My BP is 10 and since becoming adult i've always fed her medium rats, which turned out to be about 150g.. apart from when i fed her chicks a couple of years ago because she wasn't eating.
This year i ordered from a different supplier online. I ordered medium rats, but their 'medium' was much bigger. They are all around 220-250g
I considered throwing them away but decided to weigh them all and try her on the smallest one (about 220g) to see how she gets on with it. I defrosted it and stretched out the hind legs so they lay flatter and less wide.
The snake took it perfectly fine, but she now has a feeding response like i've never seen. She'll get excited about food all the time, coming rushing out of her hide all excited when i am just doing stuff near the viv. She has struck at the window when i've been defrosting a rat on top of the viv and then put my hand on the front window. She has struck towards the bulb when i've turn it on after she's come out all excited because ive been around the viv (the bulb is in a cage so no danger). She has been cruising around her viv i've been wondering why, checking husbandry over and over, then came feeding day and i was half hearted to defrost a rat because usually if she is out, she won't be interested, so i just gave her the scent of the frozen rat and i saw she was totally 'on it'. She was roaming to look for food and after eating settled down like normal. If i replace her water or something I have to wrap a towel around my hand and back her down first, because i know she's so excited she'll go for me. Even straight after taking one of these rats or the next day, she'll be totally amped to feed again. ( obvs i don't, i give about 3 weeks between meals)
So i've been feeding her these and she's nearly finished the 10 i ordered. She is 62 inches long and probably around 3kg.
Question is, is this a known thing that feeding response goes up with prey size? and if she is fine eating these and seems to enjoy them more, is there any issue feeding her these long term?
Secondly, maybe if your snakes isn't very excited to feed, it could be worth trying larger prey!
Reply With Quote