Feeding

[Weazel]

Just a quick to clear up a little...

I've had my baby Red Tail for about 2 months now... Been feeding her 1 mouse once a week, for the whole time I've had her. (once a week is what the store I got her from suggested)

Well last week I went to a different store (closer drive) to get a mouse... Got one and the guy that got it for me, asked what I was feeding, told him... and he asked me why I wasn't feeding her 2 yet. Told him how often I was feeding her, and He said, 'Ahh still power feeding I see, well she'll get big...'

Now not that I care she's going to get big, (actually one of the selling points) but from reading these boards I thought that powerfeeding was sorta bad, in the sense that it will shorter the snakes life...

So my question is how often and how many should I be feeding her?

Thanks in advance...

[sclark]

Re:Feeding

Hello Weazel,

First let me clarrify a couple of points.. Feeding more then one prey item is not power feeding. The main way to power feed is to wait till the snake has the prey down to the beginning of the tail and put another prey item in its mouth so it foolows the first meal down. If you offer more then one item and the snake takes it on its own, thats just feeding multible prey..

Now your boa should be eating rats, depending on its size, either large rat pinkies or rat fuzzies. Best way to judge the correct size it to take the prey item, strech it out and look how thick it it.. Your boa should be eating prey that is just bigger then the fattest part of the boas girth. The way I work feedings and how often. If the boa is 6 months or younger, ever 7 days is fine. After that I move them upto ecery 10 days, and by 10 months they are eating about ever 2 weeks. I do not stick to a strict schedule with older boas. I wait until they become real active for atleast 3 days and then I offer food. I like big boas, but not a fan of fat lazy ones..LOL

Hope that helped some..

Steve

[Weazel]

Re:Feeding

Thanks, that's helps alot...