Smaller More Often, Bigger Less Often?

[SnoopySnake]

I'm curious what everyone thinks here. Would you say that smaller meals more often are better, or larger meals less often? I'm sure this can also vary species to species.

[Minkness]

I tried both and actually I think I saw better growth and weight gain with larger meals every 5-7 days.

[marvelfreak]

I do bigger but less often. Babies i feed once every two weeks and adults once a month.

[EL Ziggy]

I like to mix things up. If my snakes eat a small meal they get their next meal sooner. If they get a larger meal I wait a little longer to feed them the next time.

[Sasha2]

Currently Ive switched from larger every 10-14 days to smaller every week. Mostly due to running out of big stuff and needing to get rid of some older small stuff that is going on 6 mnths in the freezer.
Except for kiddo my female ball python who just went up to mediums so she is getting fed every two weeks now.
Ive only fed Ozzy once on two small rats but he will be going up to mediums every two weeks after he dumps(he really needs to get that done).

[jjhill001]

I've done one super tiny pinky every 4 days with my rat snakes before I upped them to fuzzies in order to get rid of the little ones I had left. This was over a few weeks. They actually seemed to not really care however they were more active because the smaller meals allowed them to spend less time digesting.

[RAD House]

I also wonder if the answer varies from species to species.

[bigsnakegirl785]

It depends on the species, and the age of the snake.

Most boa species I'll feed smaller meals less often throughout their life, increasingly lowering food size as they age, but I especially do this with boa constrictors.

With my garters I feed once a week with large meals. My retic gets large meals a little less often, she's growing very well on it considering she appears to be stunted. As an adult, she'll get smallish-medium meals less often.

My ball python also gets smaller meals less often, as a baby I'd use larger meals more often.

[Sylphie]

Young corn snakes/russian rats smaller meal but really often (like every 3-4 days), yearling to 3yo bigger but once in a week/two, and as adults big meals but once in 2 weeks. I'm having a little overweight adult corn, so she's getting smaller meals less often, and 2 underweight corns so they are having bigger meals every week etc... it realy depends on the species, age and weight of snake :D

[SnoopySnake]

What actually led me to post this is that my 6 ft white lipped python is off food, and someone had told me they feed their adults 3x per year and proceeded to *basically* accuse me of feeding too often. Me personally, I do not agree with feeding that little. In most cases, I think smaller meals more often is better because it digests faster, thus leaving the snake feeling vulnerable for a shorter period of time. I believe colubrids should eat more often, as opposed to boas and pythons. My retic and rainbow boas seem more content with smaller meals more often.

[EL Ziggy]

I agree that prey size and feeding frequency depends on the species and age of the animal but I don't think any snake should only be fed 3x a year. An animal may be able to survive but that's not thriving IMO. I don't want to overfeed or under feed my animals. I'm sure there's a happy medium.

[prairiepanda]

I keep only colubrids so there's never a really huge gap between feedings, but the frequency of feedings varies considerably between individuals. For me it's not a matter of "smaller, more often" vs "larger, less often" because I always feed the same amount: around 10% of body weight for adults and around 15% for growing animals. Whether that means one large prey item or multiple smaller prey items depends on the diameter of the snake; I go with a rat about the same size around as the snake and adjust the number of rats to reach the desired total mass for the meal.

But I actively readjust the time between feedings on an individual basis, whenever I deem necessary. My starting point is usually 5 days for snakes up to a year old, 7 days for snakes 1-3 years old, and 10 days for adults, but I mess with those numbers a lot. If a meal weighs more than I prefer, I'll add a day or two to the feeding cycle depending on how large the meal is. Likewise if the meal is undersized, I will feed sooner than usual. Also if I notice that a young snake is barely growing at all(I weigh and measure after every shed), getting thin, or acting hungry all the time, I shorten the feeding cycle. If they start to get fat, I lengthen the cycle. So there can be a lot of variation.

[bigsnakegirl785]

What actually led me to post this is that my 6 ft white lipped python is off food, and someone had told me they feed their adults 3x per year and proceeded to *basically* accuse me of feeding too often. Me personally, I do not agree with feeding that little. In most cases, I think smaller meals more often is better because it digests faster, thus leaving the snake feeling vulnerable for a shorter period of time. I believe colubrids should eat more often, as opposed to boas and pythons. My retic and rainbow boas seem more content with smaller meals more often.

My adult BCI eats 8-9 times a year, roughly, and I wouldn't consider feeding him much less than that willingly....3 times a year seems incredibly drastic.

[SSSSnakes]

My babies eat appropriate size prey every week and my adults eat appropriate size prey every two weeks. Only exception is if my Burmese eats a larger than normal meal, then he waits a month before feeding again. None of my snakes are over weight.

[Aaron_S]

I do bigger but less often. Babies i feed once every two weeks and adults once a month.

Is this the feeding regime you use for your breeding adults? If so, do you think it correlates to your results from this past season?

[Obsidian_Dragon]

I had someone scold me and tell me that snakes should NEVER be fed more frequently than once a week, after I mentioned my garter's feeding schedule as a hatchling. I was like, have you ever had baby colubrids?

I think it really does depend on the snake.

[bigsnakegirl785]

With garters, whether or not you feed them more often than once a week depends on what you're feeding them, not their age. If you feed rodents (even rodent parts), no more often than 7 days, anything else can be fed 2-3 times a week at any age, from baby to adult. Garter seem to maintain a fairly consistent metabolism throughout their life, probably why they have such short life spans.