Rabbits are goooood

[Mardy]

I know it's a bit blurry, she went blue a day after eating a 3lb rabbit.(4 days ago)

http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/1371rabbits_are_good_a-med.jpg

Good eating :w

Mardy

[Colonel SB]

Now that is impressive :)

[Andy_G]

Wow!

[Invictus]

Finally, someone else who believes in large prey items. :)

[TheRedDragon]

Yay! A well fed snake! :)

[Infectrix]

niiiice..:cool:

Invictus, I'm an advocate for baby BP's on 30g rat pups..:eek:

[Invictus]

Right on Infectrix. I'm pretty much on a mission to suspend the "No prey item larger than the largest part of the snake" garbage that seems to be rampant. People like you and Mardy (And Jeff Favelle, and Tony, and some others here, lol) will help our cause!

FEED THOSE SNAKES, PEOPLE! :D

[Andy_G]

My IJ looks like that after the fuzzies you gave me Mardy lol.

[Colonel SB]

Well I do not give my animals huge prey items but I make up for it in volume as you can see by my JCP babies :p

[Katt]

Why is "no larger than diametre of snake" advice garbage? Have you heard of the "Human Stupidity Factor"? Some people just do not know how to gauge what's too big or small. Such advice as above is given out to lower the HSF and prevent catastrophes.

Myself, I do not feed large meals, but Vanan does, I see his snakes get thicker, and mine are thinner, but also, mine are longer. And we're talking clutch mates here. As well, I have snakes that if given too large of a meal will consitently vomit their food. However, several smaller meals are kept down.

I'm an advocate of the "case by case" method of feeding. But I wouldn't say such advice as above is garbage. As well, I notice carpets can take some pretty large sized meals relative to their thickness. I've noticed that different species tolerate different sized meals, even if snakes are at the same thickness.

[Mardy]

Good point Katt, snake by snake is my way. I tend to give all my snakes a couple big meals in the middle of summer. My big male eats 7-8 times a year only(he goes off food for 5 months cooling/breeding) so he tends to get bigger food items. But I play it by ear a bit, and if you feed a extra large meal you don't feed them again the next week.

MArdy

[Infectrix]

katt, you're right.. I don't want any of my snakes having problems due to my HSF.. I'll just stick to what I've learned the first time around.. However, I think large items SHOULD be considered from time to time..

Mardy, rabbits are still gooooood:cool:..

[Invictus]

Of course if your snakes regurges a large meal you should reduce it. But there are SO many underfed snakes out there because people won't even bother to try large items.

[burmer]

Finally, someone else who believes in large prey items.
Invictus I agree with you 100%. If you can't see the lump you didn't feed enough.

[Linds]

Katt,
Well said! :D

Invitus,
Underfeeding due to prey size is not all that common. You will find more overfed (or perhaps just underexcercised?) snakes in captivity than you would underfed. The snakes that are underfed are typically neglect cases, or just not fed often enough.

[Scales Zoo]

There are way to many different snakes, and different species of snakes to apply the same rule of thumb too.

Most of our snakes are fed large food items, less often than most people would feed their snakes.

We also have snakes that eat many smaller food items at a time, some more often than others.

It really depends on the snake. While there are many obese snakes in captivity, there are also way to many people who think that burms eat mice.

We have jungles that eat rabbits. She gets one every 10 or 14 days. We also have a jungle that only eats mice, and he eats 7 at a time. He gets them every 6 or 9 days.

If a snake will eat big food, good, feed it big. Some colubrids don't do well at all with big food, so I would hesitate to make a blanket statement about snakes eating.

I find that most people feed their snakes too often. This can do more damage than any other feeding practice. The only 20 year old snakes I know of were those who had time to clean out their guts before their next meal.

If I had piebald ball pythons, I might overfeed them to get babies a year earlier than I should. I don't have piebalds - and the few expensive breeding pairs we have do not get overfed either. I think that 6 clutches over 15 years is better than 3 clutches over 5 years with dead parent stock.

Ryan