At what point do you stop?

I follow the 10-15% rule when choosing prey size for Hera. Right now she is on 2 large mice (around 35-40g) every 5 days. She weighs around 250g so this is fine. My question is at what point do you stop upping the food size? Is it an age limit or a size limit?

I don't want her to be underfed but I don't want her getting morbidly obese either.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by thedarkwolf25

I follow the 10-15% rule when choosing prey size for Hera. Right now she is on 2 large mice (around 35-40g) every 5 days. She weighs around 250g so this is fine. My question is at what point do you stop upping the food size? Is it an age limit or a size limit?

I don't want her to be underfed but I don't want her getting morbidly obese either.

---

You'll have to feed A LOT to get a ball morbidly obese...especially with mice.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by thedarkwolf25

My question is at what point do you stop upping the food size? Is it an age limit or a size limit?

---

Males get prey size around 65 grams

Large females (over 1800 grams) get prey size around 100 grams

That's the biggest I feed

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Deborah

Males get prey size around 65 grams

Large females (over 1800 grams) get prey size around 100 grams

That's the biggest I feed

---

So once females hit 600-700g you feed a 100g prey regardless of how large they get? Does their metabolism slow down that much after that size? Because if you follow the 10-15% rule a 1800g female should get a approx 275g prey. How often do you feed? Still once a week or once every 2 weeks?

i feed 250g+/- rats every week to the ones that can take it but thats just what i do. theres people that say all they ever need is a small rat every 10 days and theres people that feed med. rats every 3 days.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by poundhound2

So once females hit 600-700g you feed a 100g prey regardless of how large they get? Does their metabolism slow down that much after that size? Because if you follow the 10-15% rule a 1800g female should get a approx 275g prey. How often do you feed? Still once a week or once every 2 weeks?

---

No I don't at that size they get 55/65 grams rats.

I feed once a week

The 10% -15% of their weight "guideline" is something I never used, I just eyeball it.

While growing BP need more food as they get older their metabolism slows down and do not require large amount of food to strive.

Smaller preys weekly are preferable to larger preys.

I could not imagine feeding 450 grams rats to my 3000 grams girls and obviously if they reach 3000 grams with my feeding method they are far from starving ;).

Smaller prey also allow a BP to eat with more consistency with less fasting period.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Deborah

No I don't at that size they get 55/65 grams rats.

I feed once a week

The 10% -15% of their weight "guideline" is something I never used, I just eyeball it.

While growing BP need more food as they get older their metabolism slows down and do not require large amount of food to strive.

Smaller preys weekly are preferable to larger preys.

I could not imagine feeding 450 grams rats to my 3000 grams girls and obviously if they reach 3000 grams with my feeding method they are far from starving ;).

Smaller prey also allow a BP to eat with more consistency with less fasting period.

---

I agree with Deb 100% :gj: I feed all my adults 1 small rat once a week. Since i do not breed my own rats if someone does not eat their small rat someone else might get 2 small rats that week but it is not the same snake and does not happen often.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Deborah

The 10% -15% of their weight "guideline" is something I never used, I just eyeball it

---

So how do you judge? By the diameter of the snake?

Sorry for so many ?s. My lil girl is <200g right now so I've got awhile before I need to think about this, but it's always good to be prepared.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by poundhound2

So how do you judge? By the diameter of the snake?

Sorry for so many ?s. My lil girl is <200g right now so I've got awhile before I need to think about this, but it's always good to be prepared.

---

Yes I judge by the widest part of the BP's body (for Hatchling and Juvy only) without going over the prey size mentioned previously. ;)

OP: Sorry for hijacking your thread. You asked a question that I didn't realize I hadn't thought of yet.

I feed rats in the 60g-90g range every 10 days...

All of my bps get feeders around 50-80g (with the exception of hatchlings of course). But I have noticed that if I feed something that is "over the 10%" I get huge poos! Once I fed one of my normal female a 200g feeder (I didn't realize it was that big when I fed it to her. I weighed her after her meal and she was 200g more than she was 10 minutes before) and she had the biggest poo in bp history! After that I made sure no feeders were really above 100g. I might bump a female up larger than that if they happen to be a really big girl though.

Ok so it seems to vary based on what the individual wants. Hera is currently 280g and I feed her in 2 days so she is gaining good weight, right now she gets about 40g every 5 days. So should I cap it off once the prey hits 80g and keep the same schedule? I am looking into breeding her later on (but it will be a while) does that change anything?

Your snake is young and when they are young they will take whatever you offer because they are growing and need the energy! Once they are adults, their growth slows down alot and so they don't require the 10% to 15% of the weight! I let the snakes tell me what they want! My adult females will eat medium rats weekly and all my males never get bigger than small rats weekly. If they don't eat weekly, I will go down one size. I believe its better to eat small prey weekly than larger prey every 14 days or more. If they are pooping alot then that is also a good sign that they are eating more than they need because they are not absorbing the prey.

Put it this way, You will know when your feeding too large of prey items, when they pass stools that are massive.

