Bigger feeds..Advice..

Well Little Deebo has had 2 large fuzzies now for me..he was only fed Pinkies before I got him, so I wanted to work him up & now I have been advised he is able to feed on small mice.

I know its probably silly, but I wanted to check as although his body is big enough, his neck is so small ! this will be ok wont it !?

most babies can take hopper sized mice with ease. i would get 4-5 steady meals in him before a switch.


vaughn

ok thanks allot

Also I have been told that snakes can judge the size of a prey and want even try to eat it if its to large.

If this is wrong please someone feel free to correct me.

A lot of first-time snake owners are suprised at how large of prey items they can eat relative to the size of their head/neck. Its important to understand that these areas are designed to stretch in order to accomate a good sized meal.

oh no I have had snakes for years..never a baby tho ! im a worrier & have to check everything time & time again so nothing goes wrong !

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Originally Posted by Freakie_frog

Also I have been told that snakes can judge the size of a prey and want even try to eat it if its to large.

If this is wrong please someone feel free to correct me.

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If you could see the picture of a poor baby ball python on another forum that was fed a medium rat - I would say it's not true. And the scariest part is they fed it live. And I DO mean - this was a baby ball fed a medium rat.

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Originally Posted by rabernet

If you could see the picture of a poor baby ball python on another forum that was fed a medium rat - I would say it's not true. And the scariest part is they fed it live. And I DO mean - this was a baby ball fed a medium rat.

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:O :mad: I'm glad I didn't see that....wherever it was. :mad:

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:O :mad: I'm glad I didn't see that....wherever it was. :mad:

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It was easily 3 x the girth of the snake, maybe even 4 x. Joanna can correct me if I'm wrong - she's familiar with the poster (and the picture) - but I'm fairly positive it was live feed. Thankfully, there didn't appear to be any wounds, but the snake was definitely miserable looking.

I wanna see this picture. How dumb can you be to feed a rat 3 times the size of a snake?

god how awful, which forum was that ?


Deebo had 2 fuzzies last night. He swiped them straight out of mummys hand - he is quick ! thats the first time he has done that, before I have had to leave him in pitch darkness & leave it in an empty toilet roll tube..!

Be sure to develop the good habit of using tongs or something OTHER THAN your hand/fingers to hold the prey. Otherwise you might get tagged instead. It's even MORE of a concern if you feed FT. Your hand will sometimes have a hotter heat signature than the prey and they'd head to your hand instead of the mouse/rat.

Just good practice to not feed, literally, by hand.

:)



RuLyn

thanks ..thats the jist im getting from others..I hand feed my 2 corns..but i think Little Deebo wont be so little for long if he (hopefully) continues to eat like this..!


Thanks

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rabernet

It was easily 3 x the girth of the snake, maybe even 4 x. Joanna can correct me if I'm wrong - she's familiar with the poster (and the picture) - but I'm fairly positive it was live feed. Thankfully, there didn't appear to be any wounds, but the snake was definitely miserable looking.

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Medium rat : 100-195 grams
Baby ball: 65-100 grams

So the meal was 1-2x the weight of the snake? Did it die?

i dont know how a baby ball could kill a medium

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Originally Posted by SnakeySnakeSnake

Medium rat : 100-195 grams
Baby ball: 65-100 grams

So the meal was 1-2x the weight of the snake? Did it die?

i dont know how a baby ball could kill a medium

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Me either its hard to belive. Did he actually get it down? can some one post the link to that pic, im really curious about it.

Yeah Robin I remember the pic and it was a live rat though I think it may have been a small (or I just eyeball mediums bigger) but regardless it was way WAY too big for a baby and especially live it was irresponsible in my opinion to do that. Heck my 980 gram male just recently started taking smalls! The snake was very distended and the sad part is this particular person had been given tons of advice on the proper size to feed, even photos of rodents for size comparison but decided to overfeed a large live prey item in a rush to put weight on the poor baby snake.

As far as I know the snake survived but pushing a snake to feed like that is just sad and wrong. Regular weekly feedings of an appropriate prey size is what's been proven over and over to work.

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Originally Posted by lisa77

god how awful, which forum was that ?


Deebo had 2 fuzzies last night. He swiped them straight out of mummys hand - he is quick ! thats the first time he has done that, before I have had to leave him in pitch darkness & leave it in an empty toilet roll tube..!

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wait until you see the feeding frenzy of a female bp that has laid her eggs! :O :bolt: :snake2:


vaughn

Tongs/tweezers/hemostats are good. I bought 2 pairs of 12" hemostats from LLL, one for each snake so as to eliminate possible cross contamination on feeding day - then I just throw them in the dishwasher so they're clean (and not rat/mouse smelly) for the next feeding day.

I think what I've gleaned from BP.net is if in doubt, go smaller because small, regular meals helps keep your snake digesting well, feeding regularly and not obese.