Snake Feeding Tips

[Footie]

[QUOTE=tigger79;4388656]can i just ask how often you are feeding the snake, also if you are only feeding small meals, the snake will absorb the majority of it and there will be no waste to come out the other end,

another thing, there is no need to bath snake every other day, and if feeding has been an issue you shouldnt really handle until feeding has gone back to a proper routine and the snake is happy.





Hey Tigger,

When I got Akasha she was very underweight, took her the vets and her suggested an assist feed. I found a very good reptile shop who helped me with this and after 2 assist feeds she strikes every time
The same reptile shop has advised me that she needs small adult mice now, as she is eating every five days and last time took 2 fluffs. So this feed will be interesting lol.
Me and my brother, who is only ten, are new to reptiles, so we are learning.
We bathe the beardies and baby iggy every other day, as we feel that this helps with bonding. Our male beardie can be a bit moody and enjoys his bath lol. Our baby iggy needs taming, so we use the baths for bonding and exercise, before we handle her. Our female beardie has a tail nip when we got her that went quite bad, another trip to the vets(several) and she gets bathed everyday because of the constricted shed she had.
Akasha, my royal eats regularly now, and has been for a few weeks, so I handle her erveryday, except for 24-48 hours after she had dinner
Hope we are doing everything right as we spent and spend hours researching

[shiprakaul]

This is really superb tips. Thanks for sharing.

[shonny]

really usefull tips mate ta..my corn has reguretated his mouse twice now..he did it a few months ago but then carryed on feeding as normal...shud i worry? x

[fuzzzzbuzzzz]

Very usefull, thankyou

[sheeny baby]

can you please help we have an albino royal who is an 08 we have had him about 2 months and has not eaten a thing in all the time we have had him i know the morph royals can be fussy eaters and have tried most of your tips (hamster bedding, warm water, leaving food over night, temps and humidity, smaller tub,) but i was wandering if i need to do anything different because he is a morph? cheers and by the way excellant thread

[tigger79]

it doesnt really matter if a royal is a morph or not, the only difference is that most morphs are cb as you rarely find wc morphs,

an 08 male will now be sexually mature, therefore they will more thasn likely follow the typical feeding pattern and stop feeding, but as breeding season is over i would think he should start feeding soon,

check to see wht the original person was feeding the snake, offer smaller sized food, on a monthly basis, the snake will feed when its ready to, just monitor the weight and only handle to weigh and clean out if needed,

once the snake has started to feed, you can then start to handle, but only if this doesnt affect its feeding, some of my royals only get handled if i need to as they dont like regular handling and stop feeding if i handle too much.

hopoe this helps.

[skimsa]

edit: Forum rape

[kaleluk31]

Originally Posted by tigger79

well i thought i would update the feeding tips thread and post it here for new people to see, i have consolidated all the posts and added tips i missed so

When your snake stops feeding this is what you should do -

So to Start with the first and most important thing to do is to Relax and stop worrying.

When your snake stops eating you need to take into account the following,

1. Is your Snake going into Shed
2. Has your snake been moved recently
3. Are your Temps correct
4. Is the Husbandry correct for you snake (size of viv, hides, greenary)
5. Is it winter time or breeding season
6. Is your snake showing any signs of illness/stress, Just to enhance one of the reasons that your snake will stop feeding is because of stress, but all of the reasons i mentioned are factors that cause stress,


So after asking yourself all of these questions, this is what you do,

1. Weigh you snake and monitor for any weight loss,
2. Change the time period that you offer, do not offer every day or every couple of days,
3. Reduce food size that is offered

Ok so now we have the basics covered, when offering there are a few things that you can do to intice your snake to take the food, it does not matter which order you try these methods in but try them all over a period of time before going on to the next step below.

1. Warm up the food (hair dryer, hot water, etc)
2. Brain the food (slit head)
3. Leave food in viv, cover up and leave for 24hrs without looking,
4. Place snake into a tub and take it for a 15- 20 minute drive. this method is like a roller coaster effect, you place the snake into a tub and put tub on seat of car, the movement of the car gently rocks the snake around and disturbs gut flora in its stomach and hopefully causes the snake to feed,
5. Scenting food (with other foods, suppliments)
6. Placing on a jacket (place skin of a chick over food)
7. Offer different food types (gerbils, rats, multis, chicks etc)
8. Rub the defrosted food with some of the bedding to give it a fresh smell and you could also place some of the bedding inside the viv to excite the snake 10 or 15 minutes prior to feeding.
9. Try pre-killed food, to use this method you have to kill the rodent and place n viv whilst it is still twitching.
10. Put them into a pillow case with the food.

