Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello...this question is for those of you who have brought alone baby Cribos into adulthood. How ofter do you like to feed babies and as they get over a year, do you change your feeding program? prey size? Frequency? Thanks for your time, Dan

I feed babies small meals 2-3 times a week. Large juvies, sub adults and adults eat twice a week and their food items are sized accordingly. Mine are feeding on mice, rats and chicks and at this time of the year they really only want chicks.

I've been given a lot of conflicting advice on this subject on forums. My best advice is find someone you know that actually has been keeping and breeding Drymarchon for many years and follow their procedures.

That is what I do.

Jeremy

Dan

"Experts"??? LOL

No doubt. jeez Jeremy?

I'm by no means an expert and have yet to raise Cribo's to an adult size but I feed the same as mini does. From my experience thus far I can see Drymarchon becoming very overweight. While I do stick to the mentioned feeding schedule my amount of prey and size varies greatly at each feeding, sometimes they get 4 or 5 small prey items while other times they may only get 2 or 3 of the same size. I think there's a fine line between feeding to much and not enough. I take a good look at my snakes and determine how much to feed that way.

Nate

Agreed. Also, my snakes will periodically want only chicks and when they do I feed more since the chicks have no fat on them.

I sure hope you quality keepers (all) don't let yourselves degenerate like some other forums here. There are probably both active and lesser active Dry's out there in nature, and I wouldn't be too sure about what a Dry can/will intake in nature, but once out of nature, this is all mute, they can do what they need to in order to take care of themselves.We keep captive drys like captive drys, some are able to do it better than others, but what makes keeping any captive snakes best is the willingness to hear all and decide for yourself what is best for the snake(s) in YOUR care. My .02.
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Todd Hughes

just my .02 cents but it actually seems like from what i have read over the years here that people have a tendency to under feed neonate drymarchon & way over feed their adults. young drys pretty much make it clear when they want to eat, roughly about every 3 days w/out stuffing them. however, as adults they require much less attention. my records show that my adults eat a moderate amount about every 10 days or so give or take. there are exceptions sometimes but basically, if they're not prowling, i leave well enough alone & let them be. when they're good & ready, they'll let you know. a fat male will become disinterested in breeding but worse yet, a fat female is a canidate to become egg bound. either way, you'll shorten their life by over indulging them. hope this helps somewhat.......

After seeing all this I wish I could retract the question. I'm pooling information from all over the the country, different climates, elevation, etc. We also all use different lighting, caging, heat, and prey type. Some may handle a snake once a day or once a month. All of these things change how often an animals eats as well as its health. It would be unrealistic to say that only ONE right way to feed exists. I was looking for a general feel for feeding, not absolutes. If you end up with healthy happy animals, you did it right!.... Thanks for the input, Dan

I don't think there is any reason to retract the question as I still think you got some good info from several "experts" I would be interested in what you are compiling this for?

Nate

I would feed hatchlings/ yearlings as much as they will eat.

That snake looks big enough to eat the person holding it!!!!!
Awesome picture!

Alan that is one of the single most spectacular animals I have ever seen, I actually checked out your photobucket account the other night and saw that picture....Incredible!

Spectacular animals and I hope to get one of those beauties one of these days and I'm pretty sure who it's going to come from.

Nate

Alan,

Still underfeeding your animals I see! LOL

Brian

As a young drymarchon grows, it requires maximum nutritional input! Until it reaches adulthood, and approaches maximum size, at which time everything begins to slow down. And subsequently it's nutritional needs are then geared more for maintenance,and breeding, and much less growth/developement. That said, I feed my drys what/when they tell me to. And they will definately tell me when they are hungry! You will learn what I mean over time. But I never feed adults quite as much as they want. Even less if they start toi get fat and lazy. Handling them more, and taking them outside for yard exorsise will also increase nutritional/caloric needs. Babies and juvies get all they want, as often as they want. I offer food to all my drys once or twice weekly in winter, and two to four times weekly, in summer. Spring and fall are somewhere in between. Trust me,...they will tell you what they want. It's just up to you to determine if they need it. And that will come with experience. Iv'e been keeping/breeding/producing/hatching/growing drymarchon since 2002. So whatever that's worth to ya. Good luck!

Thanks very much for sharing your experience.... sounds reasonable enough to me. I sure in time I'll read them very well also... thanks, Dan

WOW,

i would love to have such an indigo... i feel like they are getting smaller and smaller here in europe....... i want such a monster so bad!
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