Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I got a baby retic in december she was 33 inches . she doesnt seem to eat the way ive heard they do but she sheds about every 2 -3 weeks and has only grown about 8 inches. Is there anything i can do to change her eating habits? and she never gets agressive but vet says she is healthy just a little small. all info greatly appriciated

What do you mean 'doesnt eat like the way you've heard'? What kind/size food are you feeding it? Does she defecate normally? I'd suggest taking a fecal sample into the vets to check if theres any parasites or such which could be causing it.

she only eats 1-2 mice every 7-10 days she has already been to the vet and done samples he says she is ok.

You should be feeding about every 5-7 days at that size.

maybe I'm just anxious for her to get bigger she is handled often and is a real sweetheart .thanks

I have 1.1 retics and 0.1 burms and they were red mice. At 33in, it should probably have been on medium sized rats and it should be taking large/jumbo by now. Just keep offering and as long as everything else looks good, don't worry about it.

Thanks she just shed so I'll try a smaal rat in a day or so .

You have to keep in mind that retics are very slender bodied pythons until they're very long, upwards of 12 to 15'. A 33" retic should *not* be eating med rats if our definitions of med rats are the same. And in only 4 months time, large/jumbos would also be entirely too big. Sure, the snake may, just may, be able to eventually get the meal down, but forcing it to eat the absolute maximum size prey it could possibly swallow is just bad for the animal. I guess if you want to powerfeed to get your snake breedable by two years and dead by 5 to 10, it's okay, but I like a more moderate feeding schedule for my guys
-Chance
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Chance Duncan
www.rivervalleyexotics.com

thanks all info i can get the better but she actually took a small rat today for the first time and that seemed to me to be large enough it was about one and a half times her girth but im glad she has switched to rats and off mice Thanks

While it is small and somewhat affordable, I would suggest that you may want to order some rabbit pinkies and start trying to incorporate them into the diet as well. I had a heck of a time switching my female retic from rats to rabbits and even though I hate wasting any food item, wasting 5lb rabbits starts to expensive in a hurry.

Lance

You have every right to differ. I've always fed my snakes on a very conservative schedule, feeding them every 7-10 days from hatching to 1 year and now that mine are 4 years old they are all fed every 14 days. I do however feed them fairly large meals. I believe there was a study done a few years ago that talked about the need for a python to allow normal flora in the digestive tract an opportunity to replenish in between meals and that a feeding regimen that feeds larger more spaced out meals allows this regeneration to occur while frequent small meals does not. Of course there is a lot of information currently on the net about cardiac hypertrophy and the associated increased oxygen demands that occur in burmese pythons following feeding. I'm just speculating that keeping pythons in this state almost constantly by feeding every 4-7 days doesn't allow the python's body enough down time to rest and regenerate. My 0.1 super-tiger retic is 4yo ~15ft 89lb, 1.0 yellow head is ~12ft ~50lb., and my 0.1 4 yo burmese is ~13' 65lb., so I think I can safely say that these snakes, although fed relatively large meals, are not "powerfed" in anyway.

Lance

Thanks for the info,I know switching to rabbit pinks would probably be better but I have to get her to switch to dead first. Ive tried sincne i got her but no matter what she wont touch it . By they way nice looking burm. Thanks Again