What a meal-size should be.....

[Jeff_Favelle]

I have never been one to agree with the people who fret and fret and fret over power-feeding. I think 99% of the keepers out there don't feed their snakes enough. They feed them tiny items that don't even put a noticable bulge and they "feed" far too infrequently. Snakes are built to eat largish items (especially Boids) and they are built to thermoregulate and then eat again.

Here's a small Jungle Carpet Python (2 months old) with a typical food item inside. Not a large food item at all. Believe me, I've fed larger.

http://members.shaw.ca/Uploaded_pics2/Jungle_huge.jpg

[Invictus]

Right on Jeff!

Here's my Lavender King Snake after a meal. This, like the pic above, I don't consider to be a large meal. This was a jumbo fuzzy:

http://www.invictusart.com/images/LeviathanFull2.jpg

[HetForHuman]

Now thats how you feed a snake.

good photo jeff, he looks like he wants a piece of you too....LOL

[Solid Snake]

same with me, i always feed larger than i am suppossed to

[snakemann87]

yep i agree totally. in the same situation with the kingsnake owner i know.

This isnt a good picture of how much of a bulge it puts in his belly(ran out of medium rats) it isnt a big item but he took it down SIDEWAYS! . I believe most people feed small for the fear of their snake not being able to take it down also.

http://ball.geckoisland.com/albums/Ball-Pythons/2_G.jpg

[burmer]

I always have and always will feed larger items. IMO if can't see a lump you haven't fed enough. Great pics guys.

[chas*e]

The ETBs look the funniest when they eat a big meal ..you swear they would fall off the branch..

[Clownfishie]

Here's my best big meal pic ;) She kept it down, but she looked so damn uncomfortable that I felt bad... lol... Looked like she swallowed a bunch of golf balls or something...

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid67/p0340f60bdd9c7db8c7783108a73be928/fbd5d55d.jpg


I tend to feed all my snakes the biggest meals they can get down... and it really is amazing what they can get down...

[sapphire_moon]

beautiful snakes. The BRB looks like a sausage casing! But thats what my little female looked like last night after her first small rat! We thought the rat was going to explode!!!! ech! Now she refuses to stay on her warm side......:rolleyes: She NEVER stays on her warm side...

[LdyDrgn]

When the meals given here stop leaving a lump in the belly we move up to the next sized prey item. Only the young boas get fed once a week. Once they are about 3-4 feet long and about 2 yrs old they move up to 2 weeks. :) I do have an 8 foot female boa that went on a hunger strike (we thought sh ewas gravid) that we have on a 10 day schedule for now. When she finally puts her weight back on she will get dropped back down to 2 weeks or she will get bred.

[Tim_Cranwill]

Sweet man! I should send you a pic of what that "mystery snake" is eating now... ;)

[HetForHuman]

Originally posted by cranwill
Sweet man! I should send you a pic of what that "mystery snake" is eating now... ;)

Did it shed yet?

[Jeff_Favelle]

HFH, that BRB picture was awesome! :D

[HetForHuman]

That it was Jeff.

[Tim_Cranwill]

HFH, no not yet but they way she's been feeding, she'll shed soon. ;)

[Jayson]

This summer i found a northern water snake in my back yard that had just finished eating a meal, it was just a juvenil but it had ate a meal that had to have been very close to his own body wait as he could barely even move.
My point is, that snakes can and do eat meals much bigger then most people think.

Cool pics!! Its always nice to see a snake with a full belly

Jason

[Lisa]

I like to vary the meals, some big some medium once in a while a small one. also i tend to vary the frequency, some times once a week sometimes more for the colubrids, some times everyone has to wait a week. Waiting a week for a regular feeder won't hurt them, specially if we're going to a show the day or 2 after the feeding night, we made the mistake of feeding 2 days before ONCE, it was a real downer.

[eyespy]

I agree that most folks do tend to underfeed and it's great to see snakes with a nice full belly for a change. Just remember though that skulls and pelvises are large masses of bone and can be tough to digest so don't get crazy with the really large prey items. Snakes are frequently brought in for bowel resection because of large bones they couldn't either digest or pass that get moved too far downstream as the proteins and other structures are digested.

[Dozer]

I think my most wild eatin' story was not of a snake, but of my Green frogs that live in my mothers pond in the backyard... I've got pics, but this frog took down a sparrow... I'm not jokin', the bird was pretty much ALMOST the size of the frog... I'm not jokin', I'll post some pictures up... I've seen the frogs also lunge into the water at my moms koi... which are twice the size of the frog or more! I know this has nothin' to do with the actual original thread, but I thaught I'd add it for general interest :)

[sapphire_moon]

My female BP still looks like she just ate.....a little smaller, but not a whole lot....except the "Bump" has moved closer to her tail. Should I be worried?? She also absolutely refuses to go and stay on her warm hide! Should I put her in something (like a bowl) and put her partly over the warm side and partly off of the warm side? so she will still have a little bit of a choice of how warm to be..?

[Invictus]

What the hell, here's another pic of a large prey item (I've posted it before, but I think it's a great illustration of how flexible they are):

http://www.invictusart.com/images/TrinFeed.jpg