Feeding multiple items (snakes)?

[ssjsmits]

I've done it a few times. Depeding on if the next available size is too big and the size I am on now isn't doing much. I try to aviod it but I do feed multiple items sometimes. Usually the bigger boas get more just because the rats I have aren't big enough and Sampson is starting to get picky with rabbits.

[CraigC]

Raze, I think you are mistaking the recent boom in reptile keeping as a few decades of keeping. Reptiles have been "kept" for thousands of years. It is until just recently that we are learning to keep them so they don't die on us. I grew up in the '70's and there weren't a tremendous amount of keepers that could actually say they were successful, let alone breed. With the internet, the exposure has exploded and we have been able to share experiences at lightning speed. Heck, when someone asks for help, they get it almost instantly. That wasn't true 15 years ago, maybe even more recently.

I guess you don't like breeders that much. I can live with that. However, if it weren't for their success in keeping and then breeding "domesticated" reptiles, you would be hearing a different toon about dealing with WC animals, a much smaller number of hobbyists and a greater hue and cry over pressure on wild populations. Yes there are breeding practices that are quite questionable and some species that shouldn't be bred, IMO.

Zoo's aren't without their "closet demons". They at one point in time, had a never ending source of animals, so there really wasn't a big push to provide natural habitats for their charges. I believe their past desire to have "rare" animals might be at the for front of some extinctions. I don't know when they started actually trying to provide suitable habitat, but for a long time, if the animal died, no big deal. Given the amount of exploitation into the 50's, I'd say their interest in procreation and suitable habitat is recent history. I'm sure there were a lot of "bumps" along the way.

If we had the same "survival" rate as in nature, there would be some very unhappy owners of freezer collections. We are trying to provide suitable living conditions. Look at where most endangered species folks are working and what they are working with. Close proximity or environments duplicating natural habitat, but those programs, like orangutans, don't expose their charges to the full brunt of nature until they are released. They aren't exposed to predators from day one or another orangutan that might kill them. Zoo's can't recreate natural habitat 24/7/365. They don't let the chetas in with the lions, etc. They do as best they can to provide suitable habitat.

Craig

	Wild Caught Wild Caught

	IMO In My Opinion

[razeraze]

With the exception of predators you will find many zoos looking into behavior enrichment cages for their charges to keep stress minimal for their animals. Seeing how I have spoken with many zoos and departments of natural resources and field researchers I have learned a ton about how zoos kept and keep animals.

This is a debate for another thread. If you are interested I would be more than happy to discuss it elsewhere, just start a post.

As far as feeding multiple prey items it is a great way if a snake is on the boarder of upping prey size. It is also a great way to keep your arm from being constricted because nothing is as dangerous as a hungry snake.

[hartsock]

Currently my only source for prey items is petco or our local petshop. Petco uses Gourmet Rodent as a supply and IMO, the mice are small. I never have weighed them, I need to do that, but they seems small. Local petshop gets them from a local guy somewhere, not sure where, but they can be small then large, then almost hoppers at times. I am currently looking to place on order somewhere (I think American Rodent Supply) to try to find consistant size large mice. I have corns that will not take anything else, I have a huge Russian Rat Snake that decided awhile back that he would no longer eat rats and would only eat mice. Sometimes he eats two, sometimes three, but he stops when he wants to. I have a small BP that has been bumped up to two mice and is doing fine, but I think he would eat until there was no more room and a tail would be left sticking out of his mouth. So really, it depends on the snake as far as the way they are to whether they get "full". I had always heard that feeding multiple prey items is bad for digestion. I think the point of this thread was to ask, is that true? Are there good reasons to go ahead and feed multiple prey items or should they be kept in single digits? I would really like to know, but once I get my XXL mice, I plan on going from two mice that I current feed to one in my corns and see how they do. So I would think that maybe without debate and all the other issues:

Pros to multiple feeding? (or at least why it is okay)

Cons to multiple feedings? (how it could be dangerous)

Because to be honest with you, as I read through this thread, that main focus has gotten lost to the point, I don't really see any answers other than....do this, do that type stuff. How about some plain old positives and negatives to multiple feedings because I would really like to know.

	Ball Python

	IMO In My Opinion

[Texas Rattlesnake]

Multiple prey items?

I've done it before with king snakes, or when animals are not quite ready for the next size prey item.

I have rarely done it with BCC, and never tried it with emeralds.

	Boa Constrictor Constrictor