Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My wife and I are having a disagreement as to the appropriate feeding of our baby Bull (our first snake). She is a 4 month old albino-whitesided bull who is 22 3/4 inches long. I just started feeding her 2 f/t hopper mice every 5-6 days. My wife contends that it is too much and the hoppers are too big for her. We'd both like the opinions of breeders/keepers who don't power feed but strive to keep the healthiest and most content snakes as possible.

Thanks,
Ron
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Ron

"What we do is but a shadow of what we want to do..." Peter Weiss

I'd say you're on the right track. As long as your snake isn't regurgitating, you're okay.

Aaah, bullsnakes! They will eat until there are tails hanging out of their mouths (don't laugh, I've heard of it).

I think you're probably okay with the amount of food and the frequency of the feeds. If you're worried about the food being too big, keep two things in mind: first, snakes can eat things about 25% to even (in some cases) 50% bigger than they are in the middle. I don't ever push my pets that far, but I doubt you're hurting her. I feed prey that's about the same girth as the snake. Bulls have heavy necks and wide jaws. She shouldn't have a problem.

Second: whatever you're feeding her, she's a bullsnake. She'll be big enough to handle it without an argument faster than you can blink. So don't worry. You're probably doing fine. To avoid power-feeding, I just fed mine after each big poop, but this can be a problem as some bulls tend to poop a lot (oh, the tales we could all tell!).

I think you're fine.

Did you get my email, btw? Hotmail's been weird.

--Naamah