Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i was just wondering how much should i feed my female, i feed her every night and she keeps on eating, but how do i know when she is full if she keeps on eating? i also don't want to make her too fat that she wont breed for me either, all your help and advice is much appreciated.

Dude...what?!?! you feed her every night? How old is she? What's her weight? I'm also genuinely surprised that she continues to eat every night (a burm maybe, but not a ball). Are you feeding her suitably sized prey? At most you should feed a young ball twice a week, and older balls should be fed about once a week.

she eats mice, she or i can't switch her over to rats, maybe i just don't have patients when it comes to switching. she eats 2- 3 every other night, but yeah she eats when i offer.

You really should switch over to rats it is a lot cheep then what you are spending on mice. How big is she???

matt

How old is she? What's her weight? It really sounds like you're feeding her either way too much, or you're feeding her too small prey. Have you tried scenting rats with mice? Sometimes it takes a little while to get a stubborn ball to switch to rats.

she is approx. 1610g 3 years old and i have tried scenting mice on rats but it seems as sje is scared by the size of the sm rat. you can say i have not tried enough.

she seems happy and normal, eating a lot shedding normally, although i am cooling her right now. im just thinking that she is getting ready for breeding. have not introduced any males with her this season.

I would truly recommend starting her off with smaller rats so that she is not intimidated by the size and then work her up to larger rats. also remember with you cooling temps smaller food is better but 3 mice is really a joke for a 1500 ball.

It may take time but it will save you major $$$ and it is better meal for her for her size.

Also are you feeding live or prekilled?

matt

i purchased her feeding on live and i continued feeding live.

My big female was sold too me as a "Live only! Will not eat f/t or fresh kill"... so I stuck with that for a while. Then one day the pet store where I go killed a extra mouse by mistake, so I took it home, fed her a live mouse, throw the dead one in there and within 15 secs she had it in her mouth. So you never know until you try. I've switched over all my baby balls too fresh kill and they haven't blinked a eye at it. Why not give it a shot.
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Coolluigi

1.0 Pastel
0.2 Normal
0.1 Spider
1.1 Het VPI Axanthic

With some guys on the trucks... Waiting for..
0.1 Het VPI Axanthic
1.0 Yellowbelly
and soon to be more. *fingers crossed*

will do thanks again!!!

John I have a 07 cinnamon female like that. If I have mice to offer she will eat about 3-4 retired breeder mice every day for about 4 days then she will stop and start all over again in a few days. I have been keeping snakes for about 6 years now and I try to stay away from mousers but this one waited longer than I could. She started out as a rat feeder went to about 600 grams at a lightning pace then went off feed for 6 months (as some balls do) so I broke down and offered a mouse and she never looked back.
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Damian Macioce
www.strongholdreptiles.com

It doesn't sound like your female is too fat -- you might want to try feeding her 5 or 6 mice once a week instead of every couple of days -- that will give her body some time off from digesting.

I have a tried and true method (for me) for getting balls switched from live mice to rats -- it's always worked for me but as always every snake is different and results may vary.

First you get her used to feeding on the multiple mice -- throw one in she grabs it and eats it -- throw another in she grabs it and eats it, etc. until she's feeding on 5 or 6 mice.

The next week throw in the first mouse -- grabs and eats -- throw in another mouse -- she grabs and eats -- throw in a rat pup same size and color as the mice - 9 times out of 10 she'll be in feeding mode and won't even realize it's a rat not a mouse.

Try that for a few weeks and every week replace a mouse with a rat pup until you are just throwing in one mouse and a bunch of rat pups -- eventually you can wean her off the mice entirely and start bumping up the size of the rat.

Good luck!
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Tosha
JET Pythons
Toshas Blog

Tosha Ive seen you post that before on another post awhile back and Ive tried it quite a few times the only thing I get is some tongue flicking but no real interest.
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Damian Macioce
www.strongholdreptiles.com

thats exactly what she does with me, she "smell" the rat pup or small rat and does not have any interest at all, she is a stubborn pied, im not sure if being a pied makes a difference in feeding as well.

Some say it does but I guess I got lucky I picked up a 07 female pied from Chris Huffman this past season and shes a little over 900 grams she eats 1-2 live small/medium rats a week. But my het pied girl is another mouser whos about 900 grams also.
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Damian Macioce
www.strongholdreptiles.com

i hate this grrr