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    Feeding to get her up to weight question

    So I have two females I hope to have up to proper weight for next season. They are currently eating every 7 days. I want to get weight on her, but I don't want to over feed. Does anyone feed more often than this and is it safe?

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    Feeding at 5 days is not dangerous but I would not feed on a consistent 5 day schedule. I prefer to vary my feeding schedule and will feed 5 days then 7 then 5 then 8 and so on, I don't feed on one night of the week.
    With varying feeding you're able to get more food in them without fattening them or rushing their growth. I believe feeding every 5 days year round would be overfeeding and fattening without benefitting and therefore have never done it.
    My snakes are gaining weight well and are not fat and seem to be quite content, they have yet to fast

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    Telling it like it is! Stewart_Reptiles's Avatar
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    I do an heavier feeding schedule on females over 1200/1300 grams and do so 2 to 3 month before pairing. Not a bigger prey but every 5 days some will take it some won't it's up to them.
    Deborah Stewart


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    Re: Feeding to get her up to weight question

    My 2/3 bigger girls would eat twice a week no problem if I offered it at this point. They both have really good weight for their size. Not skinny and not fat, but thick. I have heard of five days as season gets closer, but don't want to start that to early and have them finally say they are full and go off feed. I guess I am close to being on track, if just the runty female will start eating appropriate size prey it would be great, but I have no doubt it will take her another year to get up to size.

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    Re: Feeding to get her up to weight question

    Huge weight gain on out biggest girl. Went from 900 grams to 1250 in 60 days. I haven't been power feeding or anything, but that was not expected. Is that normal? I know she is full and I have to wait until empty to get an accurate weight. Any idea how many grams is waste she could be holding?

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    Patients... is all i can say.....

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    Re: Feeding to get her up to weight question

    Dont think there is a special formula, or a perfect way. Every one has its own.

    When they are in the feeding frenzy, I would give one size bigger rat, or maybe an untaken rat from another snake ( if she had a small one first ), or maybe a rat in the middle of the week....



    Enviado desde mi XT890 mediante Tapatalk

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    Re: Feeding to get her up to weight question

    Quote Originally Posted by CantHelpIt View Post
    Feeding at 5 days is not dangerous but I would not feed on a consistent 5 day schedule. I prefer to vary my feeding schedule and will feed 5 days then 7 then 5 then 8 and so on, I don't feed on one night of the week.
    With varying feeding you're able to get more food in them without fattening them or rushing their growth. I believe feeding every 5 days year round would be overfeeding and fattening without benefitting and therefore have never done it.
    My snakes are gaining weight well and are not fat and seem to be quite content, they have yet to fast
    I've been doing this too since I have lots of fuzzies still but no pups, so I feed two one week, then give 7 days and then feed one, then 5 days then feed 1, then 5 days and feed 2 again. I don't stick to it religiously but I fluctuate a little.

    That said, I only had 4 snakes before, now I have 6 and looking at getting 3-4 more, at that point I don't think I'll be doing odd schedules much longer, as of right now I have half my snakes eating 2 days before the other half, so it feels like every 2-3 days I'm thawing rats and offering. It would be much easier/simpler to just feed once a week. It's hard to not want to offer the girls food more often though and get them bigger faster.

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    BPnet Senior Member CD CONSTRICTORS's Avatar
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    When my big girls "strike that pose", I do not miss the opportunity to feed.

    They'll let you know when they want to take, and when they are done.

    100- 150g weight gain per month is not uncommon. I found they'll probably retain about 40%- 50% of what you feed, so 1 small rat (~50g) per week will get you 100g per month weight gain on average.
    Last edited by CD CONSTRICTORS; 02-14-2016 at 01:18 PM.

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