I don't care which angle you take, if you are feeding 11 mice in 3 days, and then trying 3 more in another 3 days, one of two things is happening. Overfeeding, or you need to adjust your prey size.



I agree with both sides of the feeding argument in different situations. It also matters VERY MUCH the species we are talking about. But since it's kingsnakes here, let's assume it's OK to feed often.



I have a few animals that are over 10 years old, these are pets, and are not breeding stock. They get fed an appropriate sized meal once every 1 or 2 weeks. I'm not real strict on the regimen, sometimes may be longer or a shorter. Either way, these are perfectly healthy animals, and I feel if I fed them more, it would do them more harm than good, since they are not stressed by a breeding season.



I have other snakes, both sub-adult and breeding adult, that I feed more often. Depending on time of year they may get fed every 5 days or so, again may be a day or two different at times. These are growing and or breeding animals, undergoing the stress of those processes. They would probably respond poorly if I fed them every 2 weeks. And I have snakes that could easily thrive if you fed them an APPROPRIATE sized meal every 3 days, but they would eventually skip some meals.



In either of those scenarios, there is no way these snakes should be eating the total number of mice we're talking about. I don't think any snake I've ever owned could eat at that kind of pace, if feeding the right sized meal. If that snake had eaten the last offering, it would have eaten 14 mice in 6 days!!!!! Maybe if it were an adult Jungle Carpet Python that refused rats, but that's an example of a snake that wouldn't eat the right sized item. Another post here mentioned adult Kingsnakes being fed fuzzies, and there bones were sticking out, once again, not an appropriate sized meal. Take a 7 foot boa, would you try to feed it 14 large rats a week? Even that snake couldn't take it.



You are eventually either going to see a regurge, or a fasting period if you are feeding at that rate. And actually, that was the real meaning of my initial post, how can you be surprised if your snake won't eat those last 3 mice, if it's already had 11 that week.
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Brian Suter



www.serpenteer.com

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