beauty snake help - Page 2

lolaophidia · 03-29-05, 05:26 PM

She looks great! And she should grow like crazy over the next year. Looks like she could handle a small adult mouse with no problems as a meal now and at that age, they are almost always hungry... Be prepared to move up in cage sizes as she grows too. Lot's of feeding and cage cleaning in store for you!

Invictus · 03-29-05, 06:08 PM

A small adult mouse? I was feeding my Taiwans 100g small rats at that size, which are easily double the size of a jumbo adult mouse. My current adult males get medium - large rats.

lolaophidia · 03-29-05, 07:14 PM

You are right Invictus, that the snake can take larger prey than your average small mouse. I was "guestimating" based on the thickness of the dowel in comparison to the snake.

I usually start off a little small with the prey size, and if the snake still looks hungry, offer another small item. It's a lot easier to deal with that way for me, than when you've given the snake something that was a little too big and you're worrying about a possible regurge situation. My adult male would eat a football if it smelled like a rat, but I'd hate to deal with a regurge from a meal that size... so I stick with large rats to be on the safe side. Since these guys don't like warm temps (like a lot of Asian rat snakes), I don't like to overload them with food. But it's just my opinion...

ottawaguy · 03-29-05, 07:32 PM

Very Nice......

lizardo · 03-29-05, 08:52 PM

ive fed her a small-medium rat, about 1.5 times bigger than an adult mouse and she took it fine, i fed her 2 days ago an adult mouse and couldnt even see a lump in her barley...no more mice for her!!lol yeah i am most likely getting a male before i thought i would, i have go to school next year so i only want one more snake until my 1 year course is done (i have 2 corns and a tb now)i am just so please with her they are awesome...i havent been bit yeah though LOL.

lizardo · 03-29-05, 08:52 PM

btw im on a different pc i am hunter on my usual one

Invictus · 03-29-05, 10:37 PM

Lora - You should have seen this other male that I had once (and am getting back in a trade) - when he was about 3 feet long, he took down 6 adult mice! I couldn't believe it... 3 days later, he pooped it all out and looked like he hadn't eaten a thing.

hunter · 03-30-05, 07:04 AM

hahahah gross!!!that musta been a huge dump!!

lolaophidia · 03-30-05, 07:35 AM

Invictus,
I believe you! The snake I have has eaten up to 10 mice at a sitting. It was a situation a few years ago where I had a freezer full of mice and there were no rats available at my local store. They do digest a number of smaller prey items a lot faster than one big one. I'm guessing its because the bones are smaller and easier to break down. Compared to boids, a TBS even at low temperatures has a speedy metabolism.

And Hunter- just wait till you get to clean up after a meal of a large rat. Get your shovel out...

Big colubrid poop is usually a lot messier than boid poop. I used to keep a Cribo- talk about a mess!

Invictus · 03-30-05, 08:56 AM

Yup, Drymarchon from what I hear are *almost* as bad as beauty snakes.

My adults currently need to feed about every 5 days. Like you said, for a cooler-temperature snake, their metabolisms are just ridiculous. And yeah, 300g rat = 275 gram poop.

gonesnakee · 03-30-05, 04:28 PM

Beauties usually love to poop in the water too making for a very unpleasent soup. In reguards to the Drymarchon, their poop especially when fresh is way nastier than any other snake IMHO Nasty Nasty Nasty LOL Very distinct odor & not at all pleasent. Its always "fun" cleaning Indigo poo. In reguards to prey size I found (with the VBBs anyhow) that they preferred multiple small prey items over 1 or 2 larger ones. Good luck with your baby there Hunter, next year it will be huge compared to what it is in size now (as will be its poops LOL). Mark
P.S. cleaning up a huge Boid poop is a "cake walk" compared to cleaning up after a large Colubrid anyday!!!

hunter · 04-04-05, 06:33 AM

heres a pic of my male.i took this pic yesterday, wearing the same shirt as in the last pic i took LOL!(it was over a week ago!!)

i love these snakes i want 100 of em!!!!well maybe 3

lolaophidia · 04-04-05, 01:48 PM

The male looks great too! Before you run out and get a 100 TBS- save a little money for some nice big display cages and plenty of food...

Out of all my current snakes, my Taiwan has always been the best display snake, very interactive and interested in what's going on outside the cage. All my other Asian rat snakes are more of the timid sort (Mandarins, Coxi, Rhychophis).

Hopefully in a year or two you'll be posting pics of a bunch of squirmy Beauty snake hatchlings!

hunter · 04-04-05, 02:34 PM

how big of an enclosure do you have for your adults, thats something ive already thought about, it'll be cool to have them in a nice big display cage.

lolaophidia · 04-04-05, 02:44 PM

48 long by 24 deep by 17.5 high- though if I had the space, I'd give him more height since these guys are good climbers. I'm really at the lower limit of cage size for this snake, he'd use more room if I had it.

I prefer to house all my snakes in separate cages- makes feeding and health issues much easier to deal with. With two snakes in a cage, you can run into issues with stress and competition over the best hides and basking spots. Plus with this guy- he's a handfull. I don't know if I'd want to deal with two hungry TBS at the same time when I opened the cage door...