*sorry about typos and errors my keyboard is jammed up*
OK in posts before I have spoke about feeding my Suriname, whats over feedings, whats too little??? Well I have wrote a kind of thesis on the mathematics behind feeding all boids....I got most of my research from a really good book called "whats wrong with my snake?" Mostly this lie is how my formula began.... Large boids and most other snakes too in the wild have been scientifically proven on average to consume 4x their body weight in a year....in captivity an adult snake should consume about 2x its body weight per year due to th much much less activity if not in the wild...also not breeding.....this formula is for baby to adult pythons and boas it does not pertain to breeding or anything else that might factor in.
Ok so in this example I will use a Suriname red tailed boa. which I have a newborn now. Also know that I am just guessing or estimating these weights of prey and snakes ..its just the numbers im using sure they are not accurate I cannot predict what kind of size he will obtain...
So here it is......
first I wanna sy lets pretend you have a 12 ft 50 pounds retic.... 2x his weight a year is 100 pounds...devided by 12 months is about 8 pounds a month...4 pounds every 2 weeks.....OK so an adult 50 pound retic shuld get those meals ebery 2 weeks or month gowever you wanna feed......
\
Now back to our baby Suriname....so I have a male and he weighs 100 grams on the dot...since hes 28" and ony about 3 months old.....here it goes....just for the RED TAiL!!! ok so eoecting my male will be full grown adullt in 5 year and hit 6-8 ft.
so hes 28" so fro now until he is 4' he will get 1/3 every 2weeks....but i feed weeklys.....so he needs 1/3 of 100g which is 33 grams biweekly.... So I just fed him a 20 gram adult mouse...in another week helll get a 15g hopper I have so thats 35 grams ...its ok to be a little overbut not under....
now hes 4' and estimate of a pounds 452 grams..... so now hes goes to 1/4 biweekly....so about 110 grams bi weejky...remmember its all estimates not doing exact math here. So a 4; suriname is probably a year old so it would be ok to give him a small-medium rat that weighs 110 grams or give a weanling at 60 grams weekly...or here the tough part.....in a month he need 220g so at this size a large 220 g rat might be too big...but you could divide 210 by 3 and get about 70g so if you wnted to feed less often just give a small 70g rat every 10 days
ok now 5',,,probably close to 2 years due to slower growth than bci...so now 1/5 biweekly....lets say he weighs 3 pounds now.....
260 grams is about 1/5 of 3 pounds or 1356 grams....so a medium- large rat thats is close as possible to 260 grams bi weekly is perfect....and gain you can adjust...if you wanna go to monthy give him a jumbo rat 520 grams...
Now in this case a male Suriname will slow groth alot around 6 feet...most of them...I would love mine to get to at least 7- 8 ft but genetic......
Anyway once they are like 75% of their full growth you wanna lower the food intake....so at 6' lets say he weighs 7 pounds.... I would go to 1/7 every 2 weeks....so he gets a 1 pound rabbit evry 2 weeks... or a 2 pounder if he can take it once a month....sticking with rats?? give a 250 gram raat weekly or a jumbo bi weeklu....
So finally my boa is lets say 5 years old and he reached 7'!! whch is great and pretty much a full grown adult boa. SO adult of all BOIDS are 10% every 2 weeks....which goes back to rqual the 2x body weight per year....so my 7' suriname is 15 pounds lets say...Im sure they weigh much more than that but I have only had bci and mostly retics and burms in the past. So I feed a 3 pound rabbit monhtly or 1.5lb biweekly..
NOw im gonna do th sme rhing but for a ball python....you ned to adjust when to change the ratios by the type and gender of snake and adult size...
So our female ball python , we want her to get 4-5 ft.....and about 900grams...again estimate numbers...
*newborn (12-15")(60grams) 1/3 bi weeklys = 20g biweekly/ 10 g a week so a fuzzy/hopper weekly or 5 days
* after a year (30-36")(250 grams) 1/4 bi weekly...week=20grams adult mouse/rat pup./bi weekly 60 grams / small rat...10 days?? 60x2=120 grams a mont divide by 3 is 40 grams...every 10 dys..
*2 years (3-4 ft) (600 grams) - 1/5= 120g bi weekly, medium rat...../ weekly 60 grams, small rat
*once the ball ypthon is 4 ft, almsot ful grown go to 1/7.5....so our 4 ft ball python weights 900 grams....so 1/7.5 is about round up to 70 grams bi weekly...so just a smlal rat every 2 weeks....now IM wrong with the estimate wights cuz im sure a large 4 ft ball python rats more than that so you need to do your own forumula im just htrowing in random numbers sok.......
*finally our ball python is 3-4 years old...shes full frown she almost made it to 5' and she weighs 4 pounds..... so now that shes an adult she gets 10% every other week....so we can feed her a 180 graam rat bi weekly....or 90 grams weekly...or an adult can eta monthly and 360 grams so an adult large rat a month...a
*agin this is for constrictors that are not breeding and not sick and have optimal temps and humdiity and are thriving....This formula has got a thumbs up from bob clak, even told me I should right a small book or care sheet...but that in the future... I have used this with all my retic and burms and boas since i was 20 when I finally figurd it out....At 16 I got my first burm and I fed him well but definately overfed by far!!! took me a while to come up with a mathematical solution.....So if your not about numbers and math...aybe its not for you...but I love it!!! it gives me peice of mind that my animal is doing well, fed well ad heaalthy!!!\\
PLEASE i would love everyone's input and advice or your own feeding regimens, no arguments here just a friendly debate and feedback...thanks gys!!!. heres more better pics of my handsome little guy and his new setup..... I justy ordered a theromatsta of amazon to use for the het pad...sometimes inside the cave on the hot side on the left it gets up to 110 so I never used a thermostat before but hopefully that will help it not to go over 90-95...*****QUICK ?????, is it bad for the heat pad or lamps to be turned on and off all the time by the thermostat????, thanks so much guys! love this forum and to be able to share my boa with you all and to see all of your...like a boa family here
Threaded Mode