Switching to frozen/thawed

[VooDooDoc]

I had been feeding a live adult mouse to my snake once a week. He ate every time, as soon as I put the mouse in he was on it. So I switched to frozen/thawed, he gobbled that sucker up too.

The mice seemed kinda small compared to his body size so I fed him a frozen/thawed "small rat" (http://www.gourmetrodent.com/frozen.html). He hit it right away and ate it down.

Two questions:

1. Since this is so much bigger than the mouse, how often should I feed him the rat. I'm thinking like 7-10 days, it is probably double the size of the mouse.

2. Not sure if its a coincidence or not but since feeding him the frozen/thawed he never comes out of his hides. He will switch ends of the tank to go from one hide to the other but he doesn't come out exploring like he used to. Temps and humidity are spot on and he just shed about a week back. The only other thing I can think of is we just went on vacation for 2 weeks, and the "friend" who was supposed to be taking care of him did a horrible job. I came back found his shed, and poop inside one of his hides. His water was almost completely gone, humidity was down to 30%, though she swears everything was fine the day before we came home. She did hang his thermometer back up that he knocked over before I left so I know she at least had the tank opened at some point Needless to say I'll bite the bullet and pay 20 bucks a day for the reptile vet to board him next time. Now when I take him out he acts completely fine, no change there. No signs of RI or anything.

[Don]

How old is the snake? What is its weight? It is hard to talk about proper food size without knowing the size or age of the animal. Going from a mouse to a small rat in one step, might be a little much if the snake is small. If it is near adult size, it shouldn't be a problem.

[Mike41793]

How much does your snake weigh? Youre supposed to feed 10-15% of its bodyweight. But since you said the rat is double the size of the mouse you were feeding I would say 7-10 days sounds like a good idea. How often were you feeding him a mouse? Every 5 days? And I dont know what question youre asking in number 2 lol?

[VooDooDoc]

Yeah guess I sort of rambled on there didn't, sorry about that. I'm really wanting to know if its possible the change in diet is what is making him stay hidden or if its just a coincidence.

Anyway, I don't know how old he is or how much he weighs (really don't know if its a he or she). I got him from a small local petstore and the idiot kid had no clue about him. He looked unhappy there so had to come home with me. But that's another story.

He is around 28 inches long (as best I could measure) and at his widest is about 5" in circumference. All the care sheets I read said feed about the size they are at the widest and the rat is definitely smaller around than he is.

I was feeding him the mouse every 5 days. Then he missed a feeding while I was on vacation.

[Don]

I'd go with weaned rats for a little while, then step up to small rats after a month or two. Feed once per week. The hiding may not have anything to do with the food. However, after a snake eats it is not unusual for them to rest and digest in the hide on the warm side.

[Mike41793]

You can feed 1.5-2 times the widest part of their body so if the mouse is about the same size as him you could basically double that. I hope this helps.

[captainjack0000]

People are welcome to dispute but I have never heard feeding any snake 1.5 to 2 times the widest part of the snake. Usually its the same size or a bit bigger.

I have found that live mice look bigger because the fur is poofy and frozen animals seem smaller because the fur is matted and frozen.

So my guess is your snake was exploratory because he was hungry and out hunting, so after the size change it was full and settled down to digest.

I can't offer any advice on frequency other than my 26" one eats about once a week she is eating a rat pup or ex breeder mouse.

[KatStoverReptiles]

So my guess is your snake was exploratory because he was hungry and out hunting, so after the size change it was full and settled down to digest.

^^ this x2.

I say feed a prey item approximately as big around as your snake every 7 days. If he refuses every other time or so, bump him back to every 10.