Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi, just popping in for a quick question, i was once told that you should wait to feed your snake again till it poops its previous meal, my question is if theres an validity to that statement, i fed my ball on monday and he ate the pinky rat like a champ, i wanted to get on a 6 day feeding schedule to promote growth, but its day 5 and he hasnt pooped yet... should i go ahead and feed him tomorrow or wait?

How much does he weigh currently? The snakes I want to bulk up I feed every 7 - 10 days an appropriate sized meal. I sometimes feed a little more often, but you will never be able to get it to eat every 5 days like clockwork. That isn’t how it works. You want to use the scale and track her weight. As long as she is eating and gaining weight you are good.

You really need to get a feel for your animal and snakes in general. They seem to go through growth cycles where they will eat and grow at an incredible rate. On the other hand, they may sometimes take long periods where they do not want food. You need to take advantage and make the most of the growth periods without making the snake fat and unhealthy.

I had a 100% het Pied female that shot up to 1150grams and I was hoping to breed last fall. All the sudden sometime around mid-September 2008 she refused to eat. This continued with no food at all, until this March…?

Utlize the scale, observe & learn through trial and error and most of all be patient.

My Balls almost allways poop when they shed. Or you could toatly clean the cage scrub down everything, there sure poop all over the place then. LOL
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Vince Pramuk []__[]

while the thing about them commonly doing it when they shed is helpful, my question remains unanswered, does the snake have to poop before its next meal or not?

this snake is not refusing to eat, im simply wondering whether or not i should offer it food.

Hello,

Yes. Feed your snake. If you feed the snake every 5 to 7 days it will do fine. It will deficate as it needs to. My snakes would easily eat every 5 days if I offered, but I only feed every 7 days. If you feed an appropriately sized rat once a week your snake will grow 100 grams a month easily. Every time your snake sheds it will have a huge defication and urine. That is what in our world of snakes we call empty. This is the snakes truest weight. If you start to keep records of your feeding you will also start to notice it's shedding pattern. Most of my snakes shed every six rats.

Good luck,
Bill
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0.1 Het Albino
0.1 Spider Het Albino
1.0 Albino
0.1 Spinner
2.1 Super Pastel
0.1 Jungle Pastel
0.1 Het Pied
1.0 Pied 50 percent
0.1 Clown
1.1 Het Lavenders
1.1 Het Caramel Albino
0.3 Normal
1.1 Kids
0.1 Spouse
1.0 Chocolate Lab

I offer food usually every 7 days, regardless of if there's a poop or not. You don't have to offer food this often, but I've found it's best to let them eat as often as they like, because at some point they'll stop for a while.