Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a 10 month old Taiwan who was the most finicky eater of any snake I have, until about 2 months ago. Now I think she would eat every day if I let her. My question is can I over feed her? What would the dangers be to over feeding? It seems like she can never get enough now, any feed back is greatly appreciated.

Well, there is definate risk to overfeeding any snake. However, a young snake such as yours, and with the metabolism that the asian rats exhibit, could feed every three days without any problems, but your going to be dealing with a very fast growing snake that'll eat you out of house and home! lol Don't be overly conscerned about your snake being hungry, realize that in nature a lot of snakes don't even eat once a week, but sometimes will come across rodent dents and gorge themselves to withstand the next time they find food, which could be days, weeks, or even a month later. I've always kept mine on weekly feedings and have never had any problems. What have you been feeding your 10 month old? By that age he/she should be consuming a larger sized fuzzy mouse with ease.
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Conrad
Too Fast Reptiles
www.toofastreptiles.bravehost.com

I think I do worry too much about under feeding. Nothing makes me feel better than to see my snakes eat so I tend to over do it. Right now my Taiwan has been eating hoppers, three at a time and looking for more. Every time I look at her she seems to have grown. Whats fun is a got a corn snake at the same time, same age and the rate of growth in the Taiwan is just incredible compared to the corn. Thanks for answering,

p.s. do they ever slow down?

Yeah, after a couple years, probably around 5-6ft in length you'll most likely notice a slowdown, but like unlike most snakes, they really don't spend much time getting big around. My male blue beauty was a little over 7 3/4ft when I got him two years ago, last year he was once inch under 8 1/2ft, and I haven't measured him yet this year. Even though this is pretty good sized, there are others that have much bigger...just ask around...I know Randy's out there.
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Conrad
Too Fast Reptiles
www.toofastreptiles.bravehost.com

My Taiwan is also a serious eater- just goes nuts when he thinks he's getting fed (thank god for tongs!). Before I got him switched over to rats a few years ago, he would eat a dozen mice and keep looking for more. I found moving up in prey size helped solve the constant "I'm hungry" behavior. When he was still actively growing, I fed him once every 5-7 days and he'd start acting hungry again in just a couple days after feeding. He shed about every 3 weeks and grew approximately a couple feet a year for the first 3 years. As long as the snake is active and growing, I don't think there's much of a problem with feeding often (other than the expense). Once the snake reached adult size (at about 3.5 years with no brumation down time), I increased the interval between feedings as well as increasing the prey size. He's a big, healthy 10yr old snake at this point so I didn't observe any negatives with feeding him plenty of food, well besides the frequent cage cleanings...
Lora

A dozen mice at a time! wow, I guess mine still has a way to go. That is a beautiful snake you have, my hope is mine turns out like that. If you get a chance to reply I would like to know the length of yours now, I guess it's all done growing at that age. Thanks for answering my question, I appreciate it.

He's around 7.5 foot and about as thick in his mid section as a soda can. Currently he eats around 2 med rats or 1 jumbo rat a week. He's still growing a bit, but slowly now which I'm happy about.
Lora