Appropriately-sized meals

[wolftrap]

Kira is growing great; I don't weigh her, but I will be getting a food scale and beginning to use it within the next couple of weeks.

I have her on a weekly feeding schedule where I fed her one fuzzy rat every Friday. At first this would satiate her and she would hide for a few days to digest, but I suppose as she grew she began to display what looked like signs of hunger, roaming around and sniffing everything. I finally got a thermostat for my UTH, as well as a thermometer-hygrometer to measure ambient temps/humidity, and her husbandry is fine. Plenty of water, plenty of hiding space; she just seemed hungry.

So since she was eating fuzzies, I decided to go to the store and buy her the next size up. In the freezer, they only had pinkie, fuzzy, small, medium, and large rats (and jumbo)... According to the charts I've seen, it's supposed to go pinkie, fuzzy, pups, weaned, and THEN s-xl. I opened up the small rats to check, and when stretched out, they were a SMIDGE bigger than Kira's thickest circumference. I decided to try it.

I thawed in the fridge for several hours, then warmed in hot tap water for about 15 mins (like always), and offered it to her. She struck it immediately and constricted, then left it alone and looked like she was losing interest. I thought maybe it was too cool or it was too big, because about five mins passed and she would just circle it, biting occasionally, sniffing the air, etc. She did finally eat it completely, but it took several minutes longer than normal (naturally).

I know it's a bigger rat, and thus she took much longer to assess and swallow, but I want to know if this is a good size for her (just a TIIIINY bit bigger than her thickest circumference)? Is it normal for a snake to take this long when the size of the prey graduates? Should I back-pedal a little and give her a pup or weaned pup before I return to the small rats?

thanks in advance.

[dakski]

Get a weight ASAP. Also, the rat should not be bigger than the thickest part of her body. There should not be a noticeable lump after she eats.

Refer to chart below for proper size. I believe as a BP matures, you can spread out feeding intervals from weekly to bi-weekly, or longer, but you are a long way off from that if a small rat was big. My adult BP - about 1,800G, eats a medium rat every two weeks. When fed weekly, she would often refuse. She fasts in the winter and loses some weight and then gains it all back within a few months of returning to food in the spring, even on a bi-weekly feeding schedule.

[wolftrap]

Alrighty, I'll weigh her and use the chart - what's strange is that the rat with "water weight" was only about 0.05 centimeters bigger than her thickest part, but once she swallowed fully, there was no noticeable lump (am I correct in assuming that the snake's muscles crush the ever-loving daylight out of the prey once it's down?). I also expected that the worst case scenario would be that she'd spit it back out before swallowing fully or, even worse, she'd regurgitate (which was not a fear of mine since the rat wasn't too big, but anything can happen....). thanks for answering.

[dakski]

Alrighty, I'll weigh her and use the chart - what's strange is that the rat with "water weight" was only about 0.05 centimeters bigger than her thickest part, but once she swallowed fully, there was no noticeable lump (am I correct in assuming that the snake's muscles crush the ever-loving daylight out of the prey once it's down?). I also expected that the worst case scenario would be that she'd spit it back out before swallowing fully or, even worse, she'd regurgitate (which was not a fear of mine since the rat wasn't too big, but anything can happen....). thanks for answering.

It can be surprising what they can swallow and handle as a meal!

Always be safe and not sorry by feeding a smaller meal when in doubt!

Spitting up, and especially regurgitation, are very, very, bad for the animal.

[Armiyana]

Sometimes in cases like this, I try and balance out the hunger/prey size issues by offering 2 smaller prey items that add up to the appropriate sized ones. Typically this ends up being colubrids that I do that with, but 2 of my bps have been making me use this trick a bit.

I have one snake that should be eating small rats but because of some scarring from an injury, we eat 2 mice instead. It still adds up to about the same weight wise... but gives less stretch and concern of regurge.

[wolftrap]

I tried feeding her two fuzzies the week before I attempted the small rat, but she spat the other one back out in a moment - zero bad smell, no discharge, etc makes me think she almost ate it then thought otherwise. I might try it again. I don't want to sub the small rat with two mice since she's a rat-fed BP, but if it's for her benefit, I will definitely try.

[dakski]

I tried feeding her two fuzzies the week before I attempted the small rat, but she spat the other one back out in a moment - zero bad smell, no discharge, etc makes me think she almost ate it then thought otherwise. I might try it again. I don't want to sub the small rat with two mice since she's a rat-fed BP, but if it's for her benefit, I will definitely try.

I would try for one appropriate sized meal over two smaller prey items. Many snakes won't take a second prey item.

If she's a rat eater, STAY WITH RATS!

BP's are known to imprint on a prey item and only want that. If she's taking rats, keep her on rats. That will pay dividends when she's bigger. If she has a mouse and decides now that she likes that better, she may hold out for a mouse. No fun giving 5 mice a feeding to an adult female BP.