Quote Originally Posted by Gio View Post
As PitOnTheProwl mentioned younger animals will require a different level of food intake. I will add newer keepers have the propensity to overdo it which happens far too frequently.

The O/P mentioned it had been 5 days, then there was another feed today and is asking to feed tomorrow. If you don't see what is going to happen here without pulling back the reins you are not looking at things clearly. This snake's system needs some time to process and eliminate now.

Unless you have a rather young royal, you will not see these animals starve even by waiting what some would consider a long time. I have an adult royal that has eaten once in the last year and you would never know it but that's a different subject.

A lot of feeding "advice" you see is often geared toward maturity and breeding. If you are growing a pet and not in any rush for size, which is unhealthy IMO, you are not harming your snake in any way by waiting a little bit.

So while some may push you in the direction of feeding often or prior to defecation, there is certainly no harm in waiting for waste elimination prior to feeding again. NONE.

In this particular case I'd definitely wait. 3 meals in 5 days is too much. The O/P needs to hear that and needs to wait it out. Advice to the contrary is not constructive in this situation.


I offered that advice because it is safe and easy to figure out. Feed, eliminate and feed again. Are there other ways?? Certainly, but I see far too often feed, feed, feed! The end result of that is almost always a shortened life.

Obviously this is not aimed at long time experienced keepers who know their animals and maybe that caused some misunderstanding.

I won't debate or argue here, as all I wanted was to offer the O/P a safe practice for feeding that has very little thinking involved.

While it is very hard to underfeed "most" snakes, it is entirely too easy to overfeed them.
My advice was not necessarily directed toward an extra feeding. As long as the animal is getting an appropriately size meal (I'm a fan of 10-15%), then there should be no reason to feed today and then feed tomorrow. I was simply saying that if you've fed it today and it's next feeding day is 5 days away, there is no need to skip or put it off if the animal hasn't defecated. As I said, I have one that will pass 3 days after feeding like clockwork, and she is getting a 10-15% meal. Meanwhile another one that will only pass after every 3rd meal. (They are MASSIVE.) If I waited for her to defecate, she'd only eat once a month. Both get weighed once a month and are growing fine.