# Snake Weight Vs Food Weight



## Joe_do (Jul 7, 2018)

Hi All,

Just wondering, is there a general formula between determining the food item Weight with the weight of the snake ?

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## Bl69aze (Jul 7, 2018)

the normal is to feed 20% of the snakes weight, but they can easily do 30% however this would be fed alot less often


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## Joe_do (Jul 7, 2018)

Bl69aze said:


> the normal is to feed 20% of the snakes weight, but they can easily do 30% however this would be fed alot less often


Thank you

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## Wokka (Jul 12, 2018)

The feed required depends upon what you are trying to achieve. Are you trying to maintain the weight,or trying to increase their weight. All animals have a maintenance requirement to enable survival and then on top of this you may wish to increase the snakes weight to allow it to grow or to produce eggs.


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## Pauls_Pythons (Jul 12, 2018)

Everyone puts so much emphasis on food size but its important to also consider food type.
Adult mice provide greater levels on nutrition than pinkie rats.

Personally I never use 20% of animals weight as a guide but its thrown around all the time as the standard. I think its excessive as people always feed more frequently than the animals need and then feed them the largest thing they can swallow.


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## Joe_do (Jul 12, 2018)

Wokka said:


> The feed required depends upon what you are trying to achieve. Are you trying to maintain the weight,or trying to increase their weight. All animals have a maintenance requirement to enable survival and then on top of this you may wish to increase the snakes weight to allow it to grow or to produce eggs.


No rush to increase the weight, not doing powerfeeding , just feeding once a week. But they are yearlings and getting new ones, so just wondering how to determine the meal size for the new ones

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## Joe_do (Jul 12, 2018)

Pauls_Pythons said:


> Everyone puts so much emphasis on food size but its important to also consider food type.
> Adult mice provide greater levels on nutrition than pinkie rats.
> 
> Personally I never use 20% of animals weight as a guide but its thrown around all the time as the standard. I think its excessive as people always feed more frequently than the animals need and then feed them the largest thing they can swallow.


Then what do u suggest? I heard rats are more nutritious. Happens I was mistaken 

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## Pauls_Pythons (Jul 12, 2018)

Would an adult feeder animal of the same size be more nutrition than a pinky of a smaller species?
I prefer to up size the food onto something with more bone & muscle than feed them mush.

There is no perfect formula but I would guess that 90% of keepers over feed their snakes.

(Edit. But Im not saying feeding fat large size feeder animals is good either. They should be lean)


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## Wokka (Jul 16, 2018)

I think you should feed snakes between once a week and once a fortnight in their first year. Fully fured feed items generally have a better feed value than pinkies as they are generally eating more than just mothers milk. Ball park you will get about a 3 or 4 to 1 conversion, of feed to snake body weight so 300 grams of food should translate to 75-100 grams of body weight. To grow a 1 kilo yearling it will take 3-4 kilos of feed.


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## Sdaji (Jul 16, 2018)

I don't think the size of the feed is all that relevant. You hear a lot of people saying once per week or once per fortnight as though 7 days is some magical timeframe, and certain percentages. I'm quite surprised to see a single figure of 20% thrown up as some magical number for all snakes!

10% is fine, 40% is fine in some cases. When experimenting I've exceeded 100%, which has been...interesting! Haha! I raised a Bredli on feeds of 50-100% of her own body weight, and she grew up fine, reproduced, and pictures of her were quite popular on this site when I was posting them.

I generally shoot for around 30% for most pythons, less for most other things. For pythons I'm not squeamish about going to 40%, or 10%. For me, the important thing is how much feed they get per year, not per feed. If they get smaller feeds they get more feeds. If they get larger feeds they get less feeds. Consequently, the timing is not 'once per week' or whatever. I feed when they should get a feed. For young snakes this is often every 2-3 days. For old snakes this is often 5-7 times per year. If they get a 40% of body weight feed, I'll generally leave them at least 4-5 days even if they are young and growing. The most extreme feed frequency I ever tried was a Water Python I fed about 5 times per week. She was a particularly keen feeder and so I decided to see what she could do. It was no surprise that she grew extremely quickly. She matured quickly, produced healthy clutches of eggs, and all was well. Despite how quickly she grew she only grew to an average adult size.

