Please help me figure out how much to feed

[missi182]

And then here's the next weird question...

How long after it eats, do they finally poop???

(There's no such thing as a stupid question, right? lol!)

There is no such thing as a stupid question! I have heard many people say that juvenile bp's poop alot, about once a week. Mine only poops every 3 weeks or so but I think that has been because of the size of his meals. I'm hoping now that his meals are bigger and a little more spaced out he'll poop more on schedule. My little guy has been looking a little constipated so I gave him a bath and for the second time this month in the bath *woosh* everything came out, urates and poop.

I don't know how often other bp owners have had to do this but my little guy seems to go weeks without pooping if I don't give him a bath.

[frankykeno]

We've had our bp, Monti, for almost 2 weeks now.

We brought her home on Feb 17, and left her alone until the 25th when we successfully fed her a fuzzy.

We hadn't weighed her yet (oops, lol)...but did tonight. She is 119 grams.

Can you help me figure out a proper feeding size/schedule for her?

Thanks!

The first decision when feeding is what can you get regularily every week (unless you buy in bulk frozen). If that's mice, then go with that. I feed live rats so a snake that size I'd be offering a fuzzy rat to every 5 days until they hit 150 to 200 grams when they'd drop back to every 7 days and move up to small rat pups. Watch with rat pups, they can be a HUGELY varied size depending on actual age. For your snake, offering mice, I'd be going to a nice chuby hopper every 5 days for now (hopper is the size when their eyes are open and so forth but they are not yet weaned completely from the mother mouse).

You want the prey to be at it's widest girth (on rodents that's the butt/hip area) no bigger than the widest empty girth of your snake. Empty girth means not full of a recent feeding or full on feces.

And then here's the next weird question...

How long after it eats, do they finally poop???

(There's no such thing as a stupid question, right? lol!)

The only stupid question is the one you don't ask and your snake suffers for it, so always feel free to ask.

BP's will pass wastes three ways. Typical liquid urine (pee), a solid whitish mass that comes out soft but quickly hardens called a urate which is the solid form of their urination process and typical feces i.e. poop (sort of looks like cat poop really). They'll poop as often as they need to and that depends on things like being well hydrated and properly fed. If their food is too small there's not much left over to pass as waste product. Even a well fed BP will often go quite awhile then pass a pretty impressive dump.

Just watch for a bulge to develop just above the vent of your snake. This is generally a good indication that it will poop soon and you don't want it on your lap when that happens. LOL. They will also often poop when they shed. How a creature with no thumbs can roll up a shed around a center of stinky snake poop is beyond me!

Feed the snake well, make sure it has access to a fresh water supply and is being kept at the right temps and humidity and it will likely poop when it needs to.

[ChrisBowsman]

Even a well fed BP will often go quite awhile then pass a pretty impressive dump.

That's exactly what happened here.

In the month I've had my bp, he's eaten 9 big mice and a rat, and finally decided to crap them all out yesterday

[JoshJP7]

I would stick to large mice(25g)every 5 days until hes 200g then move to 1 rat weanling(25-35g) every 7 days. @500g bump them up to 1 small rat(40-75g) per week where they stay.

Ive found with my feeding schedule all my snakes will poop before their next meal and grow at a rate of 50-100g/month. I think if your snakes not pooping its either being fed too little or too much. In your case I'm guessing too little b/c you just got the snake. Its much easier for a breeder to sell a small baby than it is a larger snake. It also costs $$ to feed the babies so its much cheaper to feed them just enough to keep them healthy and alive. He probably needs larger meals more often and thats why hes not pooping. Hes using up every nutrient possible bc he doesnt know when the next meal is coming. Easy fix is to bump up feeding to large mouse every 5 day or the rat equivalent(pup).If you feed it too much it will obviously take longer to digest and extract all the nutrients it needs thus prolonging the dump. following this kind of feeding schedule will eventually lead you to a snake that refuses bc you're over feeding them.

I have to disagree with Starmom as a small rat is rather large for a @200g baby.

[starmom]

I would stick to large mice(25g)every 5 days until hes 200g then move to 1 rat weanling(25-35g) every 7 days. @500g bump them up to 1 small rat(40-75g) per week where they stay.

Ive found with my feeding schedule all my snakes will poop before their next meal and grow at a rate of 50-100g/month. I think if your snakes not pooping its either being fed too little or too much. In your case I'm guessing too little b/c you just got the snake. Its much easier for a breeder to sell a small baby than it is a larger snake. It also costs $$ to feed the babies so its much cheaper to feed them just enough to keep them healthy and alive. He probably needs larger meals more often and thats why hes not pooping. Hes using up every nutrient possible bc he doesnt know when the next meal is coming. Easy fix is to bump up feeding to large mouse every 5 day or the rat equivalent(pup).If you feed it too much it will obviously take longer to digest and extract all the nutrients it needs thus prolonging the dump. following this kind of feeding schedule will eventually lead you to a snake that refuses bc you're over feeding them.

I have to disagree with Starmom as a small rat is rather large for a @200g baby.

My small rats are 55g and the snakes have no problem eating, pooping and then eating another one in 7 days. However, if I have a ~200g snake who is still kind of on the slender side in looks, I wait to bump them up. It all depends on the snake and what they tell me!