Overfed adult colubrids....

[MarcB]

Are we feeding our full grown adults way too much?

A few observation with my animals, in 2002, I had 2 full grown female hondurans give me clutches of fertile eggs and slugs. These females were fed heavely from wake up in the spring to copulation and egg laying. I beleive the general consensus to be standard heavy feeding out of brumation in order to stimulate ovulation.

This year I fed all my breeding females a maintenance diet out of brumation consisting of one rodent of appropriate size every 7 to 10 days. The females all produced fertile clutches and very few slugs compared to previous year.

I've discussed this experience with a few keepers who beleive we are feeding way too much and too often and consequently affecting egg production.

I realize this represents a very small pooling sample to conclude anything but wanted any insight/comments/arguments on the poorly understood adult colubrid feeding regime.

Thanks for reading