Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i was at the hamburg herp show on saturday and i got a juvie female ratsnake. i cannot remember the exact species she is altough i believe it started with an "m". she is about the width of a pencil and no more than a foot long. as of now she is in a 10 gallon tank with repti bark, moss, flexi-branch, fake plants,water, and a hide. she has a basking spot on the one end of the tank and the ambient temp is 80 degrees. the question i have is this... how much and how often should i feed her? i gave her a pinkie mouse saturday and she actually ate it! the first day too. i had one left so i gave it to her last night and she ate that too. someone please help! thanks!
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UroKnight...coming soon
1.0.0 mali uromastyx
1.2.0 green anole
1.0.0 brown anole
1.0.0 emperor scorpion
1.0.0 cuban knight anole
1.0.0 ribbon snake(currently escaped)
1.0.0 african clawed frog
1.0.1 green iguana
0.1.0 eastern kingsnake
0.0.1 3 lined salamander
0.1.0 albino leopard gecko
0.0.2 house gecko
0.0.1 crocodile gecko

I usually feed my baby snakes once every five days.

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0.0.1 Green Water Dragon
1.0.0 Tokay Gecko
1.1.1 Bearded Dragons
0.1.0 Columbian Red-tailed Boa
1.0.0 Yellow Ratsnake
0.0.1 California Kingsnake
0.0.1 Black and White Tegu
0.0.1 Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula
1.0.0 Evil Budgie

Congrats on your new pet. One good reason to only feed your new snake every 5 or 6 days is that you want to give it a couple of days after each meal with no handling (so it doesn't puke). After a couple days R & R...you can handle your snake.

I feed all of mine every saturday. It keeps it easy for me, and wont malnourish them. All mine are still pretty young, so thats not a problem. As they get older, feed them less.

Also as draybar mentioned, give them a good 48 hours to digest their meal before you handle. I know a lot of people who have posted saying they couldnt wait and that caused regurgitation, then non-eaters....long list of problems.

And congrats! And get us a pic when you can and we can tell you what you have.
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-Chris

The reason mainstream thought is thought of as a stream is because it's so shallow. -George Carlin

A fool doesn't learn. A smart man learns from his mistakes. A wise man learns from the mistakes of others. Which one are you?

My Website
Rat/Corn snake care sheet I wrote

Current snakes:
0.1 Licorice Stick Black Rat (Lola)
1.0 Black Rat (Frankie)
1.1 Texas Bairds (Jose and Rosa)
0.1 Blue Beauty (Brunhilde)
1.0 Green Tree Python (Claudius)... coming soon

how many mice to you feed at one feeding?
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1.1.0 bearded dragon
0.0.1 green iguana
0.0.1 emperor scorpion
1.0.0 knight anole
2.1.0 green anole
0.0.1 golden gecko
0.0.1 skink
1.0.0 american toad
0.0.5 oriental firebellied toad
0.0.1 green treefrog
0.0.1 asian longtail grass lizard
0.1.0 rat snake
0.1.0 eastern kingsnake

Feed your snake one prey item but nothing larger than 1 1/2 width of your snake.I feed all my younger snakes once a week.My adults are fed every 2 to 3 weeks.If I feed anymore than that they just get fat...Paul