Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello everyone, I have a quick question about my retic. He is growing fast, he is already about 4ft and about the diameter of a quarter. I feed him a little on the conservative side, but feed him one rat pup (eyes just open) every 7 days. First, is that still enough? I usually see about a 5-7% gain in girth where the prey settles.

Today when I went to say hi at lunch I slid the rack out, and he stuck randomly at the aspen somewhere..He had a mouth full of aspen and was not very happy, so I helped remove the aspen while he kept his mouth open for me (it was kinda funny). After I removed the aspen he shut his mouth. I'm sure I sound crazy but I'm not lieing. After that I was just observing him in his cage, and he seemed to be in feeding mode. he was very interested in my every movement.. a little to interested. LOL. I kept moving my hand around his cage and then touching him and he definitely seemed to be hungry. I did just last week change the day that I feed. I used to feed Saturday morning but switched to Sunday night so I can handle my snakes more on the weekend... But he ate on Sunday night. Is there any chance this screwed up his schedule? Normally he has no interest when I open his cage, then I will just pick him up or throw a rat in there if its feeding day.

He never struck at me, or acted like it but the behavior seemed a little different. Not that I am worried about it, just curious.

Thanks!

You're starving him to death.
He doesn't have a calender he doesn't know what day it is.
He is just hungry.D.C.

I would agree with the first post, your snake is hungry. Your retic should be eating rat pups every 3-4 days and should probably be off of them and onto small rats in a matter of weeks or a month. Its been a while sence I have had a young snake but I remember mine being on small rats at almost 2-3 month of age. Then again some might say I over feed. However retics are many times mistakingly conditioned to expecct food whenever the human opens the cage. This is alo what you might be experiancing. You need to develope some sort of singal to the retic to let it now when its not feeding time if you are not already doing so. I hear many people use snake hooks and such to let the retic know its not feeding time. I simply nudge or actually push mine to snap them out of that feeding mind set. Once they know they are not going to get fead mine are calm as can be.

i get all my hatchlings off pups and on to small rats at around 3 feet. by 6 feet they are on 0.5-1 pound rabbits. feed your snake
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retic is king of kings

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You remember all those posts about retic feeding responses, and "fine once out of the cage," they weren't kidding. This is going to be part of the learning curve for both you and your snake. You need to learn to recognize when he is in feeding mode and the snake needs to learn when it is not feeding time. As with the other posts hook training, or a gentle pat/slap on the side of larger snakes often lets them know what is going on. Retics are fun like that, watching them is sometimes like watching a shark in a feeding frenzy. Mouth first questions later.
On the other matter of your post. I generally feed young snakes more often than once a week. At four feet I would go with a small/medium rat every five days or so. Even when well fed be ready for an enthusiastic greeting when you open or come near the cage.

Good luck and keep learning,
Josh

At four feet long, the two tigers we have were eating two and three small rats every two weeks. At six and a half feet long they eat one to two medium/large rats at least once every two weeks. They are reputed to and have a very good disposition. You can still observe and tell when they are hungry. At four feet long and feeding a rat pup every 7 days, your snake is telling you something..."Hey buddy, feed me something that will stick with me or next time I will eat your hand." These snakes can ingest prey that is 125% the girth of their body. Prey that weighs significantly more than a rat pup. Congratulations on your purchase of and learning more about the slithering garbage disposal. LOL! If you don't have a burmese yet and are considering one...They eat a lot too. Both species have been observed eating while in blue, so that says they are eating machines. Good luck.
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