Feeding question

[BillyCostume]

Hey all quick question, my bci is currently feeding on rat fuzzies approx 10g in weight. He currently weighs 90g. Does anyone offer prey by weight? If so is there a rule of thumb that you follow? Like 15% of the snakes body weight for example? I ask this wanting to know if I could jump him up a rat size. I feel rather incompetent judging meal size in relation to my snakes girth lol

[TRD]

I feed my snakes between 10-15% of their body weight per feeding with food items slightly bigger than their girth, I have no slow metabolism snakes though. Depending on their growth/age and temps I reduce or increase the frequency. When snakes are growing fast like in their first year, at least for Lampropeltis, they can easily take 20% of their weight per feeding if temps are kept adequately high.

[BillyCostume]

Thanks for the reply, the whole 1-1.5x the girth estimate always gave me a hard time. I suppose I'm a bit of a stickler For numbers :D

[TRD]

As long as the snake can swallow it comfortably and it leaves a normal bump in it's belly, you're good. If it's a mouse, pinkie, hopper, whatever, simply compare it with the snake (like holding them next to each other), if its the same or just slightly bigger, it's alright. You'd be surprised how stretchy snakes can be... I once by accident dropped a good sized hopper in the box with a small milksnake (about 33-35 cm at that time). She grabbed it without hesitation and started to work it down. Me just being curious about how or earth she would manage that, as it was about 2-2.5 times her size, so I let it be. She managed just fine.

Bottom line, you give them food items they can work down easily (that the 1-1.5x girth rule) and appropriate quantity in 1 feeding (10-15%). All you need to work out is how often you have to feed which depends on species, age, temperature, and food item (sometimes individuals too, some snakes are just trashcans. Just like different humans have different metabolic rates). When snakes get really large you may not want to stick with the 1-1.5x girth rule and rather give them 2-3 of a smaller item ie- I can feed a large kingsnake 1 small rat or 2 adult mice. Rats are very fatty and as such 2 mice is the better choice there. Also the 10-15% weight thingy will reduce as a snake grows into adulthood. They don't have to grow anymore and food is at that moment just maintenance or the snake will grow fat and more prone to illness (like fatty liver disease).

[bigsnakegirl785]

I don't feed by weight, as it's far too much food for most species. I have found an absolute maximum of 10-11% for my boas is best. The young boa's meals are usually around 8% of their weight every 2 weeks, and my adult's are 2-6% of their weight monthly.

I like to feed meals that leave no bulge, or a hardly noticeable one. The bigger the snake is the smaller the bulge. Not because they can't physically handle it, but because if I fed them larger meals as often as I do, they'd be getting too much food.

I judge the lump size by viewing the snake within 2-3 hours of eating. If the bulge is too large for my liking, I give them an extra week and then go down a size until they gain more size. My adult boas do not go beyond a large rat, no extra larges, no jumbos, no colossals. Just large rats and x-small rabbits.

I never ever offer multiple prey items to my boa constrictors, either. They're more prone to regurgitation than pythons (which the degree could be linked to the snake's lineage but I'd rather be safe than sorry), and when feeding multiple prey items you'll get faster growth out of two prey items than a single larger one. Even when the weight of both is less than their normal meal. They'll grow just fine even on a slightly undersized meal.

[BillyCostume]

Thanks for the help :)

[sattva]

As I was reading through this post I couldn't help but to get this vision of a cartoon snake on a well traveled rat trail, picking up rats and putting them on a scale and saying "nope! to big, nope! to small"... ha, ha!

I know a lot of people go by the girth... The problem with this is It's so different with every species... Look how small the head is on a ball python compared to a lets say a Jungle carpet python in comparison to girth... I remember when I first got George, my retic, and gave him a small rat {because that's what the breeder said he was eating} and it scared the hell out of me... I thought he was going to split his lip... I had to turn my back and walk away... You see all those pictures of snakes that are split wide open because they ate something that was way to big...

I don't know if it will ever be an exact science for me, but I have it down for now... I think knowing whether or not he/she is over or underweight for his or her species is more important... I lean towards under feeding them because I want them to stay health for a long, long time...

I watched a guy give my Leon a minor physical as he was showing me what to look for when buying a snake... He said if you can pinch the skin he's not healthy... So I check my guy's this way to make sure their skin is not to lose and I am not under feeding them...

[bigsnakegirl785]

As I was reading through this post I couldn't help but to get this vision of a cartoon snake on a well traveled rat trail, picking up rats and putting them on a scale and saying "nope! to big, nope! to small"... ha, ha!

I know a lot of people go by the girth... The problem with this is It's so different with every species... Look how small the head is on a ball python compared to a lets say a Jungle carpet python in comparison to girth... I remember when I first got George, my retic, and gave him a small rat {because that's what the breeder said he was eating} and it scared the hell out of me... I thought he was going to split his lip... I had to turn my back and walk away... You see all those pictures of snakes that are split wide open because they ate something that was way to big...

I don't know if it will ever be an exact science for me, but I have it down for now... I think knowing whether or not he/she is over or underweight for his or her species is more important... I lean towards under feeding them because I want them to stay health for a long, long time...

I watched a guy give my Leon a minor physical as he was showing me what to look for when buying a snake... He said if you can pinch the skin he's not healthy... So I check my guy's this way to make sure their skin is not to lose and I am not under feeding them...

Whoever gave Leon a physical is wrong...a snake's skin should be able to move. There may be some species you can't pinch the skin too well, I haven't handled every species out there, but for most snakes, you're going to be able to move it.

Although overly saggy skin can indicate dehydration, it does not indicate anything about your snake's weight. Overweight, underweight, and ideal body weight snakes all can have their skin pinched, because snakes do not store their fat under their skin. It's stored around their internal organs and in structures called fatty deposits which are located in the back half of the snake. This is why if you can tell a snake is overweight it's already obese (and why looking at a boa constrictor's tail girth can tell you a lot about it's body weight better than any other part of its body - assuming there's no poop in there).

As far as the feeding, yeah. It took me some practice, too. I've fed Cloud my boa meals in the past so large they were the limit of his ability to swallow and I thought they hardly left any bulge. With my current knowledge, I now know just how large those bulges were. I can always post pictures of different bulge sizes if anyone wants to know what it is I'm looking for.