300g YEARLING??

[Haight]

So I am pretty sure I have answered my own question now. I am confident that slinky will be over 300g by a year seeing as he just weighed in at 136 g at just over 6 months old, and he has put on 50g in the last 40 days.

 

[MegF.]

I don't feed that often to any of my snakes...I guess if you're in a hurry to get a big snake for breeding, feeding an adult every week would work and every 5 days for a weanling mouse. With my snakes, babies on pinkies are fed every 5-7 days depending upon the species. Boas and pythons might go 10 days...better feeding responses. Anything over a pinky is fed every 7-10 days and adults are fed every 2-3 weeks.....When I stopped feeding so often, the snakes became more active, females didn't get egg bound, recovered faster and didn't have the "hips" that my other females got when fed weekly. My females mature at a much older age.....4-5 years old but I think they are healthier. I sincerely doubt that snakes in the wild reach mature breeding weight in 2-3 years and I think many captive snakes are overweight. Anyone who says their snakes are always in their hides and don't move are overfeeding. Mine are always out and moving....hunting....They are not thin but lean and muscular as they should be. Either you have an incredibly large snake or you're overfeeding if it's reached mature breeding weight by 1 year of age...even my 5 ft okeetees were not at breeding weight at 1 year old and I was still feeding weekly back then. And they were over 800 grams at maturity.....

 

[Haight]

I feed Slinky every 8 days, and he is very active almost every night. I'm completely dumbfounded at how quickly he is growing. I've tracked all of the weight of his food and how much he has retained of that weight, and it is 48%. From what I've read that is about 18% more than the average.

 

[MegF.]

I would not feed every 8 days then.....He's gaining more weight than is healthy...either he has something in his metabolism that makes him hold onto every bit of fat in the food or he just has an extremely slow metabolism that doesn't burn calories....you have to adjust to that. If I fed my boas or pythons a weanling rat every 8 days they'd be obese.....and if your snake is 300 grams he is large enough to eat a weanling rat or large adult mouse....

 

[MegF.]

Sorry, can't edit anymore.....at 186 grams he's eating what? A hopper or weanling mouse or something bigger?

 

[Haight]

He is 136g and is eating a 13-17g weanling now. He is lean and muscular too.

 

[MegF.]

Because he's still young...if he's growing that rapidly it's like a snake that's being powerfed...whether you are or not. Once they get past the young growth rate the weight will stay on.....and obesity set in.....I'd feed a lot less often until you get a more stable growth rate to avoid fat when he gets to around 2 or 3 and slows down.

 

[Haight]

Oh I definitely don't plan on feeding this often as he gets older and reaches a mature size.

 

[MegF.]

I'd slow down now since you know he has a very slow metabolism that is holding on to everything he takes in....he's almost to half breeding weight before he's even half way to breeding age......

 

[Dragonling]

Any updates on Slinky? Is he a 500g monster now?

 

[axis1]

Any updates on Slinky? Is he a 500g monster now?

Yes!! Inquiring minds wanna know!!!!

Is Slinky so FAT that he can't JUMP to a CONCLUSION? :nyah:

 

[Haight]

I'll have to take a picture the next time I weigh him. He is over 360g now. (4 weeks ago).

 

[DollysMom]

Hi Haight. Good to see you again! Looking forward to a picture if the grown up Slinky!

 

[Haight]

Here is a fairly recent photo that demonstrates his size. This was about 2 weeks ago.

 

[DollysMom]

Thanks for the picture. He looks beautiful! He's definitely a big boy.

 

[shaft6977]

Good grief! Mine just weighed in at 50 grams at a little over a year old. Do I have a runt? He gets a fuzzy every 7 days.

 

[Dragonling]

Adding up my yearling's feedings, if he held 48% of the weight fed to him he would still be under 200g, maybe 250 if I had been following the munson plan to the letter. You can see why your feeding has been questioned throughout this thread.

 

[Karl_Mcknight]

Rule #1 of internet forums - Don't believe everything you read.

By the way, I am a world renown Brain Surgeon, earning over 8 million a year, and I've written 4 books.

See what I mean?

 

[DollysMom]

There is a very broad weight range that is normal. That's why we can't tell age from size and weight.

Just for comparison, I've been feeding Cleo more conservatively than the Munson Plan, using it as a broad guide but going well above the weight before sizing up the mice. I also use longer intervals sooner than Munson does.. I expected her to be 100 grams at a year but she has other plans and is 125 with a few days to go until her birthday.

It just shows that their weights can be all over the place and while you can make sure not to overfeed (and I've been very aware on that front) if they really want to gain, they will gain. Conversely if they don't want to gain very fast (barring parasites or illness) they won't, even when fed what would be considered normal for their size.

My 125 gram girl is still on 8 to 10 gram hoppers once a week right now, and she's still growing like a little weed. Her biggest spurt so far was in June when she gained 23 grams in one month. In July she gained 11. She's already gained 11 this month but is in shed right now, so the last weight is from a week ago.

Long story short, no Shaft, you don't have a runt. That's a perfectly reasonable weight at a year.

 

[kdickens]

My little guy is a 13 months old now and weighs a hefty 78g. He's fed every 7 or 8 days and is not starving by any means. He's just not your normal anaconda at the moment! (This pic was taken a couple days ago, my granddaughter loves Loopy!)