Is It better to feed a young snake a small mouse every week or a larger mouse every other week?

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Answer 1

How small? I feed my snakes every week despite their size or the prey's size. My female Cali king will eat small rats once a week, she even took a med rat one week and still ate the next week.

If you feed every other day you can shorten your snake's life span, that is over feeding. If you want it to grow fast you can feed it every four days. I feed Mondays and Fridays. When you feed every other week your snake will grow slower... I fed my snake every four days and he is mating size in a year.. My female Cali king will be able to breed in 07.

So it is up to you. Steady weekly feedings will result in faster growth, more spread out feedings will result in slower growth.

About large mice and rats, always stun or prey kill the prey to prevent injury. If you buy live from a reptile store they should be able to kill it for you, i do for my customers. I don't recommend frozen thawed because like the food we eat as you freeze it and defrost it it will break down the nutrients so it isn't as healthy as it was before.

Anything else and just ask!

Answer 2

Simple answer...you should feed the appropriate sized rodent to your snake. Some of the answers above are good. A reasonable guide is that the girth of the mouse, fuzzy, whatever, should not exceed the width of the head of your snake. Honestly, the frequency that you feed your snake is up to you. The more you feed it the faster it will grow, as long as the environment is appropriate and temperature is warm enough. If you don't want your snake to grow quickly than feed it once every 1-2 weeks, if you want it to grow faster than feed it once to twice per week.

Answer 3

Never feed your snake food that is larger than its head when young they will thrive on pinkies you can feed 2 or 3 even if your snake seems hungry but dont be surprised if he is not interested in eating for a while may go more than a week with bigger feedings

Answer 4

I feed smaller meals once a week...when they are older and eating well, I will sometimes stretch it out to two weeks and then give them a big old feed....then wait another two weeks and start them back on smaller weekly feedings again.

This is just my silly notion that it more closely approximates what they would do in the wild...sometimes it's feast and sometimes it's a bit of famine. But I only do it after they are established and feeding well.

This also works if you are going to be traveling and away on feeding day-beef up the meal one week, skip the week you are gone, then get back on a schedule.

I don't think it's healthy to feed them constant, big meals. Snakes can get fat and I think Elvis, my kingsnake, would continue to eat until he exploded if I let him. Nature has designed him to eat what he can when he can, and since I am providing regular food I also have to be mindful of the quantity.

Elvis is up to hoppers now, but when I want to give him a real treat I'll thaw out a big batch of pinkies-yes it's expensive but he really seems to enjoy it because he gets to gorge with no effort. Again, that's just my half baked theory that in the wild he would come across various prey sizes and would eat what is available.

Answer 5

if it is a baby or a juvenile then feed a pinky or a fuzzy once a week or if it is a adult feed it a adult mouse every 10 days or so. it is best to feed them on frozen mice because some mice will attack the snake and sometimes are able to kill it.

Answer 6

Either way would be acceptable but small meals fed more regulary are prefered as the snake will get used to eating regulary.
If the snake is left with longer period between meals it may go off feeding.
All ways feed young snakes defrosted food, never feed live food as there is every chance the snake might get bitten.

Answer 7

1 small mouse per week is better....think of it this way....do u think that it's better for a person to eat 3 meals a day or 1 large meal a day....also if he's a young snake....he might not be able to fight off a bigger mouse very well.

Answer 8

a small mouse because would u like to eat a big diner every otherday or A small sample of food 3 times a day

Answer 9

smaller mouses are better because there is less chance of the snake being dammaged from the prey. The larger the prey the more damage the sanke may receive even after killing the prey when swallowing.

Answer 10

large mouse every other week that way you kill less mice, duh mouse killer