Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Here's a sort of crappy pic that shows about what size he is at only two years old. As I mentioned in a previous post, he weighs 1050 grams(over 2.2 pounds), and measured with a tape exactly 58" inches. It will be really interesting to see how big he becomes later on.

~Doug

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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

*drool*
Here's hoping my little guys get that size
And that pretty! These are amazing as adults, just drool worthy.

I have to ask how much does he eat weekly?

I give the baby/rescue juvy (unsure of exact age) I just took in once a pinky ever 3 or 4 days. I've no idea what he feeds that guy Small rats? Several mice?

If you're asking about mine, I feed it one, sometimes two large mice per week. He is by no means "power-fed", or obese at all, just large and very healthy. If I fed him more and larger meals, I'm sure he would be much bigger than he is now, but I didn't want him getting too much larger than my female, so she wouldn't be intimidated by him their first year of breeding. Not to mention the fact that I wanted to keep him from being obese and less healthy.

Lots of fat deposits can be very harmful to snakes organs once they have reached adulthood. When they are very young, they utilize most all of their calorie intake for growing, but once they become adults, it's always a good idea to watch how much they eat, and keep them at a proper weight. As many know, these guys will ALWAYS want to eat, no matter how much they are fed.

I have seen many kings that were FAR to fat as adults, and looked like stuffed Italian sausages.

best regards, ~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

I have seen many kings that were FAR to fat as adults, and looked like stuffed Italian sausages.

which looks great on the table but not so great in the cage

Can it actually maintain that bulk on that feeding regime? Wow. I fed my retics 400 gram rats when they were that size, about every 5 days Of course they were still growing like weeds..

When they were very young, I was feeding them two appropriate sized mice sometimes every three days or so, and later as they grew, I gradually found them a nice happy medium that kept them at a very healthy weight. The female of course was busy getting beefed up for egg production, so she was fed two large mice, and the male usually got one, sometimes two, depending on the size of the mice, I always monitor what I think is appropriate at any given feeding, and depending how long it has been between feedings. I really don't feed all my stuff on an "EXACT" schedule, it varies a little quite often.

After the female laid her eggs, of course she was much thinner, but not too bad at all for just laying nine HUGE eggs her first time around.

She quickly gained her weight back by me feeding her a little extra for a while, and now she is right back up to a very nice healthy weight. You would never know she just had a big clutch of eggs not long ago.

The mice I usually feed my adult kings now are HUGE retired breeders, so they aren't whimpy little things by any means, and this seems to be just fine. Again, sometimes if they are regular sized adult mice, I will size them up to what I think is appropriate at that particular feeding.

I have MANY different types of snakes, and none are thin, or too fat, they are all just real nice and healthy. "

best regards, ~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

Thanks!, I appreciate the compliment.

Yes, I agree, nice floridana are hard to beat for sure!

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

That's cool, Doug. I love big Lampropeltis. I've got a female hondo from Tom with almost the exact same specs: 1000 grams, 56 inches. She's almost a year older than your brooks, though, so she's had a little extra time.
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http://www.mikefoux.com

1.2.0 Hondurans Het Amel
1.1.0 Hondurans Anery, Het Hypo
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0.1.0 Honduran Hypo, Het Anery
0.2.0 Pueblans
1.0.0 Pueblan Hypo
0.1.0 Corn Bloodred
0.0.1 GBK Blair's Phase
1.0.0 California King
0.1.0 California King Blue-eyed Blond
0.0.1 Speckled King WC
0.0.1 Jungle Carpet
0.1.0 Ball, Normal
0.0.1 Sulcata
0.1.0 Wife, Caucasius Mexicana

Very cool!,.....sounds like she is doing real well and will lay you a nice clutch this coming season. Did she breed for you this year?

I also have MANY different Hondo's too. One thing I have found over many years of keeping them, is they cannot be fed quite as much regarding big meals as the getula complex, they just don't have quite the same insane metabolism, although they CERTAINLY do eat pretty voraciously as well, I have some that want to chase me down for food, and snatch anything in sight, and some that want the meal placed there so they can slowly go up to it and nose it a bit, then finally go ahead and eat it.

It is really funny about all their individual feeding behaviors, as well as unique personalities too. As a general rule, they don't seem to grow as fast as the getula, although there are some exceptions to this depending on many different factors.

~Doug

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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

Awesome site Doug. I too will be interested to see that one grow to its potential. Keep us posted as the years pass.

Thanks Joe!,...I will certainly do that. I will document some of the others too.

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"