Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I normally feed my animals every thursday, but I recently found out that my "male" was actually a female. She's old enough where I should be able to brumate and breed her this coming season, but I haven't been feeding her for growth as I didn't need a "he" for another year and it didn't matter...now though, I need to put some size into her fast. She's eating medium rats now, and was wondering if doing that once a week, or if feeding a small rat every 3-4 days (or after she deficates) would be better. Pretty much what i'm asking, is how often can I safely feed her?

Chris
-----
0.2.0 Grey Rats-Lauren, Avril
1.2.0 Black Rats- Robert, Cady, Kylie
1.2.0 Albino FL Kings-Nick, Jessica, Ashley
1.1.0 Crimson Corns-Kane, Ruby
0.1.0 Het-Crimson Corns-Lola
0.1.0 White-Sided/Pos Het Albino Black Rat-Lita
1.0.0 Albino White-sided Black Rat-Rey
0.1.0 Albino/Het White-sided Black Rat-Stacey
1.2.0 Creamsicle Corns-Vince, Trish, Torrie
0.1.0 Fl King-Bonnie
1.0.1 Biak GTP-Brandon, Aru GTP-Orochimaru
1.0.0 Flame X Blood Bearded-Ruff
1.4.0 Ball Pythons-Kritsy, Gretchen, Alexis, 100% het for albino balls- Naruto, Hinata
0.1.0 Red-tail Boa-Xena
0.0.1 Savannah Monitor-Izzy

first off there has been no studies about how healthy it is to feed a snake too much. however it's been my exp with balls and other snakes that fat animals are lazy breeders. if it's a mature female and she eats a true med rat once a week, that should be plenty as long as she wasn't bred last yr. if she was bred last yr then you would either push that feeding schedule up to every 5 days or give her the yr off which she may take on her own. I have a female that was bred this past year at 1800 gm. she layed 6 perfect eggs. she has been on a 5,5,7 day schedule since late june and is over 2300 gms now. if she goes this year she will be put with a het pied male or my citrus ghost if he gets to size. hope this helps. Josh Hutto

-----
2.3 het pied (RDR, alan bosch x 2, BHB x 2)
1.1 het albino (ben siegel, gulf coast)
1.2 het citrus ghost(gulf coast line)
1.0 citrus ghost (gulf coast line)
0.1 graz pastel female
1.6 05 normal bp's
0.6 04 normal bp's
2.5 adult normal bp's (some need breeding to see if norm)
4 various corns
0.1 brazilian rainbow boa (alan bosch)
1.0 american pit bull terrior
1.1 taco dogs (ankle biters)
1.0 grey cat
1.1 bearded dragons

a BAD dog is MADE not bred, support the American Pit Bull Terrior as the greatest breed of dogs on Earth!!!!!

It is kind of strange that alot of people on this board write how bad it is to overfeed, then I see some of the same folks with like a 1000 gram one year old females for sale in the classified section? It always makes me wonder how people can pack as much weight on their snakes as they do and not overfeed them?

Alan

1000 grams is not overly big for a one year old female - my Fluffy just turned a year old a couple of weeks ago - she is just shy of 1000 grams and has never been overfed - she eats every 7 days (give or take a few days depending on her meal size and availability of appropriate size food items). She was a slow starter and didn't even start rats until she was a good 6 months old, she eats live so I have a tendancy to feed her smaller food items than I would if she was eating f/t. She is neither fat nor have I ever stuffed her. Of course I've also got a couple of other snakes about the same age on the same food and schedule that are 100-200 grams smaller. I think genetics has a lot to do with their growth too.
-----
Tosha

"Nihil facimus sed id bene facimus"

7.33.0 Ball Python (Harry and Fluffy and gang)
1.0.0 Angolan Python (Anakin Skywalker)
0.0.1 Green Tree Python (Verdi - yeah I know but my kids love the book)
0.2.0 Feline (Pippen and Pandora)
0.0.1 Desert Tortoise (Pope John Paul aka JP )
2.2.1 Fish (1,2,3,4)
0.0.2 frogs rescued from pool skimmer

Are you saying that your Fluffy is just a big-boned girl

Seriously though, I wish I was able to get mine to pack on weight faster and me not feel like I am killing them in the process Your exactly right about it being genetic cause I have some that gain weight much fasster. You can really pretty much tell from the time they are babys which ones are gonna be the eaters and pack on the pounds err' grams. With that said, I am still amazed by some of the weight gains I read about on here.

Alan