Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey everyone,

I am experienced with large pythons, like burms and retics I use for public education. Someone gave me an ~4ft very full bodied borneo blood. The previous owner fed 2 jumbo rats a week. I asked if he fed rabbits and said that he was worried about the small head/mouth size. The size at the midsection is at least 4-5 inches in diameter. I've been doing the same feeding regiment for the last 4 months or so.

Can a snake that size safely take rabbits or do I need to stick with jumbo rats. I want to care for this snake as well as the previous owner did, who had to give it up.

Thanks,
Dave

Don't worry about it--you can safely feed rats to bloods/STPs their entire lives. A lot of bloods are "plus" size only because of the sheer quantity they are fed. In fact, you don't even need to feed an adult blood/STp weekly--every 10-14 days for a male would be absolutely fine.

thanks for the quick reply.

I too believe that adult snakes do well on a 14 day feed cycle (most of the time). I started doing this at first, because my rat supply was running short at the time. The snake really threw a fit. All night long, it would play hockey with the water bowl. I was cleaning the cage every day so that it didn't get blisters. Once I went back to a once a week feed, it calmed down.

I thought feeding one rabbit that was the same weight as the rats would be cheaper than feeding 2 jumbo rats. Everything I know about snakes tells me this guy could take small rabbits. After the original owner's worry about head size, I'm worried too.

Later,
Dave

Hey,
They do an can take a rabbit of appropriate size, but why bother when you can maintain a healthy blood on jumbo rats just the same on a proper schedule. In fact I don't feed my bloods and short-tails for about 14-20 days at most. I have even given them a month off with no ill-effects from it. In fact a break from too frequent feedings, is actually healthy IMO. These animals can put on size and weight in no time flat when fed on a schedule of 1 jumbo rat at the schedule I described.

-Angel
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"Until we lose our self, there is no way of finding our self."
-Henry Miller.

Actually, rabbits are all white meat and make for a leaner, better meal. I feed my adult females rabbits for the last months of fall before introducing them together and it seems to do great things for me. I only use 2-3 lb rabbits, but Ive had no problems whatsoever in doing this for the last 5 years or so.