Reptile & Amphibian Forums

The het PB brooksi I got from Tom just shed - I generally don't feed in blue and like to weight after they shed - so it is empty stomach (real) weight.

He just hit 300g. He's still about an inch and a half shy of 3 feet.

I imagine he could be bigger if I had fed him more, but 300g at about a year old is pretty amazing - at least to me. And no, he's not obese.
-----
I decided my old sig was too big.

Hey Funky! Just trying to learn something. Does this actually shorten a snake's lifespan or it just depends on proper husbandry?
-----
Gray-Banded Kingsnake

I don't think it shortens the lifespan.
I did not try to grow it fast - I've got some Cal Kings that hatched at the same time that are under 100g.

It's just a difference in growth rate - it grew faster and therefore was offered larger prey as it grew.

If I had offered it more food with the intention of growing it fast it probably would be bigger.

I don't think it has any impact on lifespan.

Power feeding, where animals are tricked into eating more (by manually inserting rodents into the the mouth when it is just about finished with the first) is IMHO bad and something I will never do.

I rarely offered him more than two rodents at a time - and those cases were just garbage disposal purposes and he had the option to refuse them (which he sometimes did). He's currently eating two large f/t mice a feeding.
-----
I decided my old sig was too big.

I feed all snakes a massive amount of food during their first year of life. Many of them grow to breeding size in 18 months and produce two clutches of eggs every year, some of mine are now approaching 10 years old and are doing just fine.
I have seen quite a few of my snakes surpass 600 grams in a year, one or two passed 1000 grams.
If your husbandry is good, I don't think a snake will be content on a mouse a week diet but that's just an opinion
Tom Stevens
-----
TomsSnakes.com