# When do you offer your first feed?



## Young_Gun (Jan 6, 2007)

I always allow hatchlings to shed and leave the first feed for 3-4 weeks.

More an more often people are feeding a couple of days to a week after hatching which to me is far too soon, they will still be digesting the egg sac.

When do you offer food?


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## toyah (Aug 24, 2006)

That would depend on the species


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## Young_Gun (Jan 6, 2007)

toyah said:


> That would depend on the species


List the species then when you offer food :razz:


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## Nerys (Apr 18, 2005)

colubrids.. after first 2-3 weeks.. 
(unless there is a show on and i need to get the "x feeds before they are sold" number up)
royals and boas.. after about 6 weeks..

i also feed hatchlings about once every 10 days to once a fortnight.

it does, of course, vary a little, if a hatchling "looks" to be thin and hungry, it gets fed regardless of times and dates..

N


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## Young_Gun (Jan 6, 2007)

Nerys said:


> colubrids.. after first 2-3 weeks..
> (unless there is a show on and i need to get the "x feeds before they are sold" number up)
> royals and boas.. after about 6 weeks..
> 
> ...


I agree with that, apart from once they are started my hatchies are fed every 5.

I just wonder why, when you see a royal feeding pic for example that is still plainly digesting its egg sac with the distended belly they get.

Nerys, have you always done it that way, if so then do you find you have less non feeders than other people or if you have done it differently do you find you have more that will start to feed when left versus when offered sooner?


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## emma_fyfe (Jan 8, 2006)

i always feed my corns a few days to a week after they have had their first shed. 

havent been breeding long but has always worked for me. usually feed them every 5-7 days after that


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## hermanlover (Jul 8, 2007)

with my calis i fed them the day after their first shed, but to be honest they all wanted it. i didnt intend to feed them, just had a few pinkies left over as my rosy boa was in shed, so i didnt offer her food, and all the hatchlings took a pinkie each, but they are lot bigger than your average hatchling, so i doubt the yolk sac would of lasted as long, and they would of been pretty hungry by 3 weeks. but its their second feed, and they are already on 2 pinks, so they are pretty big.


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## toyah (Aug 24, 2006)

I offer corns something just after their first shed (so approx 8 days) - but I know of some people who'll offer food as soon as they hatch, prior to the first shed and they'll often eat anyway.


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## Nerys (Apr 18, 2005)

i know... but then its the fashion these days isn't it.. to try and cram as much food down the throat of your snake as you can, and then to boast that a juvenile snake can eat an adult sized meal..

there are so many people, for instance, with yearling snakes who look like fat adults already... half of them will be dead before their time from obesity issues, same as people would be, or anything else..

it does bug me, that in the age where we all know that fat is bad for your health.. people still insist on getting their snake as fat as possible.. its almost like its a point scoring game.. all these people who list endless weights and bang on about sizes for adolescent snakes.. and big wow the fact that their youngster can take a full grown mouse or whatever..

there is one snake particualarly that comes to mind.. a yearling aboreal colubrid, i know you know the one i mean YG.. 

this snake is designed to be a slim slender tree dwelling snake... yet at the age of a yearling.. this thing was as long and fat as a 4 year old corn snake.. personally i don't think a lot of its owner anyway, but thats by the by, the only good thing about it is that the snake will probably not live for long, and so not suffer too many years of abuse..

if your corn snake, does NOT look like a loaf of bread.. but instead looks like a round tube or baguette ... IT IS TOO FAT.



a tip with non feeders, is to put them into cooling as soon as they show signs of not wanting to take food. i know people who have been breeding 30+ years who do this, quite often when the snake is warmed back up a month or so later. it will take straight away.


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## Athravan (Dec 28, 2006)

I will offer corns their first feed the day after they have their first shed (7-10 days usually), but I'm not worried if it goes 2-3 weeks, if they're not hungry, they won't eat it, I don't think it will harm them to take a meal as soon as they've shed, at least, it's never harmed any of mine. I am usually under pressure by customers to have animals available as soon as I can (which is after a min. of 5 feeds usually) and I have never experienced any trend in non feeders over the last 10 years of breeding based on when I fed them (speaking of corns only though as I don't have enough years experience in anything else to make any generalisations)

Our common boas this year ate between 1-2 weeks after their shed, so around 2-3 weeks after birth and all have now had 5 feeds in succession with no non feeders there.

