How many meals?

[BChambers]

How many moderate-sized meals, on average, do your females take between one clutch of eggs and the next? Assume a meal is equal to one small-medium rat.

[Blue Apple Herps]

From when they lay one to when they lay another? More than 30, that's for sure.

[MarkS]

Depends on the female, but usually once a week. Which is more then 30.

[BChambers]

I was thinking from the laying of a clutch until the female becomes receptive to breeding the following season. I know for my own snakes, considering time off for sheds and periods of normal seasonal inappetance, I doubt they take more than 30 meals in a year....

[Somed00d]

How many moderate-sized meals, on average, do your females take between one clutch of eggs and the next? Assume a meal is equal to one small-medium rat.

that's a tiny meal for my 3000g girls

[BChambers]

that's a tiny meal for my 3000g girls

I also have a few 4-5000 gm females that prefer larger rats, but that won't affect the poll answer, since they still will probably consume the same number of meals, regardless of the size rat you feed them....

[WingedWolfPsion]

16 meals for my biggest girl between her clutch and her first lockup this season--she got an early start this year, and a late one last year. (She's well up to size, bigger than she was when she started breeding last year).

15 meals for my other girl, who's also started.

26 meals so far in my third big girl, who has NOT started locking up yet.

But they eat throughout the breeding season, so I expect they'll have plenty more meals before they become gravid. They're currently on a 14 day maintenance feeding schedule because they gained their weight back SO fast.