Interesting topic

[sclark]

Hey all,

Most know I have dealt with snakes and other retiles for some years now, but tonight , this morning, etc I got thrown a curve ball.. You may know about the female I took in a few weeks back. Well she is a big girl, nice thick girth, etc.. Well tonight I wanted to give her, her first rabbit to help her with some extra weight. Well the supplier I got this rabbit from, only had 5 pounders and up.. I figured 5 pounds would be the max she could do at this point. I made sure that after it was thawd out I streched it abit to make sure the girth of the rabbit wasn't too much bigger then she was.. Looked good. I offered it to her, and she snatched it like I hoped. This was at 12:30 this morning (EST). Well its 6:05am EST right now and she is not done yet. Looks like she working on the shoulders right now, thats the front shoulders. I know she is still working on it, because she keep streching the bunny and letting out the loudest exhales you would ever want to hear. So I am waiting. Never had a snake take this long to eat in my life.. Anyone else have or had a snake that took this long to eat. This is nuts..LOL Now some may say the rabbit is too big, but it doesn't exceed her girth. I just think she has not had much pratice with giant meals. Also snakes will spit it out if they can't get it down.. I will start worrying if I am eating dinner and she is still on this rabbit..

Steve

[stormyva]

Re:Interesting topic

My girl will sometimes take her time on larger colossal rats and she is about 7' long. She does not take that long though, she will usually take about 1-1.5 hours. It seems like she is savoring the flavor Maybe yours is doing the same, enjoying the taste of that succulent rabbit

[XzyluM]

Re:Interesting topic

Six hours....never heard of one going that long. I wonder if she is done yet?

[___LEE___]

Re:Interesting topic

yea steve man is that a long time.

[eViL_KaRoT]

Re:Interesting topic

WOW!!!! I thought mine took a long time!! The first time I fed Ursula a Bunny It took her like 3 hrs to eat it, but once she got past the head, it slid right donw!!! But over 6 hrs!!!!! I hope she finally gets it down!!!!

[sclark]

Re:Interesting topic

Well here is the final update..

About 7:30am this morning she had it down except for the last 2 inches of the back legs. So I went to sleep. Like I said, I don't think this snake ever ate anything bigger then med rats, so this was a total challenge for her.. The bad news it, after I seen she had it down to the feet, I went to sleep. just moved the feed box without a top in her cage. When I woke up she regurged the rabbit. Since I am sure the rabbit was big but not too big, my guess is the stress of such a long feeding attempt stressed her body so much that she couldn't keep it down.. I feel real bad about it. But in a week I will just give her a normal jumbo rat and a fat Guiena pig to regain some fat.

Instead of 5 pound rabbits I will start her off on 3 pound rabbits and work her way up.. Its sad, but it does happen..

She normally takes 2 pound jumbo rats from me with no effort, but she still take an hour and half or more to get it down. I think she is just a slow eater.. Nothing like my Blue beauty who hits large med rats and downs them in 15 mins..

Steve

[___LEE___]

Re:Interesting topic

sorry to hear about the regurge steve... yea have u thought about giving dog rats??

[sclark]

Re:Interesting topic

If I could find one I would try. Baracuda is the first person I heard mention these dog rats. Since then I have not been able to find as much as a pic of them. If you can find a pic, post it, would love to see how big these puppys get..

Steve

[eViL_KaRoT]

Re:Interesting topic

I got a hole bunch of those dog rats at the show. I'll take some pix tonite and get them posted so you can see them. I put in there for comparrison a small bunny and a colossal rat!! You'll see they are freakin huge!!!!!!

[sclark]

Re:Interesting topic

Cool Evil,

Would love to see how big those ones get.. How much do they run?

Steve

[eViL_KaRoT]

Re:Interesting topic

I think I paid like $1.50 a piece for them. I can't remember since I bought like 3 months worth of feeding for all my snakes, I don't remember what I paid a piece, plus they cut me a deal since I bought so much!!!!

[sclark]

Re:Interesting topic

Geeze Evil,

That is crazy cheap for good size rats.. The local pet store here sells rat pinks all the way to small for 3.99 each, med for 4.99 large for 5.99 and ex-large for 6.99.. And trust me their sizes are not on the money as far as I am concerned.. Heck they sell all size pinkie mice to adults for 1.39 each. This is why i started breeding my own stock..

If you do get a pic of them, I would love to see them..

Steve

[eViL_KaRoT]

Re:Interesting topic

Here's a pic of the package they come in.

[eViL_KaRoT]

Re:Interesting topic

Here's how much They weigh.

[eViL_KaRoT]

Re:Interesting topic

Here is a comparison of a Dog rat to a small bunny.