Feeding?

[liquid_mage]

I have 6 month old carpet python I've had her for about 3 weeks. She seems to eat about every 8 days so far. Her last two meals were medium to large size.

I was wondering how often other people feed there young carpet pythons?

[Jeff_Favelle]

Whenever they poop or look skinny. A regimented schedule isn't good for ANY animal. Sometimes your carpet will spend an extra day or few hours on the hot spot. What does that mean? It means that it will metabolize/break-down its food that much faster. But sometimes your carpet will hide on the cool end an it may take 2-3 weeks to fully digest its food and look normal. Point is, LOOK at your animal and don't follow any of the old "rules"! They're great for beginners who have no idea, but you can simply observe your snake and feed accordingly. Do YOU eat the same thing, at the same time, and the same amount every day forever? Nope, so don't expect your snake to. For example, I looked up a feeding record for a female Jungle I have. Here it is:

July 12: 1 large rat.
July 14: 1 large rat.
July 18: pooped.
July 20: 2 large rats.
Aug. 8: pooped.


So you see, those rules mean squat here. From July 20-Aug. 8, she took forever to digest her food. So I let her. She had access to the same temps and everything else. It just took longer.
The only bad thing with Carpets, is that they are ALWAYS hungry, ha ha!! Good luck man, and watch your snakes!!

[JKUROSKI]

Man Jeff...I think your carpets are ****ting out your hard earned dollars....why do you feel the need to feed so often?

[Jeff_Favelle]

I never feel the need to feed. I watch my animals and they tell me when to feed them. If a snake is hunting, the mechanisms in its body are telling it to fuel up. So I let them. Jungles are machines. They go through food like there's no tomorrow. Its called high metabolism. That's why they can breed at 18 months. Its not powerfeeding. No such thing. I know you won't believe me, but you watch the literature in the next 5 years. It'll change. Look at monitor husbandry. Have you ever frequented the monitor forum at varanus.net or on the "other forum"? You should. Its good stuff.

And I know Carpets are not monitors, but they have wicked metabolisms (if we let them).

And I've been keeping snakes since '89 and I've never had one die, so......