carpet feeding advice

Hi all.

Im after a bit of advice on feeding please.
Ive previously been advised I should be feeding my coastal carpet python 10-15% of his body weight.

He's now 650grams. So by that I should be feeding him around 65grams of mice.
Firstly, is this right?

Secondly. Mice/rats of that size just seem to big. Although thats his weight, in actual size it doesn't seem right.

Ive been told to just feed him more mice. Im not sure how to do that. At the moment I feed him one night a week. If im feeding him multiple mice, do I give him one mouse straight after another? Or do I spread it out, one mouse at a time over multiple nights?

first thing ....... get it onto rats.
I feed hatchlings on pinkie rats - never use mice. I never weigh the snake or the rats.
If it eats a rat and leaves a bulge in its belly - all good.
If no bulge - give it a bigger one next time.
I feed mine once a week or 2 weeks - no set times, sometimes they get 2 rats ( especially if one doesnt want to eat - due to shedding ) They tell me they are hungry by becoming more active ( at night ).
But thats just me - i have only been doing it for 40 yrs.

+1

Yeah I usually go by sight. If theres no nice lump in the tummy, I up the size.

And mice are crap. Get onto rats asap. Far more bone, guts blood. More of everything a snake needs.

Thanks for the advice on Rats, I'll move him on to those.
But my second question was if i'm to feed him more than one animal be it mouse or rat, do I space it out over a few days a week, or give him say two in one day one after the other?

you can go one after the other ..... or whatever time in between . You dont have to be regular with feeding - in the wild a snake doesnt have regular feeds , that is why they hunt. A snake might come across a birds nest with 4 young in it and it will eat the lot , one after the other . Same as if it finds a rats nest in a hole , it will eat as many as it can , if not all. Then it may not eat for 2 months. There is no " time in between feeds or weight of food" A snake will eat what it can fit in its mouth - when it can get it. Just remember also , that if you feed your snake 1 rat a week - it will probably grow twice as fast, as if you fed it a rat every 2 weeks.

hulloosenator said:

you can go one after the other ..... or whatever time in between . You dont have to be regular with feeding - in the wild a snake doesnt have regular feeds , that is why they hunt. A snake might come across a birds nest with 4 young in it and it will eat the lot , one after the other . Same as if it finds a rats nest in a hole , it will eat as many as it can , if not all. Then it may not eat for 2 months. There is no " time in between feeds or weight of food" A snake will eat what it can fit in its mouth - when it can get it. Just remember also , that if you feed your snake 1 rat a week - it will probably grow twice as fast, as if you fed it a rat every 2 weeks.

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This is good and true advice. I would add that if you are feeding captive bred and raised prey items, those prey items will contain significantly more fat than any rodent or avian prey if the wild. Consider that when feeding.

As stated, snakes feed on a feast or famine schedule. The best thing you can do for raising healthy, long lived snakes is to feed them, much like they eat in the wild. I'd recommend different sizes, different varieties of prey, and feeding at different intervals.

Research your seasons, and adjust your feeding to go along with the seasons when food is abundant and when it is not.

Here in the US I will let my boa constrictor go from November to March without a meal now that he is an adult. That practice is determined by hours of daylight, lower temps, lower humidity and the animal's "hardwired biology".

The snake simply has less of an interest in food during the winter months.

Feeding younger animals is a bit different, but you will find it very difficult to underfeed a snake VS. overfeeding one.

Just remember if you feed a lot at one time, there has to be a "clean out" period eventually. I never feed any of my snakes until they have completely eliminated their previous meal.

I realize pythons (I have a coastal) differ from boas, but if your goal is a long lived snake, you will find hulloosenator's advice pretty spot on.

We have to take captivity into account too. We as we keepers will never duplicate nature/the wild, nor should we want to, because snakes in the wild face many challenges compared to those living the cushy, captive life.

That said we have to adjust certain things to balance out their health.

No wild snake gets a rat, quail or rabbit every Friday at midnight.

Beans said:

Yeah I usually go by sight. If theres no nice lump in the tummy, I up the size.

And mice are crap. Get onto rats asap. Far more bone, guts blood. More of everything a snake needs.

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I doubt that there is any significant difference in ratios of bone, guts or blood when comparing say 200 grams of rat vs 200 grams of mouse. The different ratios come from the maturity of the food item, however I am not aware of any data on the optimum nutritional requirements of pythons and suggest that they have very broad nutritional requirements.

wokka said:

I doubt that there is any significant difference in ratios of bone, guts or blood when comparing say 200 grams of rat vs 200 grams of mouse. The different ratios come from the maturity of the food item, however I am not aware of any data on the optimum nutritional requirements of pythons and suggest that they have very broad nutritional requirements.

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Yeah I ment maturity wise. xD