Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a male Honduran rather new to my collection and larger than any of the other snakes I own so I thought I would see what you guys thought about food amounts for him. He is a bit over 5 feet long and weighs in at a very healthy 670 grams.

How many adult mice should I feed him each week? I gave him two adult mice the other day and he clearly wanted more, but I held back and waited till today and gave him two more. Once again He looked at me like I had just given him an appetizer and he was waiting on the real meal.

So tell me, What will it take to satisfy this big guy

Howdy Dawn, glad to see you here on these forums now and even glader (new word) you're getting into more milks!
Your 5' Hondo could easily take 5 weaned or young adult mice at a meal but the 2 per week shedule is very reasonable. I like to give these milks a large meal now and then, usually after a shed, and would approx double the standard sized meal then.
As you know, overfeeding can result in fat lumps when a snake has stopped its explosive growth usually around 5-6 years of age but an occassional big meal will not result in the immediate formation of those fat lumps. I've never seen a young Hondo with fat lumps but have been suprised at the size of 3 year olds.
I would change the feeding schedule to 10-14 days when the snake reaches 6 years, some friends go with once per month for the summer diet when the snake has a solid, stout, form.
Nice Hondo BTW! Jeff

Thanks for the advice on feeding the big daddy Hondo. I have quite a collection of Kings and Milks going but he is the largest, so I call him Big Daddy Here is his Tangerine Mate for the season. He is Het for Albino and Tangerine as well so they should produce a nice clutch. I got this pretty girl from Don Shores.

The feeding "plan" outlined above is fine for growing Hondos but is probably excessive for Sinaloans, Alterna, etc...which have a more normal growth rate; these would become lumpy eventually.
If you snag some Gaigae along the way, you'll be feeding them furiously also.
All for now, Jeff

>>He is Het for Albino and Tangerine as well

just so no new readers are confused: a hondo can't be het for tangerine, because tangerine is not a simple recessive trait. a hondo may have had a tangerine parent, but that doesn't make it het for that trait. "het" works only for recessive traits, and describes a snake that has one gene for the trait and one "normal" gene.
terry