Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello Everyone! I've had this little one for about a year. I'm a bit confused on how often I should be feeding her. I've been giving her 2 or 3 pinkies every 5-7 days. After about the 3rd day she is already looking for food. She is shedding every one to two months. I have a hard time not feeding her when she's hungry, but I don't want her to get too big already!
Thanks,
Katie


If it is a yearling, it should already be on fuzzies or possibly small hoppers at this time, IMO. Start with small upgrades, work to the biggest then multiples, then bump up to the next size.
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Todd Hughes

Hello,
Very nice looking snake you have there.

I'm far from an expert, but I'll throw in my $0.02. The general rule most people follow regarding feeding is to feed prey items that are 1 to 1.5 times the girth of the widest part of the snake. This means that pinkies are probably too small for a 1 year old alterna. Pinkies (1-5 day olds) have poorly developed skeletal systems, and their muscles are also poorly developed compared to fuzzies (5-9 days old). This means that three 2 gram pinkies might not be equal in nutritional value to one 6 gram fuzzie, even though the total weight is the same. All of the hatchling snakes I've ever had have undergone a significant increase in growth rate when they made the transition from pinkies to fuzzies. I've heard others make the same observation, so i don't think it's in my head.

I would bump the size of the mice up and keep the 5-7 day schedule and see what happens.
Hope this helps.
MZ

Thanks for the advice, my apologies, I am actually feeding her "mice peach fuzzies" They look like pinkies when they are frozen! Still suggest bumping up the size? She has the skinniest neck with a big belly!
Thanks again and MZ I love the rock enclosure you did for your GB, it's awesome. I may make that my summer project
K

The fuzzies I am feeding her are 3.3-4.4 grams and 5-9 days old

I personally would bump it up to whatever size mouse is equal to the largest part of the snake. My alterna also seems to have more of a struggle getting mice down than my corn and rat snakes ever did. I have a 75 gram corn that was born in September 08 that inhales 10 gram hoppers no problem, which are slightly bigger in girth than she is. But when she was the size that my alterna is now, she was able to handle larger mice than I feed my alterna.

Go for in on the enclosure. If you have any questions about it, let me know.

MZ