Another tip i was given and have started to use is, as we know Oct - Apr is winter them breeding season, if during this period you snakes refuses and is not in shed,

dont panic and instead of offering as usual offer on a monthly basis,

if after 2-3 months they still refusing, just stop offering until april,

all you have to do is weigh once or twice a month and keep an eye for any serious loss, if it a few grams here and there its nothing to worry about, what you are looking for is larger amounts (100g+)

Once the season is over down size you snakes home (if in 3ft move into a 2ft), place in a food item smaller then they usually take and leave, once taken you can slowly build them back upto the original size food, they may not start taking straight away, therefore try using the basic methods (brainin, death wiggle,warming etc etc)

Ok once all these methods have been tried, and you snake is still not eating then it may be time for a visit to the vets to give you snake the once over (this may only be necessary if it shows signs of illness or has stopped eating from one of the obvious reasons.

There are 3 other methods you can use to try to gety your snake to feed, but these are only to be done as last resorts and usually after being advised to from a vet.

1. Live food
2. Assist feeding
3. Force feeding

Of these methods live food would be the prefered and less stressful method,

As for the legallity of this method, this is how it stands,

Live feeding is Legal, but only as a last resort before assist/force feeding, But if frowned upon by AR and RSPCA,(these will try to prosecute you)

But you are at a bit of a dilema, as they will try to prosecute for 2 reasons,

1. cruelty to live rodent - when feeding live
2. cruelty to snake - if left to starve and die

therefore if you are going to feed live, you must do it in the privacy of you own home, without an audience and do not go advetising that you are doing it, Also DO NOT leave unattended, and only leave live food in fo 15 - 30 minute period, and remove sooner if you see the food attacking the snake

If this still does not work, then it may mean you have to assist/force feed you snake, but this MUST be at the last resort stage, once you snake hasnt been eating for over 6 - 12 months, and would be advisable to get some one who knows what they are doing to assist you, as it can be very daunting for you to do it, But i must warn you this will be very stressful for the snake as well.

I will just state these are tried and tested methods of various members and keepers,

1. Is your Snake going into Shed (dont think so)
2. Has your snake been moved recently(yes i just got it)
3. Are your Temps correct ( i believe so 80f)
4. Is the Husbandry correct for you snake (size of viv, hides, greenary) (i have 2 hides for hot and cold side, a water bowel, a heat lamp and heat matt)
5. Is it winter time or breeding season (its September)
6. Is your snake showing any signs of illness/stress, Just to enhance one of the reasons that your snake will stop feeding is because of stress, but all of the reasons i mentioned are factors that cause stress,(it spends most of its time balled up in the hides, it backed off when i tried to feed it)

I tried to feed it in a rub box because im told if i fed it in the viv it would associate my hand going in with food time and might bite me.
i cant keep the thawed mouse warm long enough, within 1 min or so of warming it, its going to go cold anyhow

[tigger79]

Can i just ask what you problem is, it appears you have given the answers already, you have only just got the snake therefore you need to allow it time to settle also you should wait at least 7-10 days before offering a feed.

as for warming the mouse, i use a pot of hot water, so that i can keep warming the head of the food item.

[kaleluk31]

Originally Posted by tigger79

Can i just ask what you problem is.

you sound angry or offended, im sorry if this is the case because it is not my intention.

4 weeks ago i knew nothing about keeping snakes, at the moment im just "feeling my way around", to understand and find what is best for my snake and it is good to hear different opinions or options to solving what is unknown to me.

I asked in another thread...
do i have the layout of my viv wrong?
ive noticed that during the day on the left side there is a hide and a Basking heat bulb, under the hide is aheat mat covered in 3 layers of news paper.

on the right side there is a hide but no heat.
a water bowel, with water changed daily.

during the day while the heat light bulb is on it never goes anywhere near that hide, it sleeps on the cold side with no heat.

at night i switch the heat bulb off but the heat mat is on 24/7, at night it goes to sleep on that left side.

is the bulb to bright?
even when my thermometer reads 70-80f, could it be going to hot on the surface of the hide which is a exo terra hide?