Jakos
New Member
Hello all! First post here, so apologies if this is not the correct area, if I ramble on for too long, or if I’m lacking certain forum etiquette, but regardless - I’m very happy to be a part of what seems to be an awesome like-minded community.
Late September this year, I became the proud owner of a beautiful young Bredli. She hatched in February 2022, and the previous owner simply did not have the time/money to put into her amongst his other reptile collection, so he made the right call in looking to move her on to someone else that could.
She’s beautiful to handle but as she’s still young, takes a moment or two to settle down once removed from her enclosure, and is also very defensive and strike-y when she is in the enclosure, which again, for her size I believe to be a normal reaction to a large hand coming into her space?
Everything I know about caring for her I have learned from the previous owner within the space of an hour or so, which was basically just relaying what he had been doing with her. I’ve also looked up some basic care sheets for her also and I’ve somewhat combined the knowledge. Now I know that all snakes grow at different rates and that the early stages of their life and their feeding regimes can affect this greatly, and I think is the main reason I felt the need to create this post.
Below is a brief log of the recorded weights I have:
3/12/22: 86g
15/9/23 : 163g
12/12/23 : 276g
I took ownership on 25/9/23, so as you can see she had put on less than 80g in 9 months with the previous owner, but has put on over 100g with me in about 3 months. Again, as I’m a first time owner I can’t be too sure, but 80g didn’t sound like much at all, and I’m not sure if 100g in this timeframe is about right or not. I haven’t measured her length properly, but I would say she would be right around the 4 foot mark or so.
View attachment RPReplay_Final1702377327.mov
The previous owner had been feeding her monthly, which initially I thought sounded like quite a long time, and even after some further research, juvenile snakes (at least morelia) should be fed roughly every 7-10 days. He also mentioned that she would be able to consume prey twice the width of her body, so something like a small rat would be suitable.
So I fed her about a month after her last feed with the previous owner (as guided), and have since dropped it to three weeks as she appeared to be very hungry, striking very quickly at the small rat almost seeming desperate for food. I’m sure this could be normal, I just hate the thought of starving her longer than needed. Have had the thought of bringing it down to 2 weeks or at least offering it to her that stage.
On that first feed, she also started a shed whilst digesting a small rat. Previous owner mentioned she may have another shed towards the end of the year, so I wondered if this was just pure coincidence in timing, or if perhaps she was close to shed but the rat was too large and forced the shed to begin earlier? Previous owner mentioned she was shedding 2-3 times per year. I do notice small flakes of skin every now and then appear in her enclosure - sometimes after a feed, also not sure if that is normal, her body looks normal and no damage or obvious places the flakes would’ve come from.
Currently she is having 1x small rat every 3 weeks. Seems to take her 4-5 days to fully digest and be back to her normal self, and I typically don’t handle her for the whole length of that time, to make sure she digests properly and doesn’t feel threatened or uncomfortable.
Was hoping to get a few opinions on her weight, feeding schedule, and basically if she’s eating enough and getting enough nutrition?
Apologies for the long post, hope I haven’t annoyed anyone, just wanting to give the best care possible to this beautiful girl, and want to make sure she’s as happy as can be.
Many thanks!
Late September this year, I became the proud owner of a beautiful young Bredli. She hatched in February 2022, and the previous owner simply did not have the time/money to put into her amongst his other reptile collection, so he made the right call in looking to move her on to someone else that could.
She’s beautiful to handle but as she’s still young, takes a moment or two to settle down once removed from her enclosure, and is also very defensive and strike-y when she is in the enclosure, which again, for her size I believe to be a normal reaction to a large hand coming into her space?
Everything I know about caring for her I have learned from the previous owner within the space of an hour or so, which was basically just relaying what he had been doing with her. I’ve also looked up some basic care sheets for her also and I’ve somewhat combined the knowledge. Now I know that all snakes grow at different rates and that the early stages of their life and their feeding regimes can affect this greatly, and I think is the main reason I felt the need to create this post.
Below is a brief log of the recorded weights I have:
3/12/22: 86g
15/9/23 : 163g
12/12/23 : 276g
I took ownership on 25/9/23, so as you can see she had put on less than 80g in 9 months with the previous owner, but has put on over 100g with me in about 3 months. Again, as I’m a first time owner I can’t be too sure, but 80g didn’t sound like much at all, and I’m not sure if 100g in this timeframe is about right or not. I haven’t measured her length properly, but I would say she would be right around the 4 foot mark or so.
View attachment RPReplay_Final1702377327.mov
The previous owner had been feeding her monthly, which initially I thought sounded like quite a long time, and even after some further research, juvenile snakes (at least morelia) should be fed roughly every 7-10 days. He also mentioned that she would be able to consume prey twice the width of her body, so something like a small rat would be suitable.
So I fed her about a month after her last feed with the previous owner (as guided), and have since dropped it to three weeks as she appeared to be very hungry, striking very quickly at the small rat almost seeming desperate for food. I’m sure this could be normal, I just hate the thought of starving her longer than needed. Have had the thought of bringing it down to 2 weeks or at least offering it to her that stage.
On that first feed, she also started a shed whilst digesting a small rat. Previous owner mentioned she may have another shed towards the end of the year, so I wondered if this was just pure coincidence in timing, or if perhaps she was close to shed but the rat was too large and forced the shed to begin earlier? Previous owner mentioned she was shedding 2-3 times per year. I do notice small flakes of skin every now and then appear in her enclosure - sometimes after a feed, also not sure if that is normal, her body looks normal and no damage or obvious places the flakes would’ve come from.
Currently she is having 1x small rat every 3 weeks. Seems to take her 4-5 days to fully digest and be back to her normal self, and I typically don’t handle her for the whole length of that time, to make sure she digests properly and doesn’t feel threatened or uncomfortable.
Was hoping to get a few opinions on her weight, feeding schedule, and basically if she’s eating enough and getting enough nutrition?
Apologies for the long post, hope I haven’t annoyed anyone, just wanting to give the best care possible to this beautiful girl, and want to make sure she’s as happy as can be.
Many thanks!
