Mitch's first meal at home!

[MDT]

Originally Posted by MCB

Thanks

Boy is he alert right now, far more than any of the others are after a feed

Gotta love the "retic feeding response"....

[MCB]

Originally Posted by Tsubaki

I bet you do, he is beautiful! Retics are great snakes, got to love them

Out of interest I've just been reading around the web what and when others feed their adult Dwarf Retics and there's some huge differences. I've read of 1kg rabbits and two rats being fed over weekly periods!

I planned feeding a large or xl rat every ten days or so??? Mines not the fattest guy in the cake shop

[IW17]

Originally Posted by MCB

Yep, a Sunfire Dwarf. Got him last Saturday, the weaner was taken straight away. He's settling in nicely. I'll try something bigger next week.

Really, he's a Sunfire? I would have guessed platinum. Awesome snake either way!

[Sublimeballs]

Id feed every week to 10 days. Dwarf retics digest a little faster then mainlands. Do you by any chance know what locale of dwarf he is? How big is he by the way?

Edit: IPhone lagged real bad. I feed my 8 foot female jampea a 1.5-2 pound(roughly .7-.9kg) rabbit very 7-10 days. She's got it complelty digested in 2 days.

At 2 years old hes still got some growing to do. Being part mainland(do you know what %) hell get a bit bigger then a pure dwarf male.

[dave himself]

Originally Posted by Tsubaki

He is quite large for his age, for a dwarf male. Which is not surprising if the breeder fed him at that pace. You are free to do whatever you wish, but this is how i fed (feed) my retics.

0-6 months once a week.
6-12 months once every 10 days.
12 months and up - once every 2 weeks only if they forage.
Then i slowly decrease how often i offer them food, depending on how quickly they forage. Males always getting less than females.

Thank you for posting this as some people I see are feeding they're retics every 5 days, which I thought was a bit much. I'll just keep my little girl on a once a week feed

[MCB]

Originally Posted by Tsubaki

He is quite large for his age, for a dwarf male. Which is not surprising if the breeder fed him at that pace. You are free to do whatever you wish, but this is how i fed (feed) my retics.

0-6 months once a week.
6-12 months once every 10 days.
12 months and up - once every 2 weeks only if they forage.
Then i slowly decrease how often i offer them food, depending on how quickly they forage. Males always getting less than females.

Could you share what you feed also to size and weight? All this information is great by the way

[Tsubaki]

Hmm ill try to explain the slow feeding method i used. I never weighed anything i fed to them, i ordered a bunch or rabbits and guinea pigs in all shapes and sizes. As soon as i saw one of them started foraging and it had been long enough since it had eaten last, i would defrost a fitting prey and feed them the day after. If they had eaten recently, it would be a prey with about the same thickness as they have mid-body. If they had not eaten in a while, i would feed something about 1,5 times as thick. This way the snake would get whatever way of feeding they preferred, some of them rather ate often. (B.t.w With Foraging i mean Actively hunt around their enclosure for prey, not the feeding response you get when they see you) However most of them preferred eating large prey and resting long after. None of them were skinny, but they definitely were not fat either. I think this is pretty natural, in the wild they go foraging when hungry. They have to do something to get their food. Feeding your retic on a steady 10 day schedule.. éh.. well to each his own way i guess. I won't judge, can't prove my way is perfect either. It just makes sense to me, and my animals were lean and very muscular.

My Adult retic males ate about 10 times a year, the females came up to about 14 times a year (breeding females more). With adult i mean a retic age 5 and up. That is what i personally recommend (slowly) building towards.

Just a tad of side-info. A lot of large snake sadly, are fat. Even though you can't really tell on the outside. Retics don't get fat as fast as say burms, but still they do get fat. If you can tell on the outside? you're to late. Fat builds up around the organs first, and is not really that visible from the outside. According to my veterinarian (which is also a friend), many of the large snakes they get for autopsy that died young.. Were very fatty on the inside, intestines literately floating around in fat. At a young age a little overfeeding probably will not get them fat, but i think they may have a tendency to get fat easier later on in life?

[Sublimeballs]

So how big is he?? And do you know what dwarf locale he's got in him and %?

[MCB]

Originally Posted by Sublimeballs

So how big is he?? And do you know what dwarf locale he's got in him and %?

Sunfire Het Albino, that's about all I know. He does look platinum, but he's a Sunfire for sure. I'd say between 7.5ft & 8ft at the moment.

[dave himself]

Originally Posted by Tsubaki

Hmm ill try to explain the slow feeding method i used. I never weighed anything i fed to them, i ordered a bunch or rabbits and guinea pigs in all shapes and sizes. As soon as i saw one of them started foraging and it had been long enough since it had eaten last, i would defrost a fitting prey and feed them the day after. If they had eaten recently, it would be a prey with about the same thickness as they have mid-body. If they had not eaten in a while, i would feed something about 1,5 times as thick. This way the snake would get whatever way of feeding they preferred, some of them rather ate often. (B.t.w With Foraging i mean Actively hunt around their enclosure for prey, not the feeding response you get when they see you) However most of them preferred eating large prey and resting long after. None of them were skinny, but they definitely were not fat either. I think this is pretty natural, in the wild they go foraging when hungry. They have to do something to get their food. Feeding your retic on a steady 10 day schedule.. éh.. well to each his own way i guess. I won't judge, can't prove my way is perfect either. It just makes sense to me, and my animals were lean and very muscular.

My Adult retic males ate about 10 times a year, the females came up to about 14 times a year (breeding females more). With adult i mean a retic age 5 and up. That is what i personally recommend (slowly) building towards.

Just a tad of side-info. A lot of large snake sadly, are fat. Even though you can't really tell on the outside. Retics don't get fat as fast as say burms, but still they do get fat. If you can tell on the outside? you're to late. Fat builds up around the organs first, and is not really that visible from the outside. According to my veterinarian (which is also a friend), many of the large snakes they get for autopsy that died young.. Were very fatty on the inside, intestines literately floating around in fat. At a young age a little overfeeding probably will not get them fat, but i think they may have a tendency to get fat easier later on in life?

Once again thank you for the information and I think I'll use this method for my little girl

[MCB]

Originally Posted by dave himself

Once again thank you for the information and I think I'll use this method for my little girl

I'll second that Quote, many thanks.

[Tsubaki]

Well i am glad i could help

[nas]

Gorgeous ! I love the last pic.

[millertime89]

That's pretty similar to how I feed my snakes too. Although a few my retics I have to wait a few days because they're searching for food two days after eating and I won't feed them that soon.

[Tsubaki]

Yea thats why i added 'if it has been long enough since i last fed them' Always have a minimum time between feedings.