burm feeding

[Leftnut]

Hey guys,
I have a young burm and I'm just wondering what some of the more experienced people than myself are doing with their feeding schedules? I have seen some pretty extreme differences in how people are feeding and I'm very curious what the people here are doing cause you all seem to be very knowledgeable. Personally I feed a F/T prey item of aprox.5%-10% of the animals weight 2x a week. for example my Beans weighed 268 grams before his food and soak today. His food weighed 35 grams(he went up a size today. YAY!!!). I believe this comes out to be about 8%. I know alot of people use size references but I'm a sucker for records and I like to be able to know 100% when I want to know lol.

[Jay_Bunny]

Actually if he was 268 and his prey item was 35, then that is more like 13%. I don't know much about burms though.

[mumps]

I'd help you out but I've never weighed a burm or anything I've fed it. Size reference all the way.

2 feedings per week are fine for babies, though I would feed more than one item per feeding.

Chris

[Leftnut]

Haha thanks jay_bunny I said I like records not math lol so I guess its some where in the 10%-15% per feeding

Chris,
I've often heard I should feed two but it's also been pounded into my head not to power feed. In your opinion when does that line get crossed? There is a "reptile zoo" with a couple burms that are massively obese and completely miserable you can tell.Their scales don't even touch anymore I'm trying to avoid that and also have the longest lived pet I can.

Thanks,
Leftnut

[mumps]

I think the line gets crossed when you continue large and often feedings after the snake is a year and a half old. By this time it should be well nearing its adult length (10 or more feet) but not real heavy yet. At this point I slow down my feeding considerably; and after 3 years of age it's no food from October to March. I'm going to feed my male burm (7 yrs. old and 13 feet) his first meal of 2012 in the next couple of weeks, and right now he looks like a long flat tire!

You also want to avoid stunting. I have seen so many 10 year old 6 foot burms it's ridiculous.

Chris

[Tfpets]

My girl is/was a rescue. She was the victim of a divorce. I have a really spotty life story for her. I was told she is about 4 years old, she wasn't fed for nearly a year, she had a bad infection in her mouth, head, eyes. She was raised on chickens. Also told that she was a he. She was right at 8' when I got her and only weighed 12 lbs. 9 months later she now eats a rabbit every 10-14 days, she is about 9.5' and weighs nearly 26 lbs.
From what I have noticed with burms, there is a bigger problem with over feeding than under feeding. Unless you're just ridiculously under feeding its not going to be a problem. Over feeding and obesity seems to be a much bigger possibility with burms!

[heathers*bps]

Yea we just do the eye check on what to feed our burms, no weighing here! And every 5-7 days one prey item is fine.

Why are you soaking?

[Leftnut]

Thanks guys will do.

The reason I asked for weights is because my eye and your eye may view girth differently. I though maybe somebody would have at least an estimation. I keep records just in case something were to ever happen I can know if he's been acting differently. They look fairly large for him I've only had him a few weeks and he was just a hatchling when he got here. I soak once a week cause I figure all life needs water so it can't be bad for him right? The water is really shallow and he has a place to get completely out if he wants.