Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi guys!

remember that t plus we found in our backyard? well she is doing really well. I have a question pertaining to a good feeding regimen though. I think that maybe one pinky a week is too much for her. She has literally tripled in size, she loves to eat, she meets me halfway in the air for her pinks....which is fantastic, but she actually looks fat. Like, when I pick her up and stuff, she always looks and feels really chubby, even down by the vent region. She does regularly pass feces and urates even when held, so I know there is no blockage of any sort, but my question is, can baby eastern milks get fat? I of course, know that any snake can become fat, but a baby? I have raised hundreds of snakes, and have never seen a baby actually get fat. Someone just gave me an obese male corn snake, and my male cali king used to be a little fat, until I realized it and trimmed him down... so I do know what a fat snake looks like.... and candy looks fat! Then again, I have never raised milksnakes, and I know that this species in particular takes a long time to grow and mature. Maybe since their metabolic rate is slower, all this food can do more harm than good. I feed her one teeny tiny pinky a week... but it fills her up really well and she looks stuffed when shes done. When we first found her, even the tiniest newborn pink was hard for her to get down, but now they are just right. I know that in the wild, she'd likely be preying on baby garter snakes right now, which are much more lean than pink mice. So I am thinking that maybe I should reduce feeding to once every 10 days or so? I don't necessarily want her growing too fast for her own good, I don't care if it takes an extra year or two for her to be fully mature.

I would just hope that there is not some defect with her digestive system that is causing her body to convert too much of what she eats into fat. Has anyone ever heard of this happening? Am I just really over-analyzing things???? I think that I overthink when it comes to this snake, because obviously I value her so highly that I fret over the smallest details of her husbandey... for obvious reasons!!!! It's not every day a new morphs pops up in the backyard afterall, and this could be my -only- chance.

when I got my new reds and pales and tempos....I fed them a pink every other day for months...then twice a week like 3 pinks ....
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feed it more....not less....80 degrees and then some...(78 and 88 if you can do gradient)

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........JY

feed it more?!?!? what?! Look.. I am really not into power feeding my animals... extremely rapid growth rate looks great on a chart but I see no reason to accelerate growth when it's not meant to be. I prefer to grow my snakes slow and strong. she is growing at a very healthy pace eating once per week, and I fear her little body just could not handle that much food. It takes her at least 3-4 days to fully digest and poop out a pinky, because they are still a very large meal for her. I would definitely not feel comfortable giving her MORE food before she has even passed the previous meal.... My snakeroom sits at about 85 during the day. I have found that many of the biggest names in our hobby will agree with one thing- many people feed their snakes way too much!

The main reason you keep up such a regimen is that Easterns in particular are either ON or OFF. When they feed, they feed HEAVY. Then they can go off feed for months and months...very disconcerning for us keepers. But please keep up the feedings, fat deposits wont affect anything in the long run because its still growing. This type of feeding can happen in nature too, thats why you dont see definitive age classes. Sorry to ramble.

Jeff is 100% correct here. I'd feed her all she would take now, because when she stops eating for months you'll be saying to yourself, "I wish I fed her more when she was eating". Just speaking from experience.
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Joe

I concur with the last two posts. How about a more recent picture of that beast?
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“Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.” Emmerson

WWW.TDSNAKES.BLOGSPOT.COM

I had a wild female , ate 0 for a couple months for a guy...so I brumated her...the next spring she ate 6 times...that's it for the year...6 weeks in a row...that's 12 to 18 fuzzies...and she stopped for the year...
she didn't grow, she didn't shrink....at all.....but she was already 2 1/2 foot long .....

......baby milks eat all they can get.....

if it takes 3 days to lose the lump...feed it every 4.....?
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........JY

I dont keep NA milks, so was not aware some were cyclical in feeding like ball pythons, even in captivity. However, I do believe you can overfeed, especially adult snakes. Feeding regimes are a personal thing herpers will never agree upon though IMO. Still, a chubby neonate is not a bad thing and as long as she is pooping and still shows desire to feed, I do agree to go for it.

Yeah, I definitely agree. You can DEFINITELY over-feed snakes, and this is quite evident in many types of obese adults I see in other people's collections. But in this case as Jeff also stated, this would work to a very young Eastern hatchlings advantage as they will very likely be shutting down fairly soon for brumation anyway, and the little bit of extra body mass will most definitely help it through the long fasting period ahead. And again, this is what this more northern form of triangulum is "programmed" to do naturally.

Even if it wasn't close to fall for brumation, a very small young snake utilizes these extra calories towards growing up as fast as possible to reduce the likelihood of being preyed upon. I always like to feed very young snakes more meals until they reach a larger size, then I start a feeding schedule based on their individual needs and what they will be used for in the future.

Anyway, it being a bit chubby at this early stage of the game is a good thing in my opinion.

~Doug

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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com

you asked for an opinion
feed it twice a week
that is my opinion.........

...I been doing milks for 20 years....all I'll say....

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........JY