Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a 2 yr old (27 months) female black pine that is a little short of 5 feet long.

I've been feeding her a small or medium rat once a week.

She doesn't seem to have grown much this season (maybe a few inches longer and a little thicker), so I'm wondering if I should increase feeding frequency, or feed 2 small rats at a time, of if maybe she's matured and this is a good feed schedule. I'm a little afraid of over-feeding her, but I would like to breed her in a couple years with a younger male I have.

Any comments would be appreciated.

how big are the smal/med rats in grams?
i usually feed my adult females 6- 60g rats a month. that is divided up 1-2-1-2, essentially eating once a week/10 days. for a month after laying eggs i will feed the female up to 2- 60 g rats/week, then go back to the regular plan. Eggs are usually laid by mid june so i give them a little period of increased intake, but they have the whole season (til november) to recover so i don't go nuts with extra food. i have been able to breed in consecutive seasons so this hasn't affected fertility to this point.
adult males get 4-6 60 g rats/month without much variance. occasionally i will throw in a little mid/late season fasting period. providing there is a proper enclosure, if you observe the snakes' behavior, this will often show you who is hungry and needs to be fed more, and who doesn't.
that's the way it goes 'round here, any comments or - are welcome.
dave b

The "small" rats are 50-85 grams and the occasional "medium" rat is 90-170 grams.

Both the male and female are in seperate 5' X 3' enclosures. The male is growing like a weed. I feed him typically 2-3 mice a week and he's a yearling already pushing 3 1/2 feet long, but still relatively thin.

The double up every other week sounds like a good idea.