Vet said it is unhealthy to feed BP once a week

[ZinniaZ]

A friend of mine is a reptile vet and I have been regaling her with tales of our snake and planning whether or not to bring her for a visit, etc, and we were talking about feeding and she said it is much healthier for BP to eat every two weeks rather than every week. I was under the impression that once a week was sort of standard. I would like to hear opinions on this please...

And I have ONE choice for a reptile vet close to us, and it is my friend, so even if she is misinformed, we are going to need to go to her.

[Freakie_frog]

It depends most people opt for smaller meals every week instead of a med size meal every two weeks. The snake recives the same amount of food just over a more spread out time frame. This way if it misses a meal its not been 4 weeks since it last ate.

Both are fine it just depends on what works for you and your snake.

[ZinniaZ]

Thank you for the reply-- that is good to know. Our girl seems to know which day is feeding day, and she comes out and hunts. I assumed she was hungry!

[Freakie_frog]

Yes ball are very schedule oriented and will learn what day is feeding day and helps you out. If you feed same day same time every week you'll see that your animals will tend to be better feeders due to the schedule.

Best of luck

[frankykeno]

Depends on the age of the snake as well. I personally would rather see the little ones taking an appropriate sized small prey item every week. I like that I'm getting a good routine set down with them early in their lives.

With our adults some of them naturally want to eat every week, some of them do seem to do better every couple of weeks. They are still offered the chance to eat every week. They decide for themselves if they are interested or not. As long as overall their monthly total prey volume is appropriate for that size of snake and no single prey item offered is massively too large, then I think it all works out in the end.

As Ed said, these are creatures of habit so whatever feeding routine you use, if it works, stick with it.

[ZinniaZ]

I want to say-- this board is such a good resource. You guys are nothing but kind and patient with new people. I really appreciate reading the responses to me and to other brand new snake owners. I actually joined the forum to watch over my son-- he is young and I know that forums can be snarky. I wanted to make sure he was ok asking his newbie questions and being his young self. I am very happy with how he was treated and continually how questions are answered with respect and kindness. Thank you ALL.

Our girl is nearly twelve months old now. She seems to be happy eating every tuesday or wednesday. I guess we will continue with that unless she changes her mind or gets chubby.

[starmom]

I think that if you are feeding her appropriate prey, then once a week is fine! If your snake is similar to any of mine, appropriate prey is about a 55g rat (I feed rats...) We feed every Thursday night so that we can go out to the ranch for the weekend and be reasonable certain that my 20 year old will not need to clean any tubs or cages- these snakes are not his thing!!
Again, as has been mentioned, routine is what the R-Complex brain really likes!

[SPJ]

I feed babies once a week and adults once every 2 weeks.

[starmom]

I feed babies once a week and adults once every 2 weeks.

I feed babies every 5 days (until they hit about 200g or so)
There are a lot of different ways to care very well for these snakes

[frankykeno]

I want to say-- this board is such a good resource. You guys are nothing but kind and patient with new people. I really appreciate reading the responses to me and to other brand new snake owners. I actually joined the forum to watch over my son-- he is young and I know that forums can be snarky. I wanted to make sure he was ok asking his newbie questions and being his young self. I am very happy with how he was treated and continually how questions are answered with respect and kindness. Thank you ALL.

Our girl is nearly twelve months old now. She seems to be happy eating every tuesday or wednesday. I guess we will continue with that unless she changes her mind or gets chubby.

It's so nice to see a parent that's interested in a shared hobby with their child and also willing to watch over their internet usage. Far too rare sometimes in today's world to see that level of committment - good for you!

I'm glad this site has been so helpful to your family and your snake. A huge part of the mission of this site has always been to help the newcomer, no matter their age or situation, to become a confident snake owner with a content, healthy snake to enjoy. I'm so pleased to see that we as an online community have done this for your family. Please continue to enjoy this special place and the snake crazy folks that hang out here (we also have lizard crazy folks, frog crazy folks, spider crazy folks....well a whole lotta crazy folks )