growing?

[Pookie]

I've owned my BRB since around feb. when i purchased her at the New England Reptlie Expo. She was said to be about a month old (around 6/7 months old now). Since i've had her i feed her about a pinky..now fuzzy once a week or so. She doesn't seem to be growing as fast as i expected. Compared to my ball python and cali king...she's still quite a bit like a baby! Is this normal or should i be feeding her more?

she should be eating adult mice at 7 months age

[ohh_kristina]

I agree, she should be eating larger prey.

[Jeff_Favelle]

I just had a litter of 22 and they all shed on Monday. By Tuesday, they ALL had eaten a F/T LARGE fuzzy mouse. After about 6-9 feedings (2 feedings per week) they will be on to adult mice. This takes about 1.5 - 2.5 months. By 6 months of age, they are eating rat hopper with ease.

[Pookie]

Thanks for the advice! She seems way to small to graduate to a full adult mouse but i'll work on giving her 2 large fuzzies until she's ready. Do you think i should feed her 2 fuzzies more than once a week?

I still suggest offering at least one adult mouse to her, she will stretch MUCH further than you may suspect. All we can do is advise.

[wyz]

Rev is right.. I just update mine to adult mice and I was really suprise to see how they can stretch..

They just can't be compared with a Cal King.

Go for it and don't worry.

WYZ

[Pookie]

Ok, i'll try this weekend! I'll keep you posted to see how it goes!

[lordkovacs]

when i was doing alll my research into BRB's a couple weeks ago, i found that at that age, every 5-6 days is the best feeding cycle. someone more experieced, please correct that if it's wrong. cheers,
MIKE

[BoidKeeper]

When I got mine back in December they where taking big Fuzzie mice. Not long after that I switched to rats. Now they take 40+g rats and that may still be too small.

Here is the female.

She turned 1 in June.
Cheers,
Trevor

My feelings are if you feed pinks, they have so little nutritional value a 4 day schedule is a must. If you follow what seems to be the trend and feed a too small prey item(that is larger then pinks) a 5 day schedule. If you feed like me and a few others (prey that is 1.5-2.5 the diameter of the snake) a 7-10 day schedule. My rabbit feeders get a 21 day schedule (increasing time between feedings prevents 'powerfeeding'). There are EXCEPTIONS! several species (some milks come to mind as one) that prefer smaller prey, I have a 2 year old pueblan milk that mostly will hold out for large fuzzies(9-12 at a feeding) and that gets too expensive for most. The trick is the larger the prey to snake ratio the longer between feedings.

Pookie, it may take some time for your brb to get it down AND the snake may take a rest or 2 and seem not to eat for a few seconds to a few minutes. Do not open the cage and pull the prey out of the animals mouth. Your going to start getting 3-4 week shed cycles and don't be bashful about offering a second mouse per feeding fairly soon (2-3 feeding down the line).

[ANIMAL5051]

i have a question on the feeding topic i have a 1 year old brb and she does seem a bit small. i feed her 1 hopper once a week should i feed her 2 times a week or mabey 2 hoppers once a week
thanks jim

[BoidKeeper]

Is she smaller then mine? That BRB is a year old and it eats 40+g hopper rats every 5 days.
Trevor

BTW a 40+gr rat hopper is about equal in size to a x-large adult mouse.

[ANIMAL5051]

trevor
if you where responding to me yes she is alot smaller i would post a pic but i dont know how to.she is eating mouse hopper not rat hoppers. i think i will start to give him 2 at a time.