The pros and cons of feeding smaller prey items.

[peterescue]

This was the advice from The Rock that I was not too sure about.
Overall I cant see that it would have any detrimental effect on the general health and longevity of the snake and he did give reasons that could stave off other health problems.
I did think at the time it would be a good discussion topic.
Personally I believe that larger(not disproportionate) prey items help stimulate muscle growth and stop small head syndrome which was very common in Antaresia for some time.
My snakes would give up pretty quickly on a prey item that was too large.

 

[SLACkra]

so bigger is better? whats a good food item to snake head size ratio? going to get a stimpsons and i would prefer him to have a nice big solid head instead of "small head syndrome". i would very much enjoy reading a discussion on this topic.

andrew

 

[The Rock]

ok, larger prey items are so much harder to digest. they can go of inside the animal if temps are to hot or cold or even if it just takes to long to digest and temps are ok. While devouring the item the snake only needs a sligth tear in the mouth a bit of fur or dirt gets stuck there and youve got a recipie for cancer. So why risk it.! 2-3 smaller items will give the animal more food but a hell of a lot easier to digest. 1 large item WILL NOT stimulate more muscle growth than 2-3 smaller items. A comfortable sized prey item,(or 2-3), is buy far better than feeding items that the animal can only just manage. Common sense.
Rob

 

[NCHERPS]

My Personal opinion is that I prefer to give slightly smaller prey items than what I feel they could manage, just because I have found that they can sometimes get perminant/ semi-perminant stretch marks from eating larger prey over an extended period, which doesn't look great.

As for digestion, I couldn't see that it would make any difference if they ate one large prey item or 3, surely the quantities would be similar, and if they don't have the temps to digest it, they bring it back up.
I have never ever heard of fur or dirt in a slight tear causing 'Cancer' before, can you tell me more about your or others experiences of when this has occured Rob?

Cheers Neil

 

[NoOne]

I have no problems feeding bigger prey to growing or smaller pythons, when it comes to bigger pythons i much prefer to feed several smaller prey items rather than one large item.
Once rats get to big they get old and tough and fatty. As a rule i don't feed rats larger than 200-250gr to any of my snakes.
They bigger snakes get 2 or 3 rats this size per meal.

 

[OuZo]

I have never ever heard of fur or dirt in a slight tear causing 'Cancer' before

I figured he meant canker? lol

 

[basketcase]

i think the more surface area a snakes digestive juices have to work with the easier digestion would be. so a couple of smaller rats would be easier, i dont know if that makes it better for the snake tho.

ive also noticed the stretch marks neil talks about, but havent encountered any problems health wise. as already stated its simply asthetically speaking from what i can tell

i know ppl who subscribe to both theories and have perfectly healthy long lived animals. so go figure, its may not make any difference at all

 

[SLACkra]

ok. so feed larger prey items now and then while they are growing but once they get bigger stick to 2-3 small prey items a week?

andrew

 

[hugsta]

I feed my hatchies as big a prey item as they can swallow, once they are eating large rats the biggest I feed is around 200-250g. I don't think there would be much surface area difference between 3 small rats and a large one, I can't see how there can be that much difference in their digestive capabilities. They certainly don't seem to care how big a meal they eat in the wild.

 

[peterescue]

So this brings me to what is considered large and what is smaller.
I think we may all be talking about the same or similar sizes?????????

 

[hugsta]

I consider large to be something that creates a large bulge in the belly of the snake. Something small hardly makes an impression, maybe slightly noticeable. IMO anyway.

 

[Slateman]

My adult Olive female like to eat large adult rabbits. Is that large or small?
If rabbit is small. I can order some sheep for firs spring feed. :wink:

 

[instar]

I know a young fella that got some Ponys Slatey :lol:

 

[Linus]

I have always varied the prey size for my diamonds. In the wild they are opportunistic feeders so whatever comes along they will eat right?

So I try to mix it up a bit just to provide some variety. So for my juvenile last week I gave him 2 fuzzies which he had no problem with then this week gave him 1 weaner which he struggled with for quite a while.

Though what the rock says does ring true to me a bit. My juvenile does look like he's really "trying" to digest the weaner...sprawled out on the heat rock like a beached whale.

 

[The Rock]

Re

Sorry cant type ment canker. Small head syndrome is caused by feeding your animals to oftern. The body utilizes most of the food so it grows fast while the head takes longer to grow. Its the way that they have evolved, as food is more oftern than not hard to come by in the wild. To stop small head syndrome feed juvs every 2-3 weeks and adults every 2-8 weeks. Rob

 

[david63]

Been told by an experienced breeder that larger (older) prey items be they rats, mice whatever have greater proportion of body fat as opposed to smaller (younger) item. Therefore feeding them multiple smaller items is better for them - what do people think?

 

[Slateman]

Re: Re

. Small head syndrome is caused by feeding your animals to oftern. The body utilizes most of the food so it grows fast while the head takes longer to grow. Its the way that they have evolved, as food is more oftern than not hard to come by in the wild. To stop small head syndrome feed juvs every 2-3 weeks and adults every 2-8 weeks. Rob

I agree with that
I think that Small head syndrome will happen if you feed to often and size of pray do not make a difference.
I think that feeding to much to often is generating lot of other health problems.

 

[peterescue]

RE: Re: Re

I think the fat arguement is a furphy. Older rats will have more body fat if they are fat. I cant see why they should have proportionally a greater percentage of fat ratio to body mass.(convoluted or what)

 

[Slateman]

RE: Re: Re

And Youg rabbits are large and fat content is low. I find them excelent variety feed for my large pythons.

 

[BiteAndSqueeze]

RE: Re

Rock, can I please clarify this. You suggest feeding only every 2 - 3 weeks until what age? And thereafter only every 2 - 8 weeks?
Does that mean feeding them enough to bulge? or does a feed mean an amount that doesn't cause a noticable bulge?