Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have an '02 columbian who is almost 3 feet long and has been eating fuzzy mice once a week for a year, which, up until a few weeks ago when i got in the market to buy another '02 female, i thought was normal. I am seeing ads with '03s that are already eating large mice. I am seeing '02s that are already 5 feet long. Am I underfeeding my snake? Or do most breeders just feed their snakes a lot more to bulk them up?

I would not say you are way under feeding, however I will tell you my babies first meal usually consits of a weaned mouse or a fuzzy rat. At a year old I try to have them on small rats. Your snake will live on what you are feeding it, but I would not expect it to grow very well. At 3ft. It should certainly be eating 1 or 2 adult mice or a weaned rat. This is just my opion though, others will have different opions I am sure. Craig Kade

My dum is 26" and a adult mouse is almost too small for her to constrict. I'm already looking for may first small rat to feed her.
BTW she was born oct. 02 and I was feeding about every 10 days, though now it's about every 5. 5 months ago when I got her, I thought fuzzy mice were the right size but she wouldn't touch them. Tried a adult mouse and all is well since then.

I have a 3' 3" Guyanan redtail whos doing medium rats weekly

My pair of '02 Bci are feeding on 1 or 2 small mice (subadult?) per feeding, once every 2 weeks. Both of them are roughly 2 1/2 - 3 feet in length. While I don't think your prey size is as large as it should be, I also don't think that you are terribly underfeeding it due to the frequency it is being fed. Typically breeders, and many keepers, feed their snakes more heavily to speed up growth and reach breeding/adult size more quickly. I personally prefer to feed my snakes less heavily. It does take longer for them to reach breeding size, but when they do I know that they have also had the time to reach sexual maturity and not just attain the size for it. I also prefer to have lean, healthy snakes and not obese ones, which many captive animals are prone to be with a heavy diet. As long as your animal has good body weight and steady growth, I would simply switch to a larger prey item on the same schedule.

Just my .02
Raven