feed it often?

[youngage]

so i am very content with my ijc. its beautiful, i love it, its friendly and has never tagged anyone, YET. haha i named it chopard, since its super classy and it fits so why not.

so it finally shed, and i helped it finish off, and now its colour is amazing.

i fed it on thursday and it has already pooped out the fuzzy. should i move up to a hopper or should i keep feeding it fuzzy's but more often?

i would say its not long at all, about the length of my 15 inch macbook pro. and not really girthy at all. about the thickness of my ring finger, my fingers are not big all all very average.

also everytime i hold it, it seems to never want to rest, always moving on and on, keeping my occupied, is that normal? will it ever just sit and chill? i hope its not stressed. it is usually up on the branch by the ceramic heater, or hiding in its rock.

anyways anyinfo is great and thanks in advance.

hugo.

[stephanbakir]

Carpets are active, given the measurements you gave I can't really give any advice though, Give it a meal 1.5 times the thickness of the snake every week or so.

[youngage]

lol simply put its thickness is about a nickel. a little bigger. it was born this year. so pretty small.

i would say its about 30-35 cm?


my concern is that it is more or less devouring its food and pooping it out in the span of thurs-sunday. is that okay?

lol essentially what i am asking is. if i can feed it again today.

[Lankyrob]

With my carpet i fed it a rat twice the size of its thickest part every week ofr its first year and then every 14 days from then on.

[SSSSnakes]

General rule is to feed it a size prey the thickest size of the snakes body. Feeding it larger prey can be bad for the snake and stress it out. Babies are normally fed every week and adult are fed every 2 weeks. Feeding an adult every week gives the snake little time to be handled without food in it's stomach. Also if you are always feeding the snake, then every time you go near the snake it is in a feeding response looking for food. It better for a snake to grow at a slightly slower rate. Over feeding or power feeding is not good for a snake.

[stephanbakir]

General rule is to feed it a size prey the thickest size of the snakes body. Feeding it larger prey can be bad for the snake and stress it out. Babies are normally fed every week and adult are fed every 2 weeks. Feeding an adult every week gives the snake little time to be handled without food in it's stomach. Also if you are always feeding the snake, then every time you go near the snake it is in a feeding response looking for food. It better for a snake to grow at a slightly slower rate. Over feeding or power feeding is not good for a snake.
Giggled a little when I read this.

Babies ever 5-7 days, adults every 7-14 days. More often if you are fattening them up a bit for the breeding season (Fat snakes make poop breeders, but underweight snakes make small clutches with lots of slugs, and it has a chance to harm the snake).
Some snakes, like the indigo can't handle large prey items (their jaws don't work like most snakes), and should be fed smaller meals. Most snakes, and carpets should be fed meals 1.5-2 times the size of the widest part of the body. (they can digest this size prey in under 36 hours)
Some snakes like GTP's can easily take 2-3X.

Keep in mind that these prey sizes are relative to temperature, some snakes, normally in the wild sometimes get their hands on prey item that is simply too large to digest in a reasonable amount of time, and the animal begins to decay in the snakes belly, often killing the snake.

Handling snakes daily is a bad idea anyway because its unneeded stress, 1 day a week or 2 days a week is more then enough for most snakes.
Anyone with 30 years experience knows how to trigger, and how to "turn off" a feeding response, hook training is by far the most simple method.

Powerfeeding is generally bad. Especially after the first year, (Twinky from Prehistoric Pets is a prime example of idiotic husbandry)

[blindfireak40]

To answer the initial question regarding the poop timeline, yes that is okay as long as the feces are healthy in appearance and consistency. It may not even have been the last meal it moved, it could have been the one before. Ever eat breakfast and then immediately have to go? You don't get rid of your breakfast, you get rid of a prior meal. Same thing can happen with snakes, I'm sure :)

From everything I've heard about carpets, they are very curious snakes, and like very much to explore and climb especially, so I wouldn't worry about yours appearing "Restless".

Also, I would like to emphatically second SSSSnakes' closing sentence. Power feeding can lead to a whole host of problems later on. Think of it as the reptile equivalent of those poor kids you see around (at least around here) that are 80, 90, 100 pounds overweight...even if they "grow out" of their obesity, they'll still have health complications down the road.

Another, less health-oriented reason that power feeding's not good for a handling/display animal is the fact that if powerfed, between feeding and digestion and feeding again, there is roughly no time left for handling/socialization/display. And especially with a carpet that is to be a handled animal, you don't want it to be flighty and bitey as an adult as a result of no handling in its youth.

Edit: Drat! Beaten to the punch!! Blast you, Stephan!! :3

[SSSSnakes]

Giggled a little when I read this.

Babies ever 5-7 days, adults every 7-14 days. More often if you are fattening them up a bit for the breeding season (Fat snakes make poop breeders, but underweight snakes make small clutches with lots of slugs, and it has a chance to harm the snake).
Some snakes, like the indigo can't handle large prey items (their jaws don't work like most snakes), and should be fed smaller meals. Most snakes, and carpets should be fed meals 1.5-2 times the size of the widest part of the body. (they can digest this size pray in under 36 hours)
Some snakes like GTP's can easily take 2-3X.

