no expert, but here's my experience...

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Posted by nodaksnakelover on March 08, 2003 at 03:26:35:

In Reply to: TO FED,OR NOT TO FEED ,THAT IS THE QUESTION posted by P-RAT on March 07, 2003 at 19:21:08:

A pain isn't it when you've only got so many options and those rats are now thawed out, and spendy critters too! I try to feed my animals so that there is one rat feeder who I know will eat every time, in my case, my female leucistic texas rat, Lucy. I will first offer the rats to my pines, and most of the time they both eat. And I'll just thaw out a single rat for Lucy later that day or the next day. Otherwise she gets the refused rats. Now, this past weeks feeding, I offered the female two rats. She's at five and a half feet. These are small rats. I'd say an inch shorter than the rats your feeding. The male however, didn't eat, and probably won't for a while yet, he's got romance on his mind... So I fed his to the female, that's three rats! I don't like my stuff getting too stuffed, as I know it isn't good for them to have too much or you risk a regurge. And that can be disastrous, upsetting the stomach of the snake for weeks. But my girl handled her three rats just fine, she slammed that third one! Otherwise Lucy would have gotten it but I want my female pine to be at her best for breeding coming up. If it's just a pet snake, I wouldn't do it if I could help it, or at least not feed for several weeks. In my collection, I do it all the time where I ask myself, does this snake really need to eat this week? How fat is he or she? Is this animal still growing up? Adult non breeders really don't get fed much each year. I swear I only fed my Lucy last year a handful of rats all summer as she kept such good weight. And she still seems on the fat side and hoping to attempt breeding her again this year. Whereas her mate is still young and growing so he's fed weekly yet. I have a male hognose that simply won't eat for me but so many times last year. This year, he hasn't eaten yet coming out of hibernation. All he wants is his female companion. But anyhow, without seeing the size of your animals, cause length isn't good enough to go by, I've got corn snakes the same length but diameter is a diff story. So I don't know how extended your bulls get with two rats. If they seem distended with two rats, I wouldn't go for a third. My female pine doesn't show much with one rat, and just a bit with two, so thirds wasn't a problem for her this week.

:O.K,my two female bulls just got feed two 6 inch rats[body size]they are about 5ft each and have been subject to mating latly,my question is should I give them one more each,I have two my male don't want and the females seem to want more or is that to much.P-RAT

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Re: no expert, but here's my experience... BILLY 03/08/03 (0)