Need to vent....

[dakski]

New to this thread, but as a non-breeder, 3 snake family, who has kept snakes for more than half my life (now 37 years old), and keeps three different species, it can be confusing and much is open to interpretation.

So much depends on interpretation and applying X rule to one species, may not work for another species.

I get why everyone is so excited about this thread.

My BCI, for example, Behira, is a 1 1/2 year old female, and I already have her on smaller meals than she could easily take, every two weeks (she is about 700G and I feed about 60G small rats now, give or take). My BP at 700G was still being offered every week, but was starting to regulate herself, or so it seemed, by refusing every 3 times or so.

My Corn, could easily eat a weaned rat, or bigger, at 640G, but I keep him on 30G mice every week. Rats are not normal food for corns and they can get fat easy, so smaller meals more frequently work for them.

Anyway, the point is, I had to do a lot of research on both what to and how often to feed everyone, who to listen to, and what breeder(s) to buy from.

I tend to believe for an adult snake, less (either size or frequency) is more, assuming they are healthy and maintaining weight. That does seem to be true, to me anyway.

I do not think this applies to young snakes who are still growing, or at least not to the same degree. A growing animal needs to eat enough to continue to grow at a good rate. Of course "good rate" is open to interpretation.

Jeff Ronne documented feeding BCI's a large meal every week, or more, essentially power feeding, to get them full grown and ready to breed fast. If I recall, none, if only a few maybe, lived to be 5!

Apparently their organs could not grow as fast as their bodies.

But that's BCI's. I have heard of breeders getting corn snakes up to size quickly and they do not seem to do as badly.

In the wild, the snakes that do survive, feed opportunistically, not regularly. They breed. That tells me that in general, again, less is more. It's not like nature is saying okay, this 3 year old female is going to need a rat that's 100G, etc.

Not that we should mimic nature at home. We have an opportunity as keepers and breeders to give optimal care to our animals.

Bottom line: Research, research, research. Not just your species, but breeders, and know who you are getting advice from. Knowledge is power.