My adults 2000g+ females get 1 sm rat every 5 days. They poop once every 2 - 3 months. Sometimes one a month depending on time of year.


Young snakes i feed every 3 days by judging snake to mouse/rat size. I never used the 10-15% rule as IMO its rubbish. Smaller meals more often keeps a steady diet and growth with snakes without wasting food.

I basically only feed weaned rats and jumbo mice (30-50 grams) in the winter. A lot of my adults and sub-adults seem to prefer smaller prey right now, and I don't want to waste larger rats. I'll offer them seconds if they're breeding and/or seem interested, but most of them don't want dessert.

In summer I'll break out the small/medium (50-100 grams) rats for anybody who's interested. And I had one mouse eater who was taking 3rd and 4th helpings in July. But she's still only 1350 grams right now--I bet she'd be bigger if she'd been willing to eat rats.

Small rats is as big as I get for adult males.
Medium rats is the maximum size adult females get.

No exceptions, no matter of size.:)

I also go by the girth of the animal and not a percentage of their weight. I feed my big girls that weigh 2kg+ rats up to about 125 grams and everyone else gets a rat sized by their girth. I breed my own rats and feed all live because its SO much easier. I feed my hatching's every 5 days until around 400 grams then I change to a 7 day schedule. When one of mine refuses a rat the following week I will try a rat smaller than the usual and just continue to offer every week until they start to eat again. This schedule seems to work fine for me they are all growing fast appear to be healthy and poo about every two weeks or so.

Well she poos every week usually about 3 days after she has been fed. She does seem to prefer smaller food though, I bought a box of 4 large F/T mice and attempted to giver her 2 per feeding as that follows the 10-15% rule, but on both occasions after her first mouse she was not interested int he 2nd one. I want to switch her to weaned rats since rats are more nutritious and it would be the right size for her.

But basically I now know that once she gets to the 80-100 gram range to stop there no matter how large she grows. Should I keep her on the 5 day schedule or move it to 7 days? I'm thinking that since she refused the 2nd rat maybe I should move it to 7 so she has more time to get her appetite back.

My experience with this ended up giving me a big headache.

I tried the 10-15% rule, since it seemed like everyone used it. At first everything went great, my snakes were eating everything I fed and growing like weeds. I was ticked of course, none of this "feeding strike" stuff with MY babies. I got smug.

Then around 400 grams, fully 90% of my babies stopped eating, all at roughly the same time. Males and females. Week after week went by, I wasted a LOT of F/T food. Then to make matters worse, my bigger snakes stopped eating as well. Now I started getting worried and upset. So back here I came seeking answers. And discovered something I never noticed before. The people who rarely had snakes go off food except for breeding didn't use the 15% rule. In fact, most of them fed smallish prey all the time. Huh, fancy that.

So, back to the drawing board and with much smaller prey. Guess what ? One by one they started eating again. I had one or two holdouts, but pretty much everyone showed me they preferred smaller meals to big ones. So now, everyone gets a smallish meal every 7 days, and everyone eats regularly. If someone is particularly hungry, they might get a second small prey item. My breeder's are the only exception, and everything I read tells me that's normal. My big girls seem to prefer every 14 days, and my males are hit and miss. My babies get one adult mouse or rat pup weekly, right up until they hit 250-300 grams. Sometimes one will get two as they reach the heavier end of that scale. From roughly 300-800 grams they get a weaned rat weekly. Over 800, they get a small rat weekly to every 14 days. Nobody gets bigger that a small. And we're all happy again.

Gale

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by angllady2

My experience with this ended up giving me a big headache.

I tried the 10-15% rule, since it seemed like everyone used it. At first everything went great, my snakes were eating everything I fed and growing like weeds. I was ticked of course, none of this "feeding strike" stuff with MY babies. I got smug.

Then around 400 grams, fully 90% of my babies stopped eating, all at roughly the same time. Males and females. Week after week went by, I wasted a LOT of F/T food. Then to make matters worse, my bigger snakes stopped eating as well. Now I started getting worried and upset. So back here I came seeking answers. And discovered something I never noticed before. The people who rarely had snakes go off food except for breeding didn't use the 15% rule. In fact, most of them fed smallish prey all the time. Huh, fancy that.

So, back to the drawing board and with much smaller prey. Guess what ? One by one they started eating again. I had one or two holdouts, but pretty much everyone showed me they preferred smaller meals to big ones. So now, everyone gets a smallish meal every 7 days, and everyone eats regularly. If someone is particularly hungry, they might get a second small prey item. My breeder's are the only exception, and everything I read tells me that's normal. My big girls seem to prefer every 14 days, and my males are hit and miss. My babies get one adult mouse or rat pup weekly, right up until they hit 250-300 grams. Sometimes one will get two as they reach the heavier end of that scale. From roughly 300-800 grams they get a weaned rat weekly. Over 800, they get a small rat weekly to every 14 days. Nobody gets bigger that a small. And we're all happy again.

Gale

---

Thank you, I wasn't aware that the 15% rule could cause feeding issues and I like the way you have it set up. I think I'll follow that guideline from now on.