Reptile & Amphibian Forums

When I had just 2 snakes (a couple years ago) feeding them was very easy and if one did not want as much as it usually did I threw the rodent out. Now I have 7 snakes and was wondering what most people do when it is feeding time.
Do you feed a certain time of the week and if one does not eat,you wait till the next week?
Do you thaw all the mice you need and if they are not all eaten that time throw them out,or thaw a small amount and thaw more as you go? I know you are not to re-freeze rodents. Just wondering what some of you do when you have a few snakes,,,
Thanks

usualy they all eat so i just thaw them all a meal, but when one is in a picky spell i thaw one less, offer the picky one a meal and either thaw out another if it eats or give the meal to another snake if it doesnt.

you can refreeze mice, but only once or twice
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jake barney

my addiction:
1.1 ball pythons
0.2.1 corns
1.0 cal king
0.0.1 wc garter

A lot of it has to do with the size of the snakes, whether they all eat the same size prey or not.

I try to feed on particular days but with my busy schedule it doesn't always work out. I also breed my own rodents so cost of throwing a few away isn't much of a factor for me.

I've got 2 adult burms which eat large rats and 6 other various snakes that eat sm - med rats. I've also got 5 baby burms that eat rat pinkies.

In general, I try to feed each group on different days, sometimes combining the adult burms & sm - med rat eaters. By not "feeding till they puke" (completely stuffed) I'm usually able to give an extra rat or two to some of the other snakes. This involves knowing their limit, which takes some trial & error in order to establish a baseline. (I don't mean to insult your intelligence/experience, by any means, just trying to make things clear, that's all.)

Your problem is you need a monitor and a gator to feed off leftovers to. Great garbage disposals, they are. Rarely refuse a meal, no matter how stuffed they are. Ha! Ha! For me, that's where any other leftovers go now.

I have re-freezed rats thawed at room temperature a few times without any problems. I don't recommend doing it to one that's been heated thawed quickly in warm water, though. One problem with re-freezing, which can usually be done a few times per rodent, is each time it's thawed the membranes thin out & when their skin bursts, tears, it stinks to high Heaven and is plumb messy.

With seven snakes, you should know your snakes' limit to where at the most you'd have one, maybe two, leftovers at a time. If you continually have leftovers, don't completely thaw a few rodents until you see they're needed.

Have a good one!
HH
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Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

Thanks for the replies...I will start by feeding the ones who can sometimes be picky,,and what they do not eat feed the ones who are not. My gopher is my ravenous one,,so he will eat anything. Wish I could have amonitor,,,not enough room ,,,yet.
HH,,love the political correctness line,,,I was born and raised in Kentucky,,,so it hit home...lol
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Ball Python
Jungle Carpet Python
Eastern King
Mexican Black King

"To serve man...it's,,,it's a cookbook !!! "
Sonoran Gopher
Aberrent Cal King
Anduran Milk

Ha! Glad you got a politically correct grin.

About monitors; I've always been a snake man, nearly 40 yrs of keeping, but just got into lizards (monitors & beardies) a lil' over a year ago. I love 'em, but man, they're considerable more work, space, complicated, etc..., than snakes. I don't regret it, though.

BTW, David, in the thread below, is right about pinkies not holding up to re-freezing. Toss 'em.

Take care!
HH
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Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

my two baby corns are eating a pinky every 4th day, but I feed everyone else on Wednesday. I'm usually out of town on the weekends, and Wed. really works out good. I always check mine to see if any are in a shed cycle, and then thaw out the appropriate amount of mice/rats...with having mostly colubrids, I don't have much trouble getting them to eat! lol If I ever do have any left over, I refreeze them and use them next week. Smaller mice, like pinkies, don't do too good refreezing, but medium to adult mice refreeze easily.
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-David

Check out my pet pics at:
http://www.myspace.com/obx_fisherman

1.0 ball python (Pandora - don't ask)
1.0 argentine boa (Prometheus)
0.1 hogg island boa (Andromeda)
0.0.1 brazilian rainbow boa (Inara)
1.0 kenyan sand boa (Diablo)
1.0 normal corn snake(Cypress)
0.1 amery. corn snake (Morgan LaFay)
0.0.2 baby corns (Romulus and Remus)
- 1 normal, 1 ghost
0.0.1 banded cali. kingsnake (Cain)
1.0 tangerine honduran milksnake (Narcissus)
0.0.1 snow corn snake (Valkyrie)
1.0 amazon tree boa (Pegasus)
1.0 colombian boa (Poseidon)
0.1 albino san diego gopher snake (Athena)
0.0.1 sandfish skink (Slick)
0.0.1 fire skink (Phoenix)
1.0 dog (Luke)

the wife's pets:
1.0 bearded dragon (Leonidas)
1.1 ferrets (Ares, Enyo)
0.0.1 betta fish (Captain Morgan)
1.2 cats (Galahad, Ripley and Sassy)
0.1 Boxer

I have too many animals to bother refreezing. So my approach is to thaw out a decent meal for for my picky eaters and a small meal for my guaranteed feeders (although most of my snakes are guaranteed feeders). I offer food to the picky snakes first and feed the others after the picky ones have had a chance to decline. If they do, the food item goes to one of the voracious feeders.

However, I throw out mice each time I feed. I don't want to risk contamination for $0.40 or even $1.00. I keep notes of snakes that didn't eat, so that next time I can reduce the loss. On a good feeding, I don't have any waste.

Sometimes, if I anticipate a snake isn't going to eat, I don't thaw anything out for one of my good feeders and offer the picky snake first. If it eats, I thaw out more for the good feeder. If it doesn't, my good feeder gets it.
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas