Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a few questions

The person i bought my 2 4 month old brbs from only gave them 1 pinky a week, now i have them and read on the forum they actually need much larger prey like young mice or even adults.
What i did was give my female 2 pinkys and 3 days later a young mouse and my male has gotten an adult mouse.
Now im wondering since the person i bought them from only gave them 1 pinky a week if its smart to go feed my snakes the normal amount of food they would get at their age. Im scared the big change might get them to be to greedy and hurt themselves, because im going to try switch to frozen food, so i really need to know if its wise to feed them normal amounts because when switching to frozen i wanna try the first live then frozen method. But that would fill them up pretty much. Is this wise?
Or should i let them get used to bigger preys for a few weeks first?

Michiel,
. I think it is a good idea to feed young BRBs so that they grow at a rate averaging 1.25 to 1.5 inches per month. Mine grow at that rate eating one meal per week. If your snake is less than 26 inches long it will probably need one small adult mouse per week to grow at that rate. As the snake gets bigger you will need to feed it larger or multiple mice or small rats to get growth at that rate.
Jeff

>>I have a few questions
>>
>>The person i bought my 2 4 month old brbs from only gave them 1 pinky a week, now i have them and read on the forum they actually need much larger prey like young mice or even adults.
>>What i did was give my female 2 pinkys and 3 days later a young mouse and my male has gotten an adult mouse.
>>Now im wondering since the person i bought them from only gave them 1 pinky a week if its smart to go feed my snakes the normal amount of food they would get at their age. Im scared the big change might get them to be to greedy and hurt themselves, because im going to try switch to frozen food, so i really need to know if its wise to feed them normal amounts because when switching to frozen i wanna try the first live then frozen method. But that would fill them up pretty much. Is this wise?
>>Or should i let them get used to bigger preys for a few weeks first?

Thank you.
Then ill wait a little bit with switching to frozen untill they get a bit bigger.

I feed my 6 month old every time she poops. I'm not sure if it is true, but it seems to be in my limited experience, that 40 to 60% of a prey item is assimilated to linear growth. That is really a large % of utilizable calories from one meal. Maybe "greedy" isn't the right word. I would just put them on appropriate sized meals at regular intervals and adjust every 2 to 3 months as needed. Mine eats a small adult mouse or very larger hopper/weaner mouse about every 5 to 10 days. Size will be ultimately determined by genetics of the individual, if you intend to breed and have healthy snakes, the objective would be to create steady, consistent growth. Overfeeding can potentionally cause more problems than underfeeding, provided they are adequately fed.
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"There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance- that principle is contempt prior to investigation." Herbert Spencer

Thanks for the information. I was also going to wait till they poop it all out before feeding a next mouse, especially when feeding live. i think if they still have a lot of the old mouse inside of them chances that attacking the new mouse are bigger he gets bitten, but thats just an idea that came up in me.... i have no idea if its true heh