Reptile & Amphibian Forums

today i had some extra rats and decided to fill up my girl Nanako. i raise rats myself and they were still fresh. i wash them and let them cool so they are not aas tasty as fresh killed but more like thawed.

Anaway one after the other Nanako gets 5 large ( 265 grams ) rats down. She's 2 years old,six and half feet long. she gets feed every 2-3 weeks, 3 rats. however now that i think about it it had been a long time since I noticed a bulge after her meal. today there was a bulge.

i might affer her small rabbits occasionally but don't want her to get addicted as i raise rats and don;t want to set-up more cages for rats. so wahts the risk of her getting addicted to rabbits? or are rats more tasty just like mice are better then rats?

( i had read that u should feed the least tasty animal the snake would take so you can fall back on more types of animals if the snakes goes off food)

I feed my large BCIs either rats or rabbits. (all f/t or freshly
killed.) I have not had any problems getting them to take a
rat after having had rabbits for the past few feedings or vice
versa. The main feeders I have heard that can be problematic
(addictive) are hampsters and gerbils which of course your
snake has already outgrown eating.

Personally, 5 rats is a HUGE meal, esp for a 2 year old. (Of
course, my 2 yr olds are no where near 6', maybe 3-3.5')
Are you sure you are not over-feeding her? (They will always
eat as much as you give them, but it's not always best for
their health). Just my opinion! Personally, I give my
adults either 2 large rats every 2-3 weeks or one small rabbit
once a month. My 3 yr olds get one weaned or small rat every 2 weeks.

Take care,
April

thanks april. just saw your post below. sorry for you unfortunaties.

today was a big meal but normallly i do not think i'm overfeeding. there was another large dicussion on one of the boa or python forums again on power feeding. many said they would never feed more then once a week!! i mean thats already a lot and they were sure they were doing well and that power feeding was every 3-5 days!

i read all i could find in the web. some say feed weekly and some say feed only after the snake defecates. i go for average with 2-3 weeks, an usually the snake would have already passed feaces.

as for meal size 3 rats don't show in her so i doubt it was to much. maybe sizes are not the same in USA as here thats why i posted the weight. I saw some rats in some feeder sites that are much larger then mine.

my weaned rats are as large as a mouse ( ex breeder mice are larger). is that a bit too little for for a 3 year old? mine got that when they were 3 months old. its jus too bad that snakes don't come with a manual isn't it?

Are you sure about the size of that snake?? 3 rats every couple weeks should not get a boa that large that quick, I feed every week up til 2 years old, and my 2 year olds are rarely 6 foot. Just curious, alot of people accidently overestimate the size of their snakes. Craig

i jsut went over my snake documents to see the size she gained since last time.

on first of feb this year she was 5 feet and 11lbs. Since then she's had 25 large rats (0.6lb eahc) with an average of 4.1 rats a month till end of july when she measured 6feet 5 inch and 17lbs.

thus with an average of only 2 rats every 2 weeks she gained a foot and a half in 6 months. she's growing fast but i don't consider it overfeeding. maybe its excellent husbandry?