Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Been keeping boas for the last 12 years and back in october i decided to get a young albinoBurm female and a male Tiger Retic. These were both May babies and where my first venture into Pythons. So far extremely pleased with both. I've noticed these guys are have extreme feeding responses and the retics metabolism is crazy!!..They want to eat and are looking every 5 days. They slam med rats and im thinking about going to a large or starting them with a small and then letting them hit the medium when they are done. Any opinions or comments on feeding these beasts?

Burms and retics will eat just about anything. You didn't mention the size on the one you have, but if they're eating every 5 days it won't take long regardless to get them huge. I feed all mine that are over 6-7ft guinea pigs. If packed correctly, you can store and stack a lot of frozen g-pigs in a relatively small space. They don't have a lot of fur, short legs, and easy to swallow (bullet shaped). My experience is that they're cheaper by far than rabbits or rats/per pound (opinions may vary on that). Most importantly they seem to have the highest mass conversion of food sources I've tried.

Brad Johnston
Python Eugenics
pythoneugenics@comcast.net
781-330-2854

Thanks Brad, both the Burm and the Retic were born in May 2011. Just went to large with the retic, slammed it and two days later not much of a lump. The burm took a small then a medium 4 days ago and might switch her to a large wednesday??.. These guys are absolutely amazing when it comes to their feed response, even the next day they are still looking!!.lol..awesome animals

Yeah these guys are a little more proficient at being garbage disposals than what you may be used to keeping. The important thing to remember is that you have to be the one to restrain it, if you offered them food every other day they would take it. Just for reference, I usually feed my hatchlings/juvies every 7 days while increasing prey size when appropriate, until they hit a year. Then, I increase the size of the meals again and back them off to every ten days. Once they hit about the 10 foot mark, I increase size again and back them off to twice a month.Even this conservative schedule has yielded great results for me. I have a a green Burm that was born July 2010 at about 18-20" and as of last week she is almost 9 feet She may have actually hit the mark but the closest I could measure was about 8' 10" and almost 10lbs. You could power feed and get them big faster, but these guys get fat very easily, so it's a fine line. Good luck with your new acquisitions!
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