Feeding+Tub question

1. I know some of you guys feed live and you advocate feeding smaller prey often rather than a large meal over a longer period of time. I went to the vet and found out my snake is a little... Chubby. Should I feed her maybe 10% every 7 days? What size prey do you live feeders "max out" at meaning what is the largest live rat do you feed your snakes?

2. I put my ball python in a tub and now she wont go in her hide.... Is that what happened to your ball pythons?

3. Not a question but wow crested geckos are adorable.... Can you house a pair or trio in a 18x18x24
and can you house a baby crested in a 18x18x18? How long will it take for them to outgrow that? Well i guess this was a question....

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Originally Posted by barbie.dragon

1. I know some of you guys feed live and you advocate feeding smaller prey often rather than a large meal over a longer period of time. I went to the vet and found out my snake is a little... Chubby. Should I feed her maybe 10% every 7 days? What size prey do you live feeders "max out" at meaning what is the largest live rat do you feed your snakes?

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I just eye ball it. I don't really follow the 10-15% thing.
I compare the size of the rat to the widest girth on the snake. A little bit larger or smaller is ok.

And for a live prey size, I feed smalls exclusively to my adults once a week. A medium might sneak up into the feeder grow outs time to time.
But I wouldn't feed a live rat any larger than a medium.

Snakes below 500 grams feed every 4-5 days. Snakes above 500 grams get fed 7-10 days.

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2. I put my ball python in a tub and now she wont go in her hide.... Is that what happened to your ball pythons?

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Yes and No. Some will use the hide I provide them with, others feel secure enough just to chill out of the hide. But all of my tubs are in an enclosed rack, so the rack also doubles as a giant hide. And those without hides, just hide under the newspaper substrate.

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Originally Posted by satomi325

I just eye ball it. I don't really follow the 10-15% thing.
I compare the size of the rat to the widest girth on the snake. A little bit larger or smaller is ok.

And for a live prey size, I feed smalls exclusively to my adults once a week. A medium might sneak up into the feeder grow outs time to time.
But I wouldn't feed a live rat any larger than a medium.

Snakes below 500 grams feed every 4-5 days. Snakes above 500 grams get fed 7-10 days.


Yes and No. Some will use the hide I provide them with, others feel secure enough just to chill out of the hide. But all of my tubs are in an enclosed rack, so the rack also doubles as a giant hide. And those without hides, just hide under the newspaper substrate.

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Yeah my snake just hit 500 grams. I think she's gaining weight a little too fast... She just turned 5 months and she's at 503 grams. Every 10 days should be good for me I guess! All the rats I have are at 55-70 grams so they should be big enough for the rest of her life? Unless she grows to like a monstrous 5000 grams or soemthing but I doubt it

500 grams at 5 months.. Wow I believe according To the card I got from the breeder mine was born 8-6-12 unless I'm reading it wrong... Weighed in tonight at 151g

Either yours is a fatty or mine is skinny..

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What size prey do you live feeders "max out" at meaning what is the largest live rat do you feed your snakes?

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Adult males get a small rat each week (that about 60/70 grams), adult females get a small medium rats once a week 80 to about 120 grams (yes even my 3500 grams breeder girls)

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2. I put my ball python in a tub and now she wont go in her hide.... Is that what happened to your ball pythons?

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It can happen tubs offer a sense of security which sometime translate in the snake no longer using it's hide.

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3. Not a question but wow crested geckos are adorable.... Can you house a pair or trio in a 18x18x24
and can you house a baby crested in a 18x18x18? How long will it take for them to outgrow that? Well i guess this was a question

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I recommend to house cresties individually when young, while you can house 2 or 3 geckos of the same size together, when young one might get bullied preventing access to food.

As adults so long you do not house 2 males together, and the animal you will house together are of the same size you will be fine in most cases.

I would also not recommend to house a male and a female at all time, 1# you do not want the female to breed before proper weight, 2# when she does start breeding you want to give her a break (remember female will lay 2 eggs every 4 weeks even long after the male is removed)

Hathlings until about 10 grams can be house in a 12 quarts tub and you can house a group of 2 or 3 adults in a 40 gallons breeder. For hatchlings you do not want to put them in an enclosure that is to big if you do they might have issues finding their food.

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Originally Posted by BoostedMX3

500 grams at 5 months.. Wow I believe according To the card I got from the breeder mine was born 8-6-12 unless I'm reading it wrong... Weighed in tonight at 151g

Either yours is a fatty or mine is skinny..

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Mine was born on August 24, 2012. Here's a picture:
http://i.imgur.com/gJ7y5Mx.jpg

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Originally Posted by Deborah

Adult males get a small rat each week (that about 60/70 grams), adult females get a small medium rats once a week 80 to about 120 grams (yes even my 3500 grams breeder girls)

It can happen tubs offer a sense of security which sometime translate in the snake no longer using it's hide.

I recommend to house cresties individually when young, while you can house 2 or 3 geckos of the same size together, when young one might get bullied preventing access to food.

As adults so long you do not house 2 males together, and the animal you will house together are of the same size you will be fine in most cases.

