feeding royal pythons

Sheldon & Tori · 11-16-03, 04:59 AM

i just wanted to know how much people are feeding their royals. and i also wanted to know if allowing a snake to eat until it's full is a bad thing?

Jeff_Favelle · 11-16-03, 06:23 AM

Don't keep them in a cage with boas for starters.

BoidKeeper · 11-16-03, 08:15 AM

You should feed it 1 item once a week that is equal to the snakes girth. When they are full grown you can back it off to ever 10-14 days.
Cheers,
Trevor

Invictus · 11-16-03, 12:53 PM

I strongly disagree with the "equal to the snake's girth" practice. I have always disagreed with this, especially for boids. Boids can, and in my opinion, SHOULD be fed prey at least 1.5 times their girth. They should look like a beer bottle after they feed. Believe me.. that lump will be gone in 4 days or less.

I have young ball pythons that pound down medium rats that are almost twice their girth. My 6' BCI takes 2-3 lb rabbits. My medium-sized BCI get jumbo rats. All of them are in great health, and all of them take prey that is significantly larger than their girth. If you feed according to the snake's girth, you are underfeeding them.

BoidKeeper · 11-16-03, 01:17 PM

"If you feed according to the snake's girth, you are underfeeding them."
None of my snakes are under fed Ken and they have always been fed that way. Depending on species, some of them, balls especially are mature in 18 months. They very well can't be under fed if they are reaching maturity in that time. Just because a snake can take really big items doen't mean it should. A
smaller food item is easier to digest it's just that simple.

"I have always disagreed with this, especially for boids. Boids can, and in my opinion, SHOULD be fed prey at least 1.5 times their girth."
Why do you disagree with it? What are you basing your opinion on?
Let the scrapping begin!
Trevor

marisa · 11-16-03, 01:23 PM

I only have one ball so my opinion will be small on this but I feed Eight a prey item that is slightly bigger than she is or the 2 that are same size around once every 7 days. She doesn't seem underfed to me. I dunno though, like I said, my only BP.

I thought a main prey item in the wild for BP's was jerboas....those are TINY compared to rats! Not saying I am basing any of my care on this, just curious

marisa

Invictus · 11-16-03, 01:36 PM

Trevor - It's simple. Nature designed boids to be able to take down gargantuan meals. If that's the way nature designed it, then obviously it was to fulfill either a certain requirement or an opportunity. In either event, nature doesn't make mistakes. They were designed to take in huge meals, so give them huge meals.

I've seen all too many ball pythons who are skinny and sickly looking who were fed according to their girth, which was already pathetically low to begin with. It's a vicioius cycle.

As for a smaller item being "easier to digest", I have not noticed a single DAY of difference between the digestion times of a small meal (when that's all I had around for one of my boids) and a gargantuan meal that made them look like a beer bottle. So I don't believe that the size has anything at all to do with ease of digestion.

elevation24 · 11-16-03, 02:27 PM

I feed what they will take. Only one is still on mice and I just got her a few days ago, the others eat variously sized rats. Like I said I feed them what they are willing to eat.

For instance, my het male (who is an absolute feeding machine) has just been pushed up to weaned rats, while his future lover is still on pups. I offered him one and he took it, offered her one and she shied away.

daver676 · 11-16-03, 02:30 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Invictus
I strongly disagree with the "equal to the snake's girth" practice. I have always disagreed with this, especially for boids. Boids can, and in my opinion, SHOULD be fed prey at least 1.5 times their girth. They should look like a beer bottle after they feed. Believe me.. that lump will be gone in 4 days or less.

My vet told me to feed prey items equal to the snake's widest girth. That is what I do, every 5-7 days.

BoidKeeper · 11-16-03, 03:00 PM

Quote:

nature doesn't make mistakes.

What about the Platapus? ha ha

Quote:

I've seen all too many ball pythons who are skinny and sickly looking who were fed according to their girth, which was already pathetically low to begin with. It's a vicioius cycle.

All my balls are feed 1 appropriate sized rat (sometimes bigger but never less than the girth.) every 5 days up to 1 year of age. My adults are feed the same except every 7 days unless I'm trying to condition a female.
None of my balls are under weight. I inclined to belive that the balls you've seen were not eating the right size food often enough.

Quote:

Nature designed boids to be able to take down gargantuan meals. If that's the way nature designed it, then obviously it was to fulfill either a certain requirement or an opportunity.

I agree with you they have been designed that way. The reason however is so that when ever they do come accross a meal they can take, not because they want to but because they have to. They are designed to take that big meal because if it's all they come accross for a month they had better be able to take it down. In captivity they eat on a regular schedual so there for they don't need to take the biggest meal nesacery because in a week or so they will be eating again.
I don't like to draw upon paralells between herps and humans but think about what happens when we eat a big meal. We get tired and slugish because of the energy required to digest that big meal. I'm sure it takes more energy for a snake to digest a big meal too.
With the size of the meals you're feeding how often are you feeding?
Cheers,
Trevor

Derrick · 11-16-03, 03:01 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Invictus
In either event, nature doesn't make mistakes.

lol it allowed humans to evolve, its biggest mistake.

mark129er · 11-16-03, 03:50 PM

I don't have a bp but when I feed my boa it looks like she ate a beer can. 4 or 5 days later the lump is all but gone and she is active again, well as active as she ever is.

Tim_Cranwill · 11-16-03, 04:03 PM

I don't think either of you guys (Ken or Trevor) are wrong. True, snakes can take and are "designed" to take down large meals because of the frequency at which food might come along in the wild. Eat when you can and coast on that 'til the next meal comes along, especially with ambush predators. Snakes can take really BIG meals, that's not to say that is ideal in captivity and it's best if everyone doesn't try to max their snake's meal sizes every feeding. But for experienced keepers who know their snakes, pushing the size a bit is fine, in my opinion.

It's also fine to do the slow and steady thing. Neither feeding regimen is putting the snake in any danger of over feeding or neglect if done properly and at the right intervals. If I were to "teach" a newbie how to feed a ball, I'd tell them 1-1.5x the girth. They will learn over time how much larger they can go if they wish to do so. I don't think it's great for a newbie to be told that 2x or larger can be handled even though it may be possible.

Just my opinion...