What's up with all the underfed snakes

[A.VinczeBPs]

When in doubt, ask for a feeding schedule sheet.
Most big breeders will have a record of when they ate. From that you can see for yourself if it's a picky eater, a good eater but slow grower, or underfed.

I never buy without a feeding schedule. It tells me when, how often, and what size they were fed, and also tells me the breeder keeps good records.

Most of the babies I've had have been between 200-600grams by the age of 7 months. Some eat less than others, I had a bumblebee that refused to eat much for the fist 4 months, and at 7 months was only 200. She started eating again and gained a lot in a short time on the same food.

Just depends.

[angllady2]

I have noticed this as well. With a lot of Craigslist snakes as well, supposed to be 2 years old and only 300 grams.

There are a lot of arguments that can be made on this, from underfeeding, maintainence feeding, whatever.

I also think that most people will hold-back the babies that grow the fastest for themselves, and sell the smaller babies first. I have two '09 females that are within 1 month of each other in age. My older girl is 900 grams and eats like a horse. The younger is barely 600 grams, but she's a picky eater and always has been.

I don't necessarily condemn people who seem to underfeed their babies. I just ask more questions of them before I buy.

Gale

[Tim Mead]

This may not sit well with some, BUT, I'm astounded by how many 6 month old and older 200 gram snakes are for sale on Kingsnake and Fauna
When I ask for hatch dates and weights and consistently get responses of 6-7 months old and 200 grams it turns me off immediately.
So many ads state the year they were born and weights and then when you ask the month is turns out to be 7 months old and 200 some grams.

I've gotten responses on numerous clowns, albinos, super pastel yellow bellies and several others,
ALL underfed IMO. and all from large breeders.

What's up with that?
Would you buy a snake that's been underfed knowing you were going to be breeding it, especially a female?

Is 200 grams at 6 months old underfed? or am I just over-feeding all of mine because they eat every 5-7 days and get to 400 + grams in 6 months

Gotta love the catch phrase "well started" lol
As always..Caveat emptor...

May I ask how many snakes you have produced and how many years of snake keeping you have under your belt ??

[Tim Mead]

I agree, it puts me off, too. I can't imagine why a breeder would be too cheap to feed a baby snake every week. And if they are feeding it weekly, then why is the baby so small? I would think that there was something wrong. Either way, I don't want to deal with that.

May I ask how many snakes you have produced and the number of years of keeping under your belt ?

[J.Vandegrift]

Most of my 09's are around 300g (some smaller). Most of mine are late 09's because my season is usually later down here in FL, but all of babies get fed once a week and are a perfectly healthy weight. Not thin, and not plump. I used to fed my hatchlings at least every 5 days (sometimes more), but now that I have more snakes and am not in such a rush to get things up to breeding size anymore I have slowed down on feeding.

200g at 6 months is a bit small IMO, but if the breeder is feeding mice once a week it is not really anything crazy and certainly does not mean the snakes are mistreated.

[snakesRkewl]

May I ask how many snakes you have produced and how many years of snake keeping you have under your belt ??

I already answered this question.

I thought I asked a fairly legit question

[Tim Mead]

Until you have walked in the shoes of a large breeder,, Should you judge a large breeder ?? Theres reasons for everything in life and a wise man will figure out why without causing ripples..When one can not figure something out for themselves is the time to ask for help with such..

[greghall]

not mine are big & fat!

[Freakie_frog]

I have animals that were hatched in Oct of 2009 and as of last night they are 273-299 grams and they get fed every 5 days. I can promise you they aren't just fed..No if I were to feed them only every 7 - 10 days like some breeders the I could imigane they would be far smaller..

Just my two cents

[waltah!]

You may see more males that you feel are smaller than you think they should be. They don't take as long and don't need the weight that females need for breeding, so they are fed enough to be healthy but not chubby. Many don't want fat male breeders either as they can sometimes be lazy breeders.
Using the rule of thumb I read in this thread earlier (100g per month) the the average 2yr old bp would be about 2400g. At 3yrs it would be at about 3600g. That's bigger than the biggest female that most of the members here have. Once they get to a certain weight they sometimes level off for a bit and then you may see a growth spurt. Raising several snakes from hatchling to one year old is nice, but they don't always continue to grow at the same rates they did earlier in life.