My two bps

[onna_shinigami]

I've been wondering about the two bps I have. One I've had for about 4years and the other about 3years.

The first guy was a rescue from someone that wasn't sure on how to take care of him, that got him from an ex roomate that was about starving him to death. I bumped him up from maybe a mouse a week to a small rat every 2-3 weeks and finially got him switched to f/t this past winter. He's now a very fat and happy snake.

The second we got after we saw her up for adoption at Petco, supposedly the owner was deaf and the snake wouldn't be used to loud noises. She's never refused a feeding and could care less about loud music. She looked well fed but no one there was sure if she would take f/t or not. Tryed once with the f/t rats and haven't gone back, minus getting 2 chicks early this year after not eating since November.

After going through and seeing mostly everyone post the weights in grams, I figured it wouldn't hurt to know how much both of these guys weigh. Only issue I've ran into is that the kitchen scale is missing and only one working is the human one. lol

Well the first guy (I believe its a boy) is about 3ft long and weighs in about 175g or 2.6lbs could be a bit less as he just ate Monday night. The second one (I believe is a girl) is about 4ft and 905g or 4.2lbs. They don't look underweight, but quite fat, happy and shiney, when in the sunlight. They're getting a large rat about 175-274g every 2-3 weeks sometimes less often if they refuse it or show no interest in the smell of rodent when the RTB is being fed which is about every 2-3 weeks also. I don't believe they are underweight but I could be wrong. Any ideas?

[kb1290]

I've been wondering about the two bps I have. One I've had for about 4years and the other about 3years.

The first guy was a rescue from someone that wasn't sure on how to take care of him, that got him from an ex roomate that was about starving him to death. I bumped him up from maybe a mouse a week to a small rat every 2-3 weeks and finially got him switched to f/t this past winter. He's now a very fat and happy snake.

The second we got after we saw her up for adoption at Petco, supposedly the owner was deaf and the snake wouldn't be used to loud noises. She's never refused a feeding and could care less about loud music. She looked well fed but no one there was sure if she would take f/t or not. Tryed once with the f/t rats and haven't gone back, minus getting 2 chicks early this year after not eating since November.

After going through and seeing mostly everyone post the weights in grams, I figured it wouldn't hurt to know how much both of these guys weigh. Only issue I've ran into is that the kitchen scale is missing and only one working is the human one. lol

Well the first guy (I believe its a boy) is about 3ft long and weighs in about 175g or 2.6lbs could be a bit less as he just ate Monday night. The second one (I believe is a girl) is about 4ft and 905g or 4.2lbs. They don't look underweight, but quite fat, happy and shiney, when in the sunlight. They're getting a large rat about 175-274g every 2-3 weeks sometimes less often if they refuse it or show no interest in the smell of rodent when the RTB is being fed which is about every 2-3 weeks also. I don't believe they are underweight but I could be wrong. Any ideas?

If one is 2.6lbs its about 1180g not 175g and the 4.2 lbs would be 1905g not 905. I feed 10-15% of their body weight every 7 days. So for the smaller one it should get 118-177g rat and the larger one 191-286g rat once a week.

[onna_shinigami]

Dang google for having their conversions typed out funny. I guess the rat size is just about right for them, I give the bigger on the bigger rats and the smaller the smaller rats. I've tryed weekly feedings before and they show no interest in it. I have no plans at all in breeding them, too much work with a toddler and husband running around already.

[Vypyrz]

Stick with the 14 day schedule for rats that big. Snakes can only process food at a certain rate. So the bigger the prey, the more time they need to process it all. My opinion is that the 10-15% of body weight rule is only feasible up to a point. For an adult BP being fed every 7 days, I would say feed rats in the 50-70 gram range. Feeding rats in the 70-90 gram range works good on a 10 day feeding schedule, and pretty much any rats over 100grams work good for a 14 day schedule. I base my opinion on the fact that a BP's natural food source would be African Soft Furs, and as I understand it, even the largest ones average about 80-90 grams. And some BP's won't even try to eat a rat over about 130-150 grams. But, whether you choose to feed smaller, more frequent meals, or larger, less frequent meals, or somewhere in between, they still average about the same amount of prey per month. Personally I feed my 1300 gram adult a 60-80 gram rat every 10 days...