Carpet Feeding

[Minkness]

My young, female carpet python has a voratious appitite. I switch her feeders up and try to stick to a 7 day feeding schedule, but she seems to always be hungry and ready for more.....

She once took 2 mouse fuzzies and a rat pink and had a pretty sizable belly bulge, for a day.....by day 3 she was 'begging' again. Same when I fed her a fairly large mouse hopper.

I don't want to cause health issues later on, but she seems to want (need?) a feeding about every 3-4 days. Would it be bad to actually feed her that often?

[EL Ziggy]

How old is your carpet again Mink? I feed my 3 m/o carpet every 5 days. He's eating rat fuzzys. I have a bunch of mice fuzzys that I'll feed him too but it takes 2-3 of those to make a meal for him. My yearling coastal gets fed every 6-7 days. He's eating jumbo mice and rat pups. He was a bit undersized when I got him but he's growing nicely now.

[Minkness]

She's about 3 months as well I believe. I didn't get an age on her when I gor her, but she looked well past her first few sheds and I've had her over a month now and one shed with me. So I'm not over feeding her then lol.

Are these guys normally fast growers with fast metabolisms? I should probably weigh her again.

[EL Ziggy]

I definitely don't think you're overfeeding your IJ. I'm not too sure about their growth rate as these are my first 2 carpets but they seem to be growing pretty well so far. My jungle was 31g when I got him on 9/22/15. He weighed 92g on 11/27/15 so he's almost tripled his weight in a little over 2 months. Same thing with my coastal, he was 85g when I got him on 9/2/15 and he weighed 250g on 11/27/15.

[Minkness]

That sounds about right for my girl. In fact, I may be under feeding her....no wonder she always acts so hungry! Shame on me lol

[reptiledude987]

With the average rule of 10-15% of body weight for feeding I bump it up for my juvinile carpets to 15-20%. once adult I go back to 10-15. Zig sounds like youre right on. mink you could bump it up a little but what youre doing isnt bad by any means either.

[Minkness]

Thanks RD! I thinknthe feeding weight is spot on, it was the frequency. I'll just be adding an extra meal day for her and make sure she gets handled more too. I went to get her out of her tank and she was in total fred mode lol. Took her a minute to decide not to strike. XD

[beththecarpet]

I have 2 carpet pythons a coastal female and a jungle male having kept boas for years I was shocked at how much faster a python will digest and the size of feeders they are capable of eating they really are awsome snakes. And. Yea they. Do grow quite fast

[pinefamily]

Up its food size, and spread out the feed days to 7 or 10 would be my advice, Minkness.