Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a 6 year old male eastern indigo. Over the last few months, he was become increasingly aggressive in his response to anyone being near his cage - very aggressive feeding response. He will lunge and bite at the glass if there is movement in front of his cage.
I feed him a small to medium rat once a week.

Should I be feeding him more?

I would say, yes, you should be feeding him a considerable amount more. At six years old, any Drymarchon could easily eat four to eight meals of that size in a single feeding. I generally feed my adult cribos four to six prey items in a weekly feeding, and nothing larger in size than a small rat - Drymarchon have relatively narrow jaws. I feed my animals small rats and chicks, and they thrive on this diet.
-----
Roy Blodgett
Green Man Herpetoculture
royreptile@yahoo.com

1.1 Drymarchon corais
2.2 Pseustes sulphureus
1.1 Pseustes poecilonotus poecilonotus
1.1 Lystrophis pulcher
1.1 Lampropeltis getula californiae (desert phase)
1.1 Boiga dendrophila dendrophila
2.3 Pogona vitticeps (snow and red/gold)
1.0 Iguana iguana

My adult texas indigos lunge at the glass when they are hungry, just as you described. I usually feed them medium sized rats and they generally eat about 2 per week. I offer them more, but they usually stop at 2. My easterns will occasionally lunge like that, but nothing like the texans.
-----
Paul Weaver
Carolina Herps

Thanks for the input! I've gotten a few compliments on him being nice and slim, but perhaps he is a bit too much. I'll bump it up to 2 or 3 smalls and see how that goes.

Do you just keep offering until they refuse? It seems like they'd never say no to another rat!

that's pretty much what I do. The adults usually stop at 2 medium rats or 3 small rats.
-----
Paul Weaver
Carolina Herps

Check his temps too. Sometimes higher than normal temperatures can make Dry's more food aggressive than normal.

Doug T

www.DougTaylorReptiles.com