BP's eat and grow more than we thought?

[thejenius77]

I want to make a point that I think has been missed on this topic, our BPs are not in the wild. Observations on what they do in the wild are a great (because you definitely need a baseline), but observing what happens in captivity, the environment we care about in this situation is more useful. For the most part, our animals are not fending off parasites and predators, they expend very little energy finding food, and have the ultimate in climate control. Their growth rates and metabolic demands are probably rather different in captivity than they are in the wild, so it is important to look at trends of snakes in captivity*.

*I apologize for this incomplete chain of thought, I was thinking about experiences I've had with american mustangs (yes I know that snakes are not horses or mammals). When you take a pregnant mare or a weanling into captivity, and raise the baby in the same environment as 'regular' horses, they tend to grow MUCH bigger (we had a 16 hand foal out of a 14 hand mare for example). They also tend to get obese readily, probably because they have an evolved genetic tendency toward storing calories efficiently from centuries of living on comparatively poor fodder. Hopefully someone gets where I was going with this line of contemplation, because I lost track of my thought and got distracted thinking about lunch, sorry.

They are pretty much lazy compared to their wild counterparts. They don't have to go anywhere to search for their food, therefore, no exercise to burn off food. It's the same with people....2 people can gorge themselves on the same food, but the one sitting on the couch is probably going to weigh more & have more fat, than healthy weight.

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[NYHC4LIFE8899]

My little guy,I feed every 3-4 on avg,he craps and constantly and all over the place.he usually takes a dump 4-6 days after he eats.he weighs around 105 grams now

my bigger guy,I feed every 3-6 days and depending on how often he craps and size of the prey I was able to get..usually the prey ranges from weanling to lathe weanlings to once In a blue a small rat,if that's all that's available. He weighs about 400 grams now

[sho220]

They are pretty much lazy compared to their wild counterparts. They don't have to go anywhere to search for their food, therefore, no exercise to burn off food. It's the same with people....2 people can gorge themselves on the same food, but the one sitting on the couch is probably going to weigh more & have more fat, than healthy weight.

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I doubt if captive snakes are any more lazy than those in the wild. They're ambush predators so it's not like they're chasing down prey. They just sit there (like they do in tubs) waiting for prey to come along...at night they roam around in the wild, just like they do in captivity...no difference...

[thejenius77]

I doubt if captive snakes are any more lazy than those in the wild. They're ambush predators so it's not like they're chasing down prey. They just sit there (like they do in tubs) waiting for prey to come along...at night they roam around in the wild, just like they do in captivity...no difference...

What I meant is the lack of area to roam. I'm sure they roam an area greater than a few feet. Not necessarily lazy. I was using that as a way to explain the difference.

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[thejenius77]

What I meant is the lack of area to roam. I'm sure they roam an area greater than a few feet. Not necessarily lazy. They don't get the same amount of exercise. So even if they do eat more in the wild, that just isn't practical for captive snakes. I was using that as a way to explain the difference.

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[Scirlygirl]

WOW. I miss a day or two and this topic blows up haha. Anyways, thank you to those you had some good points/comments/thoughts.

I must clear some things up before y'all brake out in another fight.

1. I'm not asking how often to feed mine. I think I'm doing a good job.

2. I never said they "can't" get fat because lets face it everything can get fat, even fish! Have you seen over weight goldfish? Quite odd haha.

3. Raven01, I am NOT under feeding my snakes. My little black pastel is 226g and eats XL mice 3-5 days.

4. And lastly, I'm talking about hatchlings-yearlings. Adults DO slow down eating. I mean they reach full size and aren't too worried about predators anymore. But my whole theory was about babies and that they need to eat more than once a week in order to grow fast and get alway from predators. SO I am only suggesting that these animals probably grow and eat more than we think.

As every breeder, we all do things differently. One day i'd like to observe them in the wild after completing my degree in zoology. No one will know for sure until we get more information. But as of now I will continue to feed my babies 3-5 days and when they get older their meals will slow down. But for now they are hungry and want to eat often.

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By the way, I LOVE the psych comment LOL!