Retic feeding schedule?

[bcr229]

How long is he?
I see this a lot on other post an forum's of people going to rabbits as soon as their retic is eating 2 jumbo/colossal rat( 450+ grams)..
Are rabbits better for the reason of bigger bones more calcium

I can get rabbits as small as kits, which are about the same size as a weanling rat. I start offering those to retics as soon as they are big enough to take them, usually alternating between a weanling rat and rabbit kit for each meal. It's rare but sometimes a retic will be hard to switch over to rabbits; I bought one adult female a few years ago that was knocking back 4-5 jumbo rats per weekly feeding and she wouldn't touch a rabbit. I did eventually get her converted by sewing a rat onto a rabbit's head using absorbable suture. Looked like heck but it worked!

[c0r3yr0s3]

I can get rabbits as small as kits, which are about the same size as a weanling rat. I start offering those to retics as soon as they are big enough to take them, usually alternating between a weanling rat and rabbit kit for each meal. It's rare but sometimes a retic will be hard to switch over to rabbits; I bought one adult female a few years ago that was knocking back 4-5 jumbo rats per weekly feeding and she wouldn't touch a rat. I did eventually get her converted by sewing a rat onto a rabbit's head using absorbable suture. Looked like heck but it worked!

That's a really good idea. Frankenrabbit

[fluffykitten]

I did eventually get her converted by sewing a rat onto a rabbit's head using absorbable suture. Looked like heck but it worked!

I had to read this a few times too make sure I read that correctly. I can only imagine what that looked like.

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[Sauzo]

I've noticed that within 24 hrs later the lump has practically disappeared...
That's the main reason for the post . Want to make sure they're getting enough ..

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It's a retic. Pythons dont seem to retain their lumps very long lol. I have fed Caesar XXL guinea pigs before when he was smaller and they left a HUGE lump in him and he went into a food coma but within about 3 days, it was gone. Since then, i downgraded his size and now even though he is larger, he eats smaller meals of just jumbo rats or XL guinea pigs. Even Pat, my baby GTP eats a small fuzzy mouse and within 2-3 days, the lump is gone, he poops and is on the run around the cage again.

[Sauzo]

I can get rabbits as small as kits, which are about the same size as a weanling rat. I start offering those to retics as soon as they are big enough to take them, usually alternating between a weanling rat and rabbit kit for each meal. It's rare but sometimes a retic will be hard to switch over to rabbits; I bought one adult female a few years ago that was knocking back 4-5 jumbo rats per weekly feeding and she wouldn't touch a rabbit. I did eventually get her converted by sewing a rat onto a rabbit's head using absorbable suture. Looked like heck but it worked!

Need to send your snakes over to Caesar's school of eating lol. When i got him and asked Kris over at Vital Exotics what he was eating. Kris replied 'That snake will eat anything'. He wasnt kidding. Caesar slammed mice, rats, guinea pigs, chicks, quails, anything. I bet if i rubbed an ice cube with a rat, he would coil it and try to eat it lol.

And I bet the husband came in the room and saw you sewing a dead rat to a dead rabbit and thought 'wtf is she doing......on second thought, i dont want to know' and just turned around and walked out lol.

[CloudtheBoa]

I'm probably the odd one out here...I got my retic at 6 months old, and her breeders were underfeeding her...a single mouse fuzzy every 2 weeks.

This was her when I got her, she was 150 grams and 3' at 6 months old.




~6 months later, she reached 4'-4.5' and was eating either 2 small rats or a weaned and a small every 2 weeks.




At 2 years, she reached 7' eating jumbo rats.




The most recent photo I have of her, but she's grown another foot since. She isn't currently with me, though, so no recent photos (this was from last year). This is once I started noticing issues in her and another snake (both appear much healthier now).



I started her out on rat pups every 2 weeks, and she quickly moved on to weaned rats every 2 weeks. I put her on rats 10-15% of her weight weekly when she was eating small rats and then 15-20% of her weight weekly for a short time until she started on large rats, and then I went back to 2 weeks. She's now ~9' and eating a colossal rat or 1 lb rabbit every 2 weeks, and will be eating monthly as an adult.

There was a period where I was dealing with some health issues, so she's fallen behind on her growth over the past year, but I'm hoping now that she appears to be healthier, she'll start growing again. I'm suspecting it might have been the air quality in our last home, since the few snakes showing issues have greatly improved now that they're removed from that location. It got to the point we could hardly breathe, the home had to be condemned due to water damage, and we didn't realize just how bad it was.

I'm currently feeding her weekly again, so hopefully she picks back up growth. She's always been a spotty grower, though. Even if I fed her over 20% of her weight, and did it weekly (or even more often), she still would not grow for up to 7-8 months at a time, and then all of a sudden put on a foot or two of growth within a month or two, and then take forever to grow once again. Doesn't matter if I feed her big or small prey, every 5-7 days, 2 weeks, or 3 weeks, she grows at her own pace. I haven't really noticed any skinniness from her spacing out her feedings, and she has a low feeding response to begin with. When I started her on 1 lb rabbits early (she was maybe 7.5'), she began to refuse food after just a few meals, so I stepped her back down to 1/2 lb rabbits every 2-3 weeks during that time, and now she'll take a 1 lb rabbit weekly no problems at ~9'.