Hungry diamond!

[swifty]

My diamond python monty is really greedy and has never been a problem to feed.
He is 14 months old (1m 13cm) and will happily eat 2 biggish fuzzy rats every week.
I read recently that diamonds are prone to becoming obese and that it's better to let them get really hungry between feeds rather than feed them too often as their bodies become large but their heads stay small.
Am I feeding him too much for his age and size? Any help appreciated.:?

 

[pythons73]

IMO 2 every week is to much,probably every fortnight would be ok.One of my yearling Darwins eats 2 at a time,but she doesnt get fed again for 2-3weeks.I wouldnt feed it 2 every week.just my opinion.

 

[ShaunMorelia]

feed every 10-14 days mate, especially if feeding him rats, they are a pretty fatty.
a bit like letting a kid eat a large pizza every day....

 

[bongie555]

******** i have a smilar problem...
im a bit of a noobie and have gotten conflicting advice from 2 experienced people about feeding. ive got pair of bredli's about 6 months old and the breeder adviced me to feed a weaner mice every 7 days which I was doing for a few weeks but then I spoke to the guy who now supplies me with fuzzy rats and he tells me he feeds his bredli (clutch mates of my pair) a fuzzy rat every 4 days. i asked him if this was ok as i assumed it would make the snake fat but he suggested that at this age it just converts to growth rather that fat. I have been trying it and they do get the fuzzy rats down quite well and i have noticed a fairly convincing amount of growth in the short period ive been feeding them fuzzy rats every 4 days(and I do like what I see).
but i am very wary of the practice and now wait til they poo it out before feeding again(usually 7days).
i just want to know what are the possible consequences of me keeping up this feeding pattern?
(i dont want to start a new thread so pls need expert help)

 

[Ewan]

Guys it is a hard question to give a definitive answer to. There are that many differing opinions going around and the facts are there aren't enough people here on this forum who have kept a snake for long enough (20 years or more, me included) to understand ALL the consequences involved with over feeding. In the days where large collections weren't as common and it was harder to get quality food it probably wasn't a concern. At the end of the day you feed your snake as much or as little as you need to so that you can achieve the out come you desire.

The feeding regimes for individual snakes even within the same species in the same collection can vary.

It is of my opinion that food size should be in proportion to the weight of the python. Above 10% for my liking. In fact some of my animals will eat 15 or 20% of their body weight every 7 to 10 days.

We have all seen the wildlife documentaries where a wild boa eats an antelope, so we are all well aware of what they are capable of. We also know that a python can go a long time without food. For my mind, feed what you are comfortable with and what you have access too.

 

[bongie555]

tnx ewan....but what swifty was also originally concerned as i am is whether there was is any danger of the snakes becoming obese,especially with mine if I feed them every 4 days as the supplier suggested and what are the consequences of allowing this to happen?.
feeding mine every 4 days isnt a financial concern for me and again in the month that I have done so and the fact that they are only 6months old, I like what I see in the relation to growth rate.
but is there any danger to keeping up this practice?

 

[Ewan]

Like I said there aren't many people
around who have been feeding a snake in that way for long enough to tell exactly.

There are signs that you can use to tell if your snake is over weight but how it can impact on their health is not well known. In some cases I have heard of in post mortem examination fatty deposits around the organs have been
present and obviously this isn't a good thing. How exactly this impacts on the health of a snake is unknown to me.

 

[derekm]

The advice I have been given (by people who know a lot more about this than I do) is that hatchie and juvenile pythons will use food for mainly for growth and activity, rather than convert it to fat. My six-month old stimmie only manages to convert a very small percentage of the pinkie mice I feed him to poo. Currently, I'm feeding one every 4 or 5 days. My indicators, in order of importance, are:
- when I notice that the bulge from the last feed has completely disappeared;
- willingness to eat (only in theory at this stage because he hasn't refused a feed from me yet);
- advice received from the breeder to feed every four days; and
- evidence of poo (and I have to look pretty hard for it because there is never very much).

Evidence of poo is mostly just to make sure that I don't compound a constipation problem (should it ever happen) by over-feeding.

 

[bongie555]

tnx derekm and ewan...its just what my breeder originally adviced me to do and a lot of peoples opinion in this forum, was to feed once a week the appropriate size food and this was fine till my new frozen rats supplier suggested that I increase it to every 4 days for maximum growth.and again i was surprised and very happy with the results from feeding more frequently, the growth rate was considerably noticeable but i was concerned about the possible side effects.
hearing both of your opinions has helped me decide to continue with this regime and I will just monitor closely for signs of constipation and or if they noticeably begin to look obese.

 

[Chris1]

since i read about an 18 month old bredli that was fed to death i prefer to keep my snakes on the slimmer side,...

plus having 2 beardies on a 2 year diet has made me decide not to let any of my animals get overweight ever again, putting a snake on a diet would take even longer to achieve results than it would with the beardies,....!!

i generally feed anything under a year every 5-7 days, over a year every week or 2 and 3 years and over every 2 or 3 weeks,..

mine dont have set feeding times/dates, i mix it up and every month or 2 give then an extra week or 2 without feeds so they completely empty themselves out,...
derekm, my first bredli ate a whole packet of 10 pinky rats without a poo (1 a week, so 10 weeks,...!!), i was told that he was absorbing all his food, he started pooing again when i moved him up a foodsize,...it was freaky!!

 

[derekm]

derekm, my first bredli ate a whole packet of 10 pinky rats without a poo (1 a week, so 10 weeks,...!!), i was told that he was absorbing all his food, he started pooing again when i moved him up a foodsize,...it was freaky!!

This sounds reasonable if the move was from pinkies to fuzzies. The only recognisable constituent of the poo of an adult diamond I had about 30 years ago was fur. There is nothing recognisable in my stimmie's poo, but then there no hair on the pinky mice he's eating either. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that fur or feathers in a snake's diet performs a similar role for them that roughage performs for us. (But that doesn't explain anything about snakes that don't eat mammals or birds!!!)

 

[Divan]

my diamond is the same age as yours and about the same size, i feed mine 1 fuzzy rat every 10 days but i mix up the days soo he doesnt get used to being fed on every 10th day, Like one week i will feed him after 10 days and some week i will feed him after 15 days and then the ocational week i give him one every 7 days.
And he seems fine.

I'm upgrading his food to small rats in a couple of weeks

 

[Shauno]

I have always been advised to feed on the largish side and every 10 to 14 days. I have been using this method for a while now without consequence. Are you sure that the supplier ins't advising you for his own finacial gain??