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Posted by Fred Albury (Aztec Reptiles) on April 02, 2002 at 20:27:56:
In Reply to: I've never seen a snake eat like this posted by Beatrice Nichols on April 02, 2002 at 19:02:32:
: My yearling Texas male arrived 2/19. We call him Shad Shadrack Meshack the Indigo)
: I had live mice on hand and dropped one into the tank. Granted, it landed near the snake's head, but it was snatched up within a half-minute - no cruising the cage to get his bearings; I hadn't even put a hide box in yet.
: Shad's eaten five live and three f/t's since I've had him. He's happy to eat every 4-5 days. Even blue.
: He shed in March, and wasn't interested in the f/t offered until the eyes cleared. As soon as he ate, he began his shed within 24 hours.
: Day before last, Lurking Spousal Unit pointed out that Shad's eyes were all milky blue. Tonight his eyes were opaque, but he ate the f/t offered. I'm thrilled and amazed.
: I know I've gone on forever already, but are there any dangers associated with overfeeding? I'm thinking of an article I read recently about the Neapolitan mastiff (okay, I know, they aren't exactly first cousins as species). This article talked about over-zealous owners over feeding their Neo puppies and producing musculoskeletal problems alongside the other maladies associated with obesity. Has anyone observed any analogous problems with Drymarchons?
Beatrice,
In the wild Eastern Indigos and other indigos and cribos, eat and move. They DONT sit in their own waste for extended periods of time(Unlike in captivity) and they arent confined to tiny cages but instead can travel over fairly decent size plots of ground. The example of the Neo that you used(I loves Neos!!) is an example of a man made dog that has muscular/skeletal problems from inbreeding and cant really be allyed with Eastern Indigos in the wild. In CAPTIVITY however, in small and crowded cages, without access to enough room to allow for natural movement, and forced to sit UNNATURALLY near their own waste matter-things can and will go awry. I have seen obese Indigos, some GROSSLY so, like a blacktailed cribo a guy showed me at a show in 1999.
He pulled me aside as a fellow vendor, and showed me a cribo that was perhaps 5 ft long, and as big around as a adult sumatran blood python!!
Was it overfed? Of course! Was that bad for its health? Of course!
So, to answer your inquiry, yes they can and often do become obese when fed to much, and suffer the health consequences because of it.The likelyhood of someone overfeeding is lessened severly with this snake compared to other colubrids as with INDIGOS and CRIBOS there is a little formula which makes it unwise to over feed, that formula is:
INDIGOS,CRIBOS + EXCESS FOOD=BIG PILES O'POOP!
This SIMPLE formula will prevent many from overfeeding their Drymarchon. NOTHING is more PUNISHING than cleaning the cage of a Cribo or Indigo that has been grossly overfed...KNOWING that you WILL clean it again in less than 24 hrs
First time it might not sink in............
Second time it might not sink in.......
By the third try the above formula is burned into your head.lol Even those that love to feed restrict themselves.
Indigos eat like pigs, or perhaps pigs WISH they could eat with as much gusto as Indigos do!!
They use the"Beat the crap out of them till they submit" technique, so popular among some colubrids(Garters, racers whipsnakes etc)
Seems to work.
God is wonderfull in the complexity of
his design.We dont even come close.
We are still trying to make sheep
from sheep.lol
Fred
