Reptile & Amphibian Forums

What size mouse and how many per week would you feed:

Under 10 gram western:

10-20 gram western:

20-40 gram:

40-60 gram:

60-100 gram:

100-150:

150-250:

250-350:

TY...

And healthily...I'm not into over-the-top power feeding! Just looking to tweak their diet a bit from what you great folks tell me! Thanks!

What do (some)keepers do, or what do snakes do? Those are two different questions.

Snakes naturally feed as often as they can, from daily, if prey is available, then it dwindles down to not feeding at all, when its not available.

Normally there are seasons for prey type, and they consume as much as they can, before it runs out,(or becomes educated) Educated prey is prey that has outgrown them, or has learned to avoid snake predators.

They seek temps to match the amount of prey consumed. In between, they conserve energy by lowering their body temps.

In captivity, you can offer choices of temps and allow them to feed when they want, or do what most others do, average it out and use a average temp, like low 80's and feed once or so a week.

I recomend learning how to tell how much to feed. As long as a snake is growing low and lean, no amount is too much. If the temps don't support proper assimilation of those prey items, then the snake grows short and fat.

You also need to keep in mind, fat is very necesary in the animal world and its something hard to come by.

The reality is, with proper temps(usable temps) they do not get too fat. Fat snakes is a product of poor temps.

Power feeding is about as silly a term as you can get. If you think about it, a snake feeds when hungry, If its finds lots of food in nature it consumes it, then goes to the right temps to process that food. I would think "power" feeding when a snake does not or stops feeding on its own.

Another major point is schedules, snakes feed for many days in a row, and stop for one of many reasons, HUMANS, set a schedule, based on a calender that has nothing to do with snakes. If you have questions ask.

My adult hogs have temp choices that range from very cold, 39 to 55F up to over ninty F. My female just fed today for the fifth time this winter, So far, when we have a cold front, they head to the cool side and do not feed, when the front passes, she starts to follow a routing of coming out daily and I offer food. AS I said, she just fed for the fifth time. Whats odd is, I have a pair of kingsnakes, next door to them, and they are the opposite, when it gets cool out, they head for the heat. They have stayed feeding all winter and are growing like weeds. They were dwarfed skinny hatchlings in Oct. and they are 2 foot bright healthy snakes now. And they have a choice to go cool if they wanted.

Ok, best of luck, I have a story and pics of wild snakes feeding daily. Again best of luck

I used the term "power feeding" because my snakes aren't breeding machines, they're pets first of all, and each is different. I go by the "hungry snake cue" too, so their schedules vary a bit, even by individual week by week. But I was hoping somebody would have a weekly "average" by age or weight of snake.

And sure, a little snake would have absolutely no problem decimating a nest of mice if he were left to it.

So, how do you vary your temps? You mention fronts, so you must be in a nice area to have them exposed?
Getting a better temp gun next week and playing with different substrates to get a wider gradient like yours in a few different sizes of enclosures. Thank you again!

These animals are in the house, I have a reptile building.

We do not use central heating, we use room heaters. The room they are in, is unheated and the coolest(cold) in the house. Its my dining room office.

I put them here because I wanted to watch them. These are the only animals in the house(except the dog)

Its a four foot vision(for now, building cages now) One side has a small heat pad, with deep substrate, a "retes" stack boards, and a lite above it. they can move up or down(most natural) back or forth, or left to right, to adjust heat. Theres a board in deep substrate on the cool side as well.

Whats odd is, last night she came out to bask for about 1/2 hour, which is the first time I have seen her do that at night.

My field herper friend came over this weekend and said she is looking really good, hes the one that got me started with hogs. Hes also a bit of a recipe keeper, so hes interested in what they are doing.

ALso, I have a few neonate hogs. They are in the animal building and in a rack setup. One neonate was 5 inches on the last day of 2012, and is 11 inches now. Its the fastest growing hog here. Best wishes and have fun

" My adult hogs have temp choices that range from very cold, 39 to 55F up to over ninty F "

So your adult hogs are housed in a cage, where they have those three temp choices you mentioned? From the actual temp of 39 degrees, to 55, and then, up all the way to 90F? AWESOME!

That is way cool!

Please show us pics of this setup!!
-----
Genesis 1:1

Hi Discern,

That is relatively easy to do if you are working from a cold base. On cold nights, my herp building gets to the mid 50s, however, the animals still have basking options up to 110F through the use of halogen floods. The flood heats a small area within the focus of the beam while the surrounding areas remain cool. My snakes, pythons and kings, will typically go between the outside edge of the beam and the cool sides of the cage unless they have food in them, in which case they utilize the full heat of the bulb. But even in these cases they also trasition from very warm to cool in the same evening. I've clocked jungles and blackheads in the low 60s with a large bolus. This doesn't worry me though, as they transition as needed. As long as one has cool enough ambients, a large temp range is possible. Thanks.

Will

You seem to have missed the word, RANGE, that indicates a range from those lows to the highs.

I do love how you have to make it about some wonderful cage. As stated its a temporary vision cage, I do bother to allow a range of temps, which can be done in any cage.

The smaller the cage, the more difficult it is to maintain a good range of choices.

In this case, a four foot long cage to house a pair of hogs, the largest being 21 inches.

The cage I am hoping to use nexr will also be four foot long, and will only "look" nicer. Thanks