Keep in mind that these prey sizes are relative to temperature, some snakes, normally in the wild sometimes get their hands on prey item that is simply too large to digest in a reasonable amount of time, and the animal begins to decay in the snakes belly, often killing the snake.

Handling snakes daily is a bad idea anyway because its unneeded stress, 1 day a week or 2 days a week is more then enough for most snakes.
Anyone with 30 years experience knows how to trigger, and how to "turn off" a feeding response, hook training is by far the most simple method.

Powerfeeding is generally bad. Especially after the first year, (Twinky from Prehistoric Pets is a prime example of idiotic husbandry)

I'm so happy I've met a person that at 22 years old has so much experience that she can tell everyone else how wrong they are.

[stephanbakir]

I'm so happy I've met a person that at 22 years old has so much experience that she can tell everyone else how wrong they are.
Glad to meet a 48 year old who can't tell the difference between Stephan and Stephanie.

When you call me wrong, please follow my lead and point out what was wrong out of what I said, and correct any inaccurate statements that I make. Its called constructive criticism.

[Lankyrob]

Constructively Stephan :) - Carpets can take prey upto 3x their size easily enough but although GTP's CAN take very big prey ithey are prone to cloacal prolapse when passing big stools so best to go for 2x the size.

[stephanbakir]

Constructively Stephan :) - Carpets can take prey upto 3x their size easily enough but although GTP's CAN take very big prey ithey are prone to cloacal prolapse when passing big stools so best to go for 2x the size.
Can and should are 2 different things though, I was advising regarding appropriate sized prey.

Thanks rob :)

[Jay]

I would stick to offering prey just a little larger then the widest part of the snake. There is no harm in doing that, snakes are extremely over fed in captivity anyhow.

[UwabamiReptiles]

Seems like everyone pretty much answered it for you. As you can see from all the different posts, everyone has their own way of doing things. It takes time to figure out what works best for you. In my experience and from the research I've done online, hatchling carpets can take hopper mice as their first meal. That is assuming that they have the correct temps and whatnot. Since your little guy is still so small, I would try to limit the handling til he gets a little bigger. I've noticed with my guys that once they hit a certain size, they start to get more confident and less nervous. As far as will he always move around, I would say yes. They won't sit still like a bp. I have four carpets at the moment and all four act different when I handle them. It sounds like you're doing everything right, carpets climb and perch on their branches then go into their hides. Sounds like the behavior of a healthy snake.

[shaunyboy]

General rule is to feed it a size prey the thickest size of the snakes body. Feeding it larger prey can be bad for the snake and stress it out. Babies are normally fed every week and adult are fed every 2 weeks. Feeding an adult every week gives the snake little time to be handled without food in it's stomach. Also if you are always feeding the snake, then every time you go near the snake it is in a feeding response looking for food. It better for a snake to grow at a slightly slower rate. Over feeding or power feeding is not good for a snake.

carpets can take prey 2,3,4 times their girth with no problems

i feed my hatchling carpets every 7 days until the age of 2 or 3

then 1 large meal every 15 to 30 days

in winter i give 3 or 4 meals

try your carpet on the next food size up,if its too big he won't take it

i don't think that will be the case though

cheers shaun

[lady_bug87]

Actually funny people should mention GTPs... I'm trying to fogure out when to up food size shes taking pinkie mice right now and I'm debating moving her to Rat pinkies which would probably be roughly 1.5x - 2x her girth... so she should be ok swallowing that? I feed her 1 pinkie every 5 days

[Lankyrob]

GTP's can take huge prey too, easily 2x the girth if not 3x - tho a warning - it is said that they are prone to prolapsed cloaca when passing large prey.

[lady_bug87]

GTP's can take huge prey too, easily 2x the girth if not 3x - tho a warning - it is said that they are prone to prolapsed cloaca when passing large prey.


yea I remember reading that, so I should be ok keeping her on the pinkie mice? I just dont see her gaining much girth shes definitely thicker then when I brought her home but its slow going

[Lankyrob]

MY GTP never had pinkies, was straight onto small rats but i dont have a definite age for when i got him - he was pre colour change for sure.

All i can say is that when he eats he has issues getting back onto his perch due to the size of the bulge and he wont move for a good two days after eating,

[lady_bug87]

yea mine was tiny when we got her maybe a few months old but she gets back up no problem I just want to make sure I'm not starving her or him

[forkedtongue]

I bought a fairly young IJ about the same size as what you are describing a few months back.

I don't feed her more than once a week, but I go by anthony capronettos 2x thickness rule of thumb, I recently stopped by the store I got her from and she is massive compared to her siblings.

I would say try moving her to something 2x the thickest part of her boddy. I can't say wat that is exactly, I never fed mice, I had her on rat pinks for a while and then moved hr to pups which she greedily devours no issues. She even gets all fussy when she sees me getting the rat fuzzies out for the bigger snakes , I just look at her like "damn fat ***, you're a greedy one"

[red ink]

I feed 10-15% of their body weight every 7-10 days... (regardless of age)