hello everyone i have a friend that has a retic and i think hes over feeding it could someone please tell me if i am right he feeds a rat pup and a mouse to it him every feeding and he feeds him twice a week please if anyone could answer me that would be awesome
You have very little of the necessary information here to answer that question accurately. What is the size of the snake? Weight? Those are need to knows for assessing feeding amounts.
I have kept retics for about 20 years…and after many years of keeping these animals…I settled on one meal a week…the same diameter of the thickest part of the animal. Retics have some of the highest metabolism of almost any snake…so they CAN eat a lot…but they will also grow SUPER fast that way. I have gotten females to 11 feet in a year before…when I was first starting off…in those days, people seemed to think because a snake CAN eat huge meals…that they should feed them huge meals. I did it too as a younger keeper of the species. I also started to think about it…the reason they CAN eat huge meals is because the fact that in the wild they may not eat for months at a time(although this is not usually the case with retics)…so that very large meal will suffice for a while more. I settled on one meal a week…the same size as the largest diameter of the animal…and they are healthier in the long run. People dont realize when you power feed an animal, that their internal organs do not develop properly…and you end up with a huge snake…with a tiny head…that dies at an early age. Not to mention…bigger meals equal bigger poops! Smaller meals are also easier to digest more thoroughly. Now my females average about 7-8 feet long at a year…and are VERY healthy animals…and are very muscular and not at all skinny. Most people power feed to get the animal to breeding size as fast as possible, and treat their animals as a monetary commodity and not as living animals. So if he does not want a giant animal…even as a male, I would suggest one meal a week…the same diameter as the thickest part of the retics body.
Here are a couple of mine at about a year old each. The purple albino motley is a female…and the purple tiger het OGS is a male…both of these are fed once a week…and as you see they are not at all skinny…or fat…both perfect, healthy retics.
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thank you so much for the info you gave will go a long way thank you
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Don’t know why this was flagged, are feeding pics against community rules? Seems he was trying to post for educational value
No photos or videos of animals eating animals. We’re against anything that can be misused against the hobby by those who oppose it.
For more on allowed and prohibited content please see our guidelines
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That is a very well thought out rule. 
I totally forgot to say that she is roughly 8-9 foot long and im not sure on weight ill have to weigh her tomorrow
so I have a reticulated python ive had her for about a year now and she crushes food (jumbo rats) but she seems like she always hungry now and was wondering what is a good time or what size should a retic be to properly give her a rabbit and not over feeding her? could someone please let me know your ideas thank you
Can we get the weight of your retic and some pics of her? I know most retics are overfed in the hobby and that is why they tend to get to monstrous sizes you never really see in the wild. If I am correct retics are supposed to be rather slim compared to how long they are due to being adapted for their largely arboreal life in the wild. Also, retics are eating machines and will always want food. Most snakes are like that.
Edit: here is a video by Dāv Kaufman that may help a bit. https://youtu.be/OSIfov45U5o
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No, your friend is not overfeeding, if his snake is 2lbs/900+ grams, and he’s feeding 1 rat pup (20-25 grams) and 1 mouse (large is about 20 grams) twice a week, then that accounts for less than 10% of the retic’s body weight.
If he has a freezer full of these rodents in these sizes, I’d recommend he continue, but if he’s actually going out of his way to purchasing these rodents, he could possibly be saving money/time by feeding a single medium rat (90+grams) weekly.
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