Reptile & Amphibian Forums

What is the safest way to add weight to a snake thats too skinny? Power feed or just go slow and steady?

I would feed smaller meals every 3-4 days, my burm (6') can eat a jumbo 2lb rat but that lasts her for about two weeks easy, while she'll eat 1-2 small rats every 3 days if I let her. I'd go with the smaller meals - cheaper & easier to swallow, especially if you don't use f/t (i always do). This is clearly speculative, but I think eating small meals on a regular basis keeps the metabolism up.

This is one that I'm gonna make a big ole guess at....

But, I think the smaller more frequent meals would be best to do the job. If the snake is skinny, just find the biggest meal it can eat safely, and then cut that size in half. Make the meals more frequent, 3-4 days like the previous poster stated. I think they're body will work in a somewhat similiar way that a humans do ( ok, don't flame that statement, but.. c'mon.. I'm out on a limb here ), if you've been without food for five to six days, you don't go out and over eat yourself for 3 days to make up for lost time. You're stomach and digestive system just won't handle it, and a human would end up in some sort of digestive shock. A snake, would most likely go off feed or have some sort of disorder form if you attempted to power feed a less than ' healthy ' snake. If your snake is small for its age and length, then most likely its been underfed for a long period, and may not even want the extra food at first if its large meals.