At what point to space out feedings for a Dumeril's?

[WhompingWillow]

I don't have an exact hatch date on Memphis, other than I'm pretty sure she was a late 2017 hatchling. She's currently about 350ish grams and is doing well with a smaller weaned rat every 7-10 days or two smaller rat pups, depending on what we have on hand.

I think her body condition looks really good. She's solid but seems proportional. At what point should we space out her feedings? I don't want to underfeed her, but I definitely don't want to overfeed her. The only reference point I've been able to find online so far is based on length vs. weight (ie, feed every 2 weeks when she hits 3 feet or can take a small rat). She was 155 grams in mid-May when we got her.

Here are a couple of recent photos of her. I can try to get a better one in a day or two, she just ate last night.

Thanks!

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[Dianne]

What a beauty! I used to have a pair of Dumerils years ago. I regret selling them and my Cuban boas...such great patterns.

With the exception of babies, I feed all of my collection twice per month (1st & 15th). I usually switch over at one year. My snakes aren’t as heavy bodied as some others I’ve seen, but they are healthy with good muscle. I typically feed 1-2 prey items per feeding. My 7’ Colombian redtail gets one 2X rat, my adult ball and Colombian rainbow get 1 medium rat, and everyone else gets 2 mice per feeding - 3 corns, a Solomon Island ground boa, and a 3 yr old albino ball (picky bugger won’t take rats yet and refuses a third mouse). The 3 baby balls I’ve gotten this year are offered fuzzies weekly, sometimes they eat and sometimes they don’t.

[bcr229]

As a general guideline for boas I use their age, add a year, and that's the weekly interval between feedings. Once they hit four week intervals I keep them on that for life.

I may adjust up or down based on body condition, or if I think their last meal was a little lighter or heavier than normal, or if a neonate started as a picky eater and was a slow grower I'll keep it on weekly feedings for a bit longer.

[redshepherd]

What a neat head stamp!

I just go by feel, and observe if they're gaining or losing weight, and change things accordingly.

For my dumerils personally, I remember feeding her every 7-10 days when she was 600g. I don't remember exactly when I started feeding every 2 weeks, but it was somewhere between when she was 2.5~3 years old.

[WhompingWillow]

Thanks everyone! It sounds like I've got a while before needing to worry about spacing out feedings. I'll continue to monitor her body condition and go from there.

I really wish I had gotten a photo of her last night at feeding time. We normally feed in alphabetical snake order, so Memphis had to wait a little while. The first 1/4 of her body was raised and smushed up against the glass, like "Feeeeeeed me." Reminded me of a puppy begging for food LOL. 🤣