Quote Originally Posted by BumbleB View Post
I feed once a week a rat pup about the width of their widest part. It leaves a slight barely noticeable lump in their body. I feel like they could take more because they're still hunting after just one, also they are June 2013 babies in the upper 200 gram range with a good length to them I'd say at least 2.5 feet. Breeder said he grew them slowly since he had no plans to breed them. What do you think?
It sounds like you're giving them good sized meals B. You could offer a second prey item every 2nd or 3rd feeding if they still seem hungry. Looking back through my records I was feeding 2 rat fuzzys, or 1 rat pup, per feeding when mine were 200g. I think yours are a little undersized for their ages but they'll grow fast! Sometimes breeders have them on more of a maintenance feeding regiment as opposed to one that's more growth oriented. I probably feed my snakes a little more generously than some of the other keepers but I don't power feed them at all. My younger snakes (all colubrids) eat 10-20% of their body weight every 5 days until they turn 1. After that they eat closer to 8-12% of their body weight every 7 days on average. I like to vary my feeding amounts and frequencies but they're usually within those parameters. For example Apollo was hatched in July 2014. He's a little over 600g. He gets either 2 rat weaners or a weaner and a chick every 5-6 days. That's 60-80g per meal. She-ra was hatched in Sep. 2013 and she's about 1850g. She usually eats 2 small rats and a chick every 7 days on average. That's about 150-180g per meal. She's ready for mediums but I still have a few smalls to finish off.