Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i was just wondering if it was in the feeding or genetics. i have seen postings for 06 females at 1200 grams or geater and i have also seen adds for 05 females just over 600 grams. if it is in the feeding i would greatly apreciat some advice. mice/rats and how many days between feedings

thanks
matt

I think it could be a little bit of both. I feed my snakes every 4th day and they grow very rapidly. I have an '07 het albino female at 450g. I also have 4 '06 normals that I got in June and they were about 500g each and they now weigh about 1000g each. They never refuse a meal and are very healthy. I have also heard of 3 or 4 yr old females that weigh 1500g and females of the same age weigh 2500-4000g. I would think feeding and genetics play a part together. Just an opinion, but it seems the most logical explanation to me.
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Happy Herping,
Jody Barnes
Royal Kreationz

My snakes aren't fat, they're big boned.

~np!

I think it is both also. It cant be genetics alone, cuse you can have snakes from the same clutch, with the same exact parents, year to year and the eating habits will not be exactly the same.

time for another feeding debate. wonder how long it will take to get booted off the sys.

some snakes are good eaters, some are not, some are powerfed, some are not.

you are going to get a lot of diff. responses - so lets see what happens !!!

Feed your ball pythons all they will eat- more POWER to ya!

Steve

>>i was just wondering if it was in the feeding or genetics. i have seen postings for 06 females at 1200 grams or geater and i have also seen adds for 05 females just over 600 grams. if it is in the feeding i would greatly apreciat some advice. mice/rats and how many days between feedings
>>
>>thanks
>>matt

It's a combination of both. Some snakes, no matter how much you feed them, will only grow to be 3 feet. Some will get to be 5 foot fatty little monsters.
The biggest factor, though, is the snake's willingness to eat regularly.

For example - I have two sisters that I hatched myself in February. One was significantly smaller than the other, having hatched 2 days premature. They both started eating in late March, and both ate at about the same rate and grew at the same rate, so the runt stayed the runt for several months. About two months ago, the larger of the two stopped eating regularly. Now, she only eats every other meal offered - so about every two weeks. Her runty sister, however, eats everything in front of her face. The result?
Runt - 675 g
Sister - 470 g

These girls are eating small rats. They started off on hoppers, within a couple feedings, were up to mice. After about a month of mice, they started getting two mice a feeding. I switched them to small rats in August.

Just feed your snakes an appropriate sized meal regularly...and if they eat, they'll grow!

~jenny
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"Polysyllabism in no way insures that what you're saying is actually worth being heard." - Blake (an e-friend of mine)

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