How much would you feed?

[Jet]

My Burmese is always in the mood to eat it seems, and I am feeding her "jumbo rats" every 7 days. Is that too much or too little? I do not want to over feed, but do not want to be starving her either. She is approximately 5ft and 2 1/2 years old. She is a lot thinner than my 5ft Boa, but has a huge head. I really do not know for certain how much she was (or should I say wasn't) fed before I got her 10/16/04.

Happy Halloween!

[Shad0w]

Sounds like it was not fed properly before...

I think yer doing just fine...
I would think about offering food every 4 days after the lump of the previous rat has disappeared

[gonesnakee]

A Burm that is 2.5 years old & only 5 ft sounds like it was underfed previous to your ownership. I would increase both the size & frequency of the meals myself as there is a really good chance that she is always actually hungry. This is a big Python capable of eating large meals. I'm not a Burm guy but a 2.5 year old female should be much longer than 5 feet & should have at least the same girth or bigger than a healthy Boa of the same length. I'd venture to say she should be double her current size/length easily. IMO Mark

[Invictus]

A female burm should hit 6 feet or more in her first year. I've heard reports of 10 footers at a year. At 5.5 feet, I would say that A) It's male, not female, and B) As mentioned already, she was underfed. Jumbo rats are great, but I'd get it onto rabbits if I were you. If it does grow to the 10' or so mark (I wouldn't count on it getting any bigger than that), it will need pretty significant meals, and rats can be expensive.

[lostwithin]

I have an 11-month-old male that is about 5+'. And I consider him a slow grower he went on a hunger strike when my collection contracted mites, and even he still hit 5 feet in under a year, I would say you probably have a male burm and it is either younger then you think or was underfed by its previous owner, as for your feeding schedule now it sounds good, but if you want too make it more regular I suggest a rotation, go 7 days, then 4 days then 7 days... good luck.

Devon