What's the weight of your largest '05?

[zwyatt]

Isn't it amazing how many times the same things can be argued over?

 

[larryg]

Feeding scedules do sound almost like a religion to some people.... I guess I'd be sort of a middle-of-the-road Presbyterian (not a speaking-in-tongues Pentecostal or fire-and-brimstone Baptist.)

 

[princess]

I'll admit that I wanted to read the whole thread first but gave up after page 9 and decided to post my weights.

My biggest summer 2005 baby hatched on the 16th of August and I just popped him on the scale. With an empty tummy he weighs 136g and is currently on a weanling/small mouse every 5 or 6 days. A month ago he weighed 96g, 3 months ago he weighed 43g.

He's a startlingly good grower and I'm very pleased about that! As a brand new hatchling I was giving him 2 feeds per 7 days (3 days, 4 days, 3 days, 4 days) because I thought a feed every 3 days might cause the same issues that Dean mentioned earlier (backing up). When he was on crawlers he got stretched out to a feed every 6 days and now it's 5 or 6 days but if we're away (skiing for example) I just let him go without a feed for whatever it might be...about 10 days on a couple of occasions.

 

[loise]

I'll admit that I wanted to read the whole thread first but gave up after page 9 and decided to post my weights.

My biggest summer 2005 baby hatched on the 16th of August and I just popped him on the scale. With an empty tummy he weighs 136g and is currently on a weanling/small mouse every 5 or 6 days. A month ago he weighed 96g, 3 months ago he weighed 43g.

WOW!! thats realy impresive!!.. *jaw-dropping*

Why won´t my girls grow like that??

 

[diamondlil]

My 04 weighed 35g when I got him late dec, is now 57g, He's taking a while to bump from fuzzies, have tried 1/2 dayold chick to see if he'll beef up but looks like 5 days would be better than 6 I was advised?
My early 05s are 48g and 20g, and my late 05s are 20g and 12g. The bigger is on fuzzies , the smaller is Lil who is my problem girl.
The early 05s were on same schedule of pink every 4 days, but the reverse has started to grow faster and has just bumped to fuzzies, the carolina just bumped to 2 pinks.
I think it looks like I've been too conservative in their feeding, will see what I can do.
If I get some good growth, how do I apply for a satan jacket?

 

[larryg]

My July 05 Abbott's Okeetee female just weighed in at 118 grams on an empty stomach. I feed her about once every 5 days now (a small adult mouse or 2 hoppers.) I think part of the key to getting them to grow faster than a snail's pace is to get them off pinkies. Don't buy 50 pinkies. 10 should be MORE than you'll ever need for one baby snake. 20 fuzzies should hopefully be enough of those, 20 hoppers, and so on. 50 is definitely too many, unless you are feeding multiple prey items, and don't even bother feeding multiple pinkies, because nutritionally they do not compare to fuzzies and hoppers, which have more of a variety of tissue types from which to draw/extract nutrients. There is not much of a debate about that (it's been demonstrated/proven.)

 

[diamondlil]

Thanks, Larry. Just the sort of input I needed, will get the carolina onto fuzzies as soon as possible, tried a peach fuzzy last week but she couldn't fit it in, so have her on 2 pinks every 4 days to try to get her to grow a bit, and will dip their rears in vit/calcium powder too.

 

[zwyatt]

Don't buy 50 pinkies. 10 should be MORE than you'll ever need for one baby snake. 20 fuzzies should hopefully be enough of those, 20 hoppers, and so on.

I would hate to argue over this, especially not only after everything that has already been said in this thread, but also after my comment above (I guess it is our nature). However, I don't think statements like these should be allowed to slip through the cracks. When things like this go unchallenged it's too easy for it to be accepted as necessarily true by others who don't know better, which is no fault of their own. Everyone has to learn sometime.

I think I would be very careful about making such a blanket statement. I believe almost everyone on this forum would agree that every snake grows at its own rate. I've personally had more than one snake that grew exceptionally slowly. One female, in the span of two months, barely put on 2 grams and could only handle small pinkies. I currently have one that has been on pinkies since I've had her. No matter how many pinkies I would have shoved down her she wouldn't be growing any quicker. I have even had her on a more frequent schedule than any of my others and she is just now able to take two decent sized pinkies at once. It will still be a short while before she will be able to handle a small fuzzy.

Besides, if a hatchling can get enough nutrition out of 10 (or less) pinkies to be big enough to handle a fuzzy, then why in the world would it take 20 fuzzies, a more nutritious prey item, to grow enough to be able to handle a hopper?

 

[diamondlil]

good point, actually although the carolina weighed the same as the reverse at purchase and they are about the same hatch date, her head was narrower that his, which I think is why she isn't ready for bigger mice yet. It is hard to balance up all the different points of view when you are a beginner who just wants your snakes to thrive, after Lil's feeding problems started with a regurge I just feel I may have been too conservative in moving the snakes up their food size. :-offtopic as in wrong type of snake, my Deckerts is at least 3' long now and refuses anything but large fuzzies still, but is obviously growing well on them.