nothing's changed in her environment except she wants to eat everything in sight!

Sorry for the rambling... The rats we just got I'm not too concerned about, she took the last one just fine and you couldn't see a hugely visible lump from the rat. They seemed just perfect. But I know if I offered two at the next feeding I'd just worry about her... She's my little girl after all...

most likely she is just hungry. u can order good scales online, i got mine from walmart in the kitchen section. works great. bumpe it up to mediums and she should be better. and dont worry about ur lil girl, they know what they can handle. during breeding season they usually go off feed, not feeding more frequently.

I know they go off feed during breeding season but before breeding season do they eat a whole lot?

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Originally Posted by maverickgtr

I know they go off feed during breeding season but before breeding season do they eat a whole lot?

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My female became VORACIOUSLY hungry during the end of her breeding cycle. I mean I could barely get the rat out of the bag before she snapped it up (in one case she snapped it out of the bag). Now after she layed her egg she's not eating as aggressively. Maybe even though being on the smaller side for 3 years old she could be going through a cycle? I could be wrong though.

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My female became VORACIOUSLY hungry during the end of her breeding cycle. I mean I could barely get the rat out of the bag before she snapped it up (in one case she snapped it out of the bag). Now after she layed her egg she's not eating as aggressively. Maybe even though being on the smaller side for 3 years old she could be going through a cycle? I could be wrong though.

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This is how she's acting. Normally, when we thaw out her rat [we feed f/t and thaw it next to or on top of the tank] she'll peek at it but then go in her hide and leave her head just on the inside of the hide where she can still watch it thaw. Now, almost as soon as we bring the rat in the room she'll peek and as it's thawing she's all the way out of her hide just staring at the thawing rat like she's trying to get to it through the glass and then she'll stalk our male's live mice [he's a strict mouser and only likes live]. As for her size, she's been small since we got her and she was a rescue with an injury [injury was healed by the time we took her home] so maybe her previous owners just didn't feed her enough or she wasn't eating a whole lot because of stress from the injury. But even then we've had her for a year and last year she'd barely take a large mouse once every seven days. Maybe she's trying to get bigger for breeding season. When we took her to the vet after we got her they said to wait at least a year if we wanted to breed her but we weren't planning on it and it's been about a year since then.

what kind of tests did ur vet do? internal parasites could cause small size. some just grow slower than others. keep an eye on her weight. if she loses weight then u should start to worry

She's actually gained weight it feels like. The vet did a fecal and it was all clear. They said she was perfectly healthy but to do the standard quarantine and if we were going to breed then wait at least a year for her to get bigger. She's actually been gaining weight lately. She always had the slightest bit of loose skin, but she'd never really take more mice or rats til just recently. Now, she doesn't have any loose skin at all and she feels heavier. I'll be getting scale soon I hope. I'll check walmart the next time I grab groceries which should be mid this week or next weekend.

My guess is, at age 3, she has reached sexual maturity, and her body is revving up for what would be her first breeding season. My breeder females all become ravenous at this time of year, and eat into autumn. At that point, some of the yearling and 2 year olds will go off feed for the winter, but most of the breeders continue feeding until they ovulate. You can pick up an inexpensive kitchen scale at Target for under $20, that will register up to 10 pounds, and can be switched to ounces or grams.

Go ahead and let her eat, particularly if she is under 1500 grams. Put her on a 5 day feeding schedule with food items as big around as the widest part of her body. You only need to back off if seems to actually be getting fat. The reason I recommend this, is that she may decide to go off feed for the winter. If she does, having a good store of extra weight to see her through until spring will be better for her than restricting her food intake now, and risking her becoming quite thin during that period.

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Originally Posted by WingedWolfPsion

My guess is, at age 3, she has reached sexual maturity, and her body is revving up for what would be her first breeding season. My breeder females all become ravenous at this time of year, and eat into autumn. At that point, some of the yearling and 2 year olds will go off feed for the winter, but most of the breeders continue feeding until they ovulate. You can pick up an inexpensive kitchen scale at Target for under $20, that will register up to 10 pounds, and can be switched to ounces or grams.

Go ahead and let her eat, particularly if she is under 1500 grams. Put her on a 5 day feeding schedule with food items as big around as the widest part of her body. You only need to back off if seems to actually be getting fat. The reason I recommend this, is that she may decide to go off feed for the winter. If she does, having a good store of extra weight to see her through until spring will be better for her than restricting her food intake now, and risking her becoming quite thin during that period.

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Thank you for your help! That was most informative! Last year she did go off feed for about a month, but she didn't eat more than usual before that so she did lose weight and I of course was worried sick. I will put her on a five day feeding schedule and the rats we just got from Big Cheese are the same size as the widest part of her, I checked last night when we had her out to see if she was ok.