We feed once every 7 days for babies though, I know some corns will take it every 3-5 days but I prefer every 5-7, usually on the 7.


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## Young_Gun (Jan 6, 2007)

Nerys said:


> there is one snake particualarly that comes to mind.. a yearling aboreal colubrid, i know you know the one i mean YG..
> 
> a tip with non feeders, is to put them into cooling as soon as they show signs of not wanting to take food. i know people who have been breeding 30+ years who do this, quite often when the snake is warmed back up a month or so later. it will take straight away.


Very good tip 

The owner is an absolute moron, so I don't really judge the poor snakes weight on anythin other than that.

I do have yearling royals that are pushing 5,6,700g, but they are in proportion and are fed an appropriate sized meal, mainly because if I am honest, getting them to 1500g is easy, but fat snakes tend to slug out, when I want the snakes to breed and produce fertile clutches, slugs are no use to me.


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## hermanlover (Jul 8, 2007)

Nerys said:


> i know... but then its the fashion these days isn't it.. to try and cram as much food down the throat of your snake as you can, and then to boast that a juvenile snake can eat an adult sized meal..


dont think it was aimed at my post, but just incase it was, im not trying to cram as much food down my snakes throat as possible, they are just really big for their age, and i dont know why, im presuming its due to the mum having such a crap clutch that all the goodness went to these 3. 
and i dont agree with power feeding just to breed etc, if they are the right weight to breed, then they can breed, but if they arent, theres always next year.


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## buddy (Jul 10, 2007)

what about Beardies when would you first feed baby beardies a started after 1-2 days of hatching is this too quick


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## hermanlover (Jul 8, 2007)

buddy said:


> what about Beardies when would you first feed baby beardies a started after 1-2 days of hatching is this too quick


i would imagine its different that snakes, there motabalism (sp?) is a lot faster than a snake


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## Athravan (Dec 28, 2006)

buddy said:


> what about Beardies when would you first feed baby beardies a started after 1-2 days of hatching is this too quick


You need to feed lizards as soon as they start eating really, but this is after the first shed, usually 3-7 days after hatching. Then they need feeding 3x a day... and will be digesting all that food on a daily basis. This is a very different ballgame to snakes who need feeding one item a week


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## Nerys (Apr 18, 2005)

californiankinglover said:


> dont think it was aimed at my post, but just incase it was, im not trying to cram as much food down my snakes throat as possible, they are just really big for their age, and i dont know why, im presuming its due to the mum having such a crap clutch that all the goodness went to these 3.
> and i dont agree with power feeding just to breed etc, if they are the right weight to breed, then they can breed, but if they arent, theres always next year.


no, was not aimed at anyone specifically, no-one had replied to YG's post when i started writing mine, so my reply was literally just based on his post.

i've had "giant" hatchlings too... and also mini ones.. just goes to show the variety of nature eh 

N


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## hermanlover (Jul 8, 2007)

Nerys said:


> no, was not aimed at anyone specifically, no-one had replied to YG's post when i started writing mine, so my reply was literally just based on his post.
> 
> i've had "giant" hatchlings too... and also mini ones.. just goes to show the variety of nature eh
> 
> N


ahhh right, sorry :blush:

ye, i know, these are bigger than my late 07 rosy boa! :lol2: they are currently on 2 pinks, but i think in a few feeds they will be ready to move up, the pinks arent even showing a lump in them! and ye, nature is quite amazing with all the variations!


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## Crownan (Jan 6, 2007)

BRBs. A few days after their first shed. Then every 7 days (ish) (I say ish because I never have a set feeding regime, so in reality it could be 5 days or 14 days.)


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## PSGeckos (Jul 15, 2007)

We offer crickets to our hatchling geckos as soon as they have they're first greeny poo & their first shed


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## Paul Chase (Mar 7, 2007)

*Corns*

I try to feed mine there first food item as soon after there first shed as i can, I seem to get better first feed responce from doing it this way. After they feed i will feed every 5-10 days.


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## lukendaniel (Jan 10, 2007)

a good example to look at is wc snakes because of the trend of getting ur snakes big and fat people think that when wc snakes come in they are very skinny and not healthy yet you will hardly ever (obv exeptions) see a fat wc snake and thats because they are not meant to be fat they are meant to be muscle and fairly slender and a gd tip that i dnt know if many people agree with but a snake grows more when its not fed as often 


maybe abit of topic but still 

luke


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