I would also not recommend to house a male and a female at all time, 1# you do not want the female to breed before proper weight, 2# when she does start breeding you want to give her a break (remember female will lay 2 eggs every 4 weeks even long after the male is removed)

Hathlings until about 10 grams can be house in a 12 quarts tub and you can house a group of 2 or 3 adults in a 40 gallons breeder. For hatchlings you do not want to put them in an enclosure that is to big if you do they might have issues finding their food.

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Yeah I was thinking about having 2 girls in an exo terra 18x18x24 or something. Thanks for the info!

You want your snake to be fat! For a BP at least....


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Originally Posted by BoostedMX3

500 grams at 5 months.. Wow I believe according To the card I got from the breeder mine was born 8-6-12 unless I'm reading it wrong... Weighed in tonight at 151g

Either yours is a fatty or mine is skinny..

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So she is 5 1/2 months old and only 150 grams? That seems fairly underweight. Do you have any pics we could see?

To the OP 500 grams at 5 months just sounds like very good feeder to me! It might be bigger than average, but it is tough to really overfeed and make a hatchling/juvenile BP unless you're powerfeeding them. And it sounds like you are only feeding on a 7 day feeding schedule.
Plus they will all grow at their own rate.

Sounds like the OP just has a fantastic feeder.
One of my girls gained about 100 grams a month and was about 500 grams at 5 months. She reached 1300 grams in a year. All my other girls who were born in the same month or a month older are half her size.

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Originally Posted by Capray

You want your snake to be fat! For a BP at least....


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Not too fat! Obesity in any kind of animal is unhealthy.
And overweight breeding females are known to slug out more.

Yeah she really really likes to eat. But admittedly she's been losing muscle definition so time for miss piggy to eat smaller meals haha

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Lol! In that picture she looks just fine. Vets like to be nitpicky and criticize you about that stuff, to make tou feel like you're doing something wrong. In reality your snake's eating well cause your soing everything right.


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Woah I dont know what vets you're talking to but mine isn't like that haha. He just said she has enough weight on her. He was very polite, doesn't critisize or anything... You really should find a better vet if they're bring jerks like that

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Good point... I mean many vets do that. Some vets are not open minded. Even dog and cat vets too.


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Originally Posted by Capray

Good point... I mean many vets do that. Some vets are not open minded. Even dog and cat vets too.


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Strange I never had a vet that did that... Hmm I guess I got lucky but I can see that happening!

Well here she is, 151g index card he gave me says

Pastel. 8-6-12 female. Across the top then numbers down the side.. Never thought to ask what they ment but I just got her

Bumbers go 9-1 , 9-9 , 9-16, 9-21, 10-2 10-6 10-21 11-3 11-18 12-16 and 1-5rp

He said her last meal was a rat pup so in assuming those are the dates she ate.. And she ate a mouse for me after 24 hours.. At first I thought it was possibly a little large cuz it took her 12 min to eat but didn't realy leave a bump.. There's a video on here of her first feeding that prolly has some good shot of her size but hers a pic from yesterday 48hours after eating http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/8933/imagequbg.jpg

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Originally Posted by BoostedMX3

Well here she is, 151g index card he gave me says

Pastel. 8-6-12 female. Across the top then numbers down the side.. Never thought to ask what they ment but I just got her

Bumbers go 9-1 , 9-9 , 9-16, 9-21, 10-2 10-6 10-21 11-3 11-18 12-16 and 1-5rp

He said her last meal was a rat pup so in assuming those are the dates she ate.. And she ate a mouse for me after 24 hours.. At first I thought it was possibly a little large cuz it took her 12 min to eat but didn't realy leave a bump.. There's a video on here of her first feeding that prolly has some good shot of her size but hers a pic from yesterday 48hours after eating http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/8933/imagequbg.jpg

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I think they're the dates the snake was fed. Sept first, sept 9th ect. Looks like she's been eating well at nov, dec. But it would depend on the size of the prey he was feedijg. I was feeding my snake basically everytime she was hungry which was every 4 days. She stopped doing that recently though. What are you feeding her? I was feeding anywhere between 14-18% of her body weight but now she gets 10%

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He said he was feeding adult mice untill the last one that was a rat pup.. I got her the 20th and fed her the 21st an adult mouse.. Didn't have the scale yet so I eyeballed it. Going to try a diff pet store for rat pups or the expo this weekend and feed again on Sunday.. Going to see how this one goes and if she eats good agin I might switch to every 5 days rather then 7..


I prefer to feed live and I know I can get med/large rats and adult mice consistently but the jump from adult mouse to med rat is way to much for her right now haha hopefully the other pet store I'm going to try has pups or she will pretty much b strictly mice fed except when I can get to the expo..


I def think she's hungry again already as she's been nippy

I can see her spine, she def comes to a point but no ribs and the only "loose" skin is Her neck area but I think that's normal now after seeing how far she stretched to fit the last mouse

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Originally Posted by BoostedMX3

I can see her spine, she def comes to a point but no ribs and the only "loose" skin is Her neck area but I think that's normal now after seeing how far she stretched to fit the last mouse

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My ball python is eating small rats so medium rats would probably be too much for your snake. I think the best way is to get a scale and really measure out what she needs to eat :)

Ya I have one now.. And those rats I saw there were huge compared to her I'm keeping her on adult mice and rat pups when I can get them