I usually measure a more efficient feed to added weight conversion ratio than Wokka's figure. Closer to 1:2. Usually around 40% sometimes over 50%, but I'm talking about the most efficient phase of a snake's life. At the other extreme, for adult males or non reproductive females, measuring it would give a result of 0% efficiency since they are still eating something but their weight doesn't change long term (unless you are letting them gain or lose condition).

Basically, if you won't a snake to grow, feed it. If a snake is fat, feed it less (in some cases, little to no feeding for a year would be appropriate). Meals of 10% are fine, meals of 35% or more are usually fine for pythons, and depending on age, sex, condition, time of year, etc, more can be okay. For newbies it's probably safe to stay under 25-30%, but don't obsess over it. Feeding every three days is fine during times you want them to be growing or putting on weight (as long as the previous meal wasn't too huge - don't feed a 40% bodyweight meal then offer feed again 3 days later - use some common sense). If the feed lump is gone and the snake looks hungry and you want it to grow or put on weight, feed again. If the snake is fat, leave it until it doesn't look fat (in young, growing snakes this may only take 2 weeks), or give a small feed after about 6 weeks.

This all probably sounds a little complicated and confusing, but the reality is, we can't just say 'meals should be 20% for all snakes and feeding should be weekly'.


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## Joe_do (Jul 16, 2018)

Wokka said:


> I think you should feed snakes between once a week and once a fortnight in their first year. Fully fured feed items generally have a better feed value than pinkies as they are generally eating more than just mothers milk. Ball park you will get about a 3 or 4 to 1 conversion, of feed to snake body weight so 300 grams of food should translate to 75-100 grams of body weight. To grow a 1 kilo yearling it will take 3-4 kilos of feed.


Oh!!! So u feed approx thrice to 4 times the body weight of the snake ?!?




Sdaji said:


> I don't think the size of the feed is all that relevant. You hear a lot of people saying once per week or once per fortnight as though 7 days is some magical timeframe, and certain percentages. I'm quite surprised to see a single figure of 20% thrown up as some magical number for all snakes!
> 
> 10% is fine, 40% is fine in some cases. When experimenting I've exceeded 100%, which has been...interesting! Haha! I raised a Bredli on feeds of 50-100% of her own body weight, and she grew up fine, reproduced, and pictures of her were quite popular on this site when I was posting them.
> 
> ...


Thanks a lot for such a detailed message. Tips taken !! 

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## Wokka (Jul 16, 2018)

3 to 4 times of the ULTIMATE body weight you are trying to achieve. I have fed olives to 5 kg at 17 months of age and it took a total of 15 kilos of feed, fed over the 17 months, offered to refusal, about every 5 days. I did this because I wanted to achieve breeding weights as early as possible to utilise genetics and it worked. The temperature will also determine metabolic rate which will affect the rate of digestion. Like Sdaji wrote feed what you want depending upon what you are aiming to achieve. Snakes are very forgiving opportunistic feeders and can tolerate a variety of feeding regimes!


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## Joe_do (Jul 16, 2018)

Wokka said:


> 3 to 4 times of the ULTIMATE body weight you are trying to achieve. I have fed olives to 5 kg at 17 months of age and it took a total of 15 kilos of feed, fed over the 17 months, offered to refusal, about every 5 days. I did this because I wanted to achieve breeding weights as early as possible to utilise genetics and it worked. The temperature will also determine metabolic rate which will affect the rate of digestion. Like Sdaji wrote feed what you want depending upon what you are aiming to achieve. Snakes are very forgiving opportunistic feeders and can tolerate a variety of feeding regimes!


Thanks !!!
I've got two irregular feeder , which are yearlings and wld want to breed them next year and another female born in Dec 18, who eats every week without a miss 

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