Reptile & Amphibian Forums

so my little guy just got cut back form 4 pinkys to 2 pinkys. the place i got him from was feeding him that many. now that i cut him back, all he does is hunt. he has not moved from his perch in a while. he has defecated so he must have moved once but returned back to the same spot and maintains his hunting posture.

i plan on giving him 3 pinkys next time. 2 med sized ones and 1 small one. but i am looking for advice. i know all about over feeding and prolapse but also don't want to starve this little guy. i should add that when i was feeding 4, he was constantly moving around and i would never find him in the same place.

Lucas

I would advice feeding one prey item per feeding,
don't know how old your chondro is but it sounds like you have a juvi, so feed once a week and one prey item of the right size, it should leave a small bump in the animal, which you would get from a prey item which is the girth as the snake, feeding more is not recommended,

it might hunt every night giving you the idea it's hungry and it would probably eat if you fed it, in the wild it would have to hunt every night because no prey items will get close enough for many of those nights in captivity however this is no problem, we can make sure it gets aneough food by feeding it once a week.

hope this helps you in your feeding routine,

Jurgen.

Jurgen speaks the truth dude. Honestly you may be tempted to feed your little one more, but stop yourself. One prey item is all it needs. YOu have to remember that these snakes move very little, and have a slow metabolism. There are two thousand gram females, maintained at breeding weights, on nothing more than a jumbo mouse a week. You need to get your neo on a single appropriate sized prey item a week. You may have to move up to fuzzy sized mice. I have a male that would eat every hour of every day if I fed him. He still gets his one prey item once a week, and has been doing so for the past two and a half years. He hasn't starved yet.

As long as your snake doesnt look malnourished you have nothing to worry about. If that is the case, you might want to take a fecal sample to your vet to make sure an internal parasite isnt robbing your little one of nutrients.

Steve

Oh and I forgot to add...there is a possibility that the reason your chondro was moving so much at first had more to do with a new environment than feeding. I noticed that when I have gotten my past few babies they move around for a few days until they find a spot in the cage that is optimum for them (this could be due to several factors: cover, a nice heat gradient for optimum body functions, or just a chondro being a chondro)...I do notice that all of my snakes find a nice spot in their cages and then seem to be in that spot every day, they move around at night, but you should be happy that your snake has found a nice spot in the cage to curl up on a branch...DOn't think lack of movement equates to hunger (unless that lack of movement is belly up on the bottom of the cage)

thanks for all the replies. the snake looks healthy and all its just a big change in habits. before he just stayed curled up a perch and now he is head down in hunt mode most of the time. today, however, he was curled as usual. he must be getting used to the new feeding schedule.

i don't want to get a rep as the person who is power feeding his snake. thats not it at all! the people i got the snake from was feeding it that much, which, i too thought that was way too much. i ordered a bunch of frozen pinkys so i will pick out the larger ones and feed that to him until its time to step it up. so now i need to talk the mrs. into getting another something that eats pinkys. like a baby snake!!

If it's eating 4 pinkies, it definitely should be on fuzzies at least. You want to get away from relatively non nutritious food items like pinkies as soon as possible. Definitely save those pinkies for some other new snake!
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Yeah, move it up to fuzzies. Don’t worry about under feeding; baby snakes are easy, if it’s growing, it’s not starving. If it’s not growing, feed more. A hatchling GTP is likely to need a new food size every few months for the first year or so of its life. One larger item is always preferable to multiple smaller items.
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Dennis

went to the pet store and bought fuzzies. the lady there was cool and had some GTP's there. which is unusual for this area. she hooked me up with a size range of fuzzies starting with the small ones and gradually moving up in groups of 3s.

also figured out why the snake has been acting lazy lately. its eyes turned opaque!! wont be long to my first shed. i increased humidity and can't wait!