Crazy feeding response!

[Andy_G]

Up until today, my black milk was somewhat of a shy eater, I have seen him eat before but it was from a distance. Today...I could not put him down before he latched onto his rat! I have heard a few times that their feeding response intensifies with age and now I am starting to believe it!

[Andy_G]

Here is another pic. They rat liked Shadow so much he decided to give him a hug! ^_^

[SerpentLust]

LMAO That second pic is priceless lol

[Ace]

LOL..he kinda over did it with the kiss though ;). You mean he outgrew playing with his food already!!! Great pics Andy!

[Classic]

That's a cool pic Andy. Do you have a weight on him? He's 2003 right?

Brian

[Optimus Prime]

Wow he must have been hungary, did he get that thing down?

[Andy_G]

Brian- Yeah he's an '03 and he weighs around 96 grams now at around 6 months in age.

Tim-I know, but I didn't want to stop him from kissing because I heard some bones being crushed in the rat and I didn't want my finger getting in the way of things ^_^, and yes, he has stopped playing with his food, he still doesn't constrict but he does latch on before I can put him down... LOL he acted as if he hadnt eaten in a month!:)

Optimus Prime-Yeah he got it down in less than 15 minutes. He always has trouble with the front shoulders but after that it takes him a very short amount of time to finish it off.

[JD@reptiles]

sheesh, thats a pretty large meal for him. maybe a little too big.

[Andy_G]

If it was too big for him I wouldn't feed it and secondly he would have taken more than 15 mins. Seemed just right for him. That is pretty much the biggest I would give him though.

[JD@reptiles]

What i heard is, the general "rule" is not to feed the snake anything bigger than its thickest part. maybe thats why the carpet grew 4' in a year?

[Andy_G]

What I have heard is 1.5x the girth of the snake, a guideline for people just coming into the hobby that try to feed their snakes too large of a prey item that they become impacted or too small that the food is insufficient. A lot of people follow this rule like it is their religion, a lot don't as well. I suppose next feeding time I will get a pic from a different angle because the prey in that pic is rather flat and it looks bigger than it was.

Turns out a lot of carpets get close to or are 4' in a year. I've been talking with a few people that have had similar experiences. Many people i've spoken to said that their carpets grew from around 3.5-4 feet in a year than the growth started to really slow. Mine seems to have done the same. Maybe the reason yours didn't is because you feed it a little bit less than most, meaning that you go by the rule of equally girthed prey items rather than a bit bigger, which, of course. isn't a bad thing. Every prson has their own opinion with feeding sizes.

[snakehunter]

my 7 month hognoses are like that

[JD@reptiles]

i dont really feed mine less... well. i dont power feed if thats what you are getting at.. i feed all my snakes once a week... some larger boas i will feed once every 2 weeks... is that wrong?

[Andy_G]

What I am doing isn't even close to power feeding, I feed all of my snakes once a week to once every two weeks, please don't imply it and if you have a problem with the way I keep my reptiles (I certainly get that impression) you can PM me Jordan.
What I said was, judging from the "rule" you stated earlier, you probably feed items equal to the snake's girth and most people go bigger than that. That is all I meant.

[Classic]

Andy: i took some weights of mine tonight and this is what i got.
Male 40g, Female 83g, Female 58g
Mine are also 03s.

Brian

[JD@reptiles]

well it seemed like you jumped on the defence right away... but it doesn't really matter to me. i know you are a good keeper man. i dont have any problem with how you keep animals. and what i said about the "rule" i said thats what i heard. no one is one to say how another should keep an animal.

J

[Yness]

So I fed my king snake a small rat last night...he had some trouble with it so i am gonna not feed him such big things any more. Once he got it down it down he was looking for more tho...

[ruthupton]

Lovely snake! How long is it?

[TheRedDragon]

Originally posted by JD@reptiles
What i heard is, the general "rule" is not to feed the snake anything bigger than its thickest part. maybe thats why the carpet grew 4' in a year?

That's more or less a myth. We feed all our snakes prey items that happen to be larger than the thickest part of the snake, and they grow like weeds and have never had any trouble getting the prey item down.

[Andy_G]

He is 29 inches.

[tHeGiNo]

Damn, thats a huge rat! I am not a coloubrid person but I always thought they took smaller meals then what I am used to, Boids. I too thought the prey item should be equal in girth to the largest part on the snakes body for coloubrids. Meh.