Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok well my burm at 3 ft looks firly chunky on his small rat weekly diet...How can you tell if your snakes getting toomuch to eat? Also once hes 6 ft i will shwitch to rabbits and go toevery 2 weeks for a feeding...I was wondering should he be kept on every 2 week diet his whole life...or once he gets older cani decreae to say every month? My burmese is a male and i don not plan to breed him...Please post your advise...thanks,
Jake

you are always betting erring on the side of too little than too much when it comes to burms (w/in good reason). Young burms will do just fine one 1-2 appropriately sized rodents every two weeks. Young adults (1-2 years of age) can be fed a similar schedule but larger prey and I will usually fast them at certain intervals for 2-3 weeks during this optimal feeding schedule. Once burms reach mature adulthood, particularly males, you can certainly cut back to 1 rabbit every 3-4 weeks. Sometimes it is hard to give "rules of feeding" because every burm is slightly different. Some need more calories while others don't need as much. I look for subtle things like behavior (active, alert followed by periods of rest), muscle tone, alertness, etc when defining optimal health. What I don't want is a snake that just coils in one area for prolonged periods of time; listlessness can be an indicator of several problems; obesity being one of them.

Rob Carmichael

You are saying my 4 month old burm can take 1 small rat every 2 WEEKS instead of every week? He is 3 ft right now. Alsa rob please coment on this...
3ft- samm rat 1x a week
3 1/2 ft= 1 medium 1 xa week
4ft= 1 large once a week
5ft= 1 jumbo once a week
6ft= 1/10 of snakes weight in rabbit every 2 weeks
7-full grown ft= same as 6ft.

At what age do i decrease feedings of 1 large rabbit every month when is it safe to do this?