Feeding Question

[chickenooget]

Hey guys!

So feeding my new BP has been a breeze so far. My 7 months old takes every rat and he recently began striking the rat when I hold it instead of waiting until I leave! He was 220g when I got him about a month ago, and he's now 280g (but he has a huge sausage butt lol) and 261g after his last BM.

I'm feeding him on a 6 day schedule, and I bought 25 rat pups and 20 weaned rats (all frozen), and he's already beginning to outgrow my smaller rat pups. I sorted the rats and I'm feeding him them in order of smallest to largest. And I have a bunch that are in the 22-27g range, but I don't want to waste them.

Should I feed him more frequently? Or feed him like 2 22g rats at a time? Or just stick with what I'm doing now?

[JustinGatCat]

If he takes the 2 22 rats, yeah he should be fine. My 6 month old takes 40-44 gram small rats, and he's a pig, and weighs 204 grams since his last weigh about 3 days ago. You could spread out the feeding too, maybe feed him one rat one day and another the next. If he's an eager feeder, you should have no problem


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[JodanOrNoDan]

I feed rat pups every four days to my young ones that can take it then back off to once a week once they can take a small rat.

[chickenooget]

I would just feed him 2 rats with some time in between, but I feel like that's a lot for him to take in idk. I'd rather just feed him more frequently, but is feeding every 4-5 days with rats that are about 8-10% his mass underfeeding?


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[JodanOrNoDan]

I would just feed him 2 rats with some time in between, but I feel like that's a lot for him to take in idk. I'd rather just feed him more frequently, but is feeding every 4-5 days with rats that are about 8-10% his mass underfeeding?


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I never use weight to determine prey size. That is not to say it is wrong, I just don't do it. I pretty much feed using the body width method. If what I have to feed is a little small I will double up or feed twice in a week. In my experience, for young snakes, feeding about every four days works well. For older snakes I will double up on the same feeding. These are all generalizations though. As long as the snake is keeping good body proportions and gaining weight everything is fine. If the snake starts skipping weeks and you want it to eat every week you drop down a size. They do not need as much food as we seem to think they do. We overfeed in captivity.

[chickenooget]

I never use weight to determine prey size. That is not to say it is wrong, I just don't do it. I pretty much feed using the body width method. If what I have to feed is a little small I will double up or feed twice in a week. In my experience, for young snakes, feeding about every four days works well. For older snakes I will double up on the same feeding. These are all generalizations though. As long as the snake is keeping good body proportions and gaining weight everything is fine. If the snake starts skipping weeks and you want it to eat every week you drop down a size. They do not need as much food as we seem to think they do. We overfeed in captivity.

Thanks for the reply! I tend to stress a bit more than I need to so I was worried I might harm my BP ^^; I feel a lot better now tho lol


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[Zincubus]

Thanks for the reply! I tend to stress a bit more than I need to so I was worried I might harm my BP ^^; I feel a lot better now tho lol


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I know of a bloke who swaps between mice / rats / chicks and also varies from small to large and even from 5 days to 12 days and anywhere in between .

He reckons he's replicating the wild and says it works a treat !