Reptile Forum, Reptile Classifieds - CaptiveBred

emma_fyfe · Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2006 11:35 pm Post subject: what size and how often?

i have a 9 month old female royal who is around 26inches now, i feed her once a week on medium sized adult mice. She has never missed a feed and always seems hungry, so was wondering if i should give her bigger prey or feed her more often?

Would be interesting to know what everyone else feeds theirs on, as this is my first snake so am still learning as i go!

Thanks,

Emma

Stuart · Posted: Fri Jun 02, 2006 8:35 am Post subject:

I would try and get her on rat fluffs or even weaners..as for how often to feed I would offer food every 5-7 days..as long as the prey item is no bigger than the girth of the royal you should be fine.
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mark · Captivebred Communist Joined: 09 Dec 2005 Posts: 1063

as stuart has said try and get her onto rats ive converted all of mine onto rats best weight gaining food ever Cool

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boas and burms

cackle · Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 8:46 pm Post subject:

Are rats that much better than mice, I have a snake I am trying to fatten up as she is underweight. she is around 36 inch at the moment I am feeding her a small adult mouse every three days under vets instruction, should I be looking at rats instead???

emma_fyfe · Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 9:03 pm Post subject:

thanks, think i'll keep her on mice for now as she is eating regularly and is looking very well fed! She gets an adult mouse once a week

Emma

mark · Captivebred Communist Joined: 09 Dec 2005 Posts: 1063

Scott W · Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 10:42 pm Post subject:

I'm not so sure there is too much nutritional difference between rats and mice, but there are other differences;
Cost - one larger rat is cheaper than several mice
Size - some royals will only fed on ONE prey item per sitting so it's better to get that one item as big as the snake can take.
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mike h · CaptiveBred Addict! Joined: 18 Mar 2006 Posts: 778

royals can be a pain, they can eat everything that you throw at them, then suddenly stop or become fussy. My male was eating alternate weaner rats and mice then decided it did not like rats, so will only eat mice.
My female gone on a fast.
Anyone had long term problems Power feeding royals? Is power feeding possible?
Is 100grms growth a month a good target to aim for, for subadult royal.
Does anyone know how much of a mouse rat goes into actual growth? e.g. If feed 100grms a week will 40-50-60 etc grms go into growth??
cheers mike

Scott W · Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2006 7:45 am Post subject:

Interesting questions.

I may set a few babies aside for a little 'experiment', 2 fed just rats...as many as they want, two just mice again as many as they will eat.

I'll go choose four volunteers Wink

and then start a new thread.
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Scott W · Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2006 7:50 am Post subject:

As for power feeding, don't really like that term, after all the snake is free to choose to eat or not eat. I currently offer food to all my CF 06's everyday / 2 days, depending on how they look i.e. have they digested the last feed, are they looking constipated. If they don't take the food within 30 minutes then I remove it and offer again the following day.

Most baby animals are born / hatch when their food source is at it's most plentiful, therefore I believe that a baby snake is well designed to cope with this ample supple and will 'cash in' on as much as possible. After the first season then I would guess growth and feeding would slow down considerably.
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Please DO NOT pm orders for reptiles, send email instead scott@captivebred.co.uk