Reptile & Amphibian Forums

right now i am feeding my snakes heavily before breeding/cooling, but my question is what would be a best way to feed, 2 prey at the same day once a week for each snake or 1 prey every 5 days for each snakes? i have been doing 2 prey every thursdays i just wanted to see how you guys do this with snakes. also how much food is good? or am i doing ok? thanks.

I've read one regular sized meal twice a week, I've also read that one slightly larger meal than normal every time it defecates. These are just things I've heard. If they seem to be doing well then keep up what you've been doing cause a sudden change might not be a good idea.

I feed my little guys(and girls)a fuzzy every 4 days.

I feed my adults once a week, several items at a feeding.

I'm not sure that "fattening up" for winter is really necessary if they are at a healthy weight. I'd love to hear opinions on that.
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3.0 WC; 0.3 CB L. getula californiae
1.0 CB L. getula nigrita
0.1.1 WC; 0.0.3 CH Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata

thanks guys, you make it sound like there's no need to feed the breeders snakes so much and i guess i will stick to what i have been doing, feed 2 rat or mice per snake once a week then i am going to stop feeding and let them clean out their system "poop" before cooling them, sounds right? this is my first breeding try. i have a pair of creamscile corns, pair of tawian beauties snakes and a pair of hypo brooks kings plus a male anery brooks. i also have other snakes that will be old enough to breed in the next season or 2. that's why i am still asaking and learning. thanks again and feel free to add some things to say.

Wow, I think I am the weird one now. I never feed one item no matter the size of the snake. The pinkie eaters always get three each, sometimes four. Twice a week! Fuzzy eaters always get two and I try to go from “small fuzzys” up to big ones quick, quick, QUICK!! I put everything in a sweaterbox right away with newspaper, a rolled up one like a tube, a shoe box with the water bowl inside (no spills) and a deli cup with aspen so they can explore and crawl around a lot, maybe that helps? I also feed twice a week. I worry more about the little ones choking on a big item than overfeeding. I would never worry about that with any young snake, really. These snakes can eat another snake- I think of that as a huge amount of food, equivalent of several pinkies, fuzzys or mice. I don’t do rats with adults, just LOTS of mice. I think rats can get them fat. I think there’s a big difference between “fatten them up” which just means get them up to breedable size ASAP, and get them fat, which means an adult that is getting much more than enough to properly ovulate, produce eggs, etc. I say feed them a lot and often, especially to adulthood.