Authored by Todd Cornwell Unique Birthday Party Parties for Kids & Reptile Rescue
Feeding Reptiles with a ‘Off Schedule’
First off, a little about myself.
I’ve loved reptiles since I was a kid, turning over rocks and logs looking for newts & salamanders, hunting alligator lizards, just to see how hard they bite, all the cool stuff that was so much fun growing up. I started “collecting” reptiles about twenty years ago, just one at a time, a king snake here, a Colombian boa there, garter snakes for the kids. A neighbor gave us an older water dragon, and he ended up living with us to the ripe old age of twenty-two!
About nine years ago, the parents of one of my students, asked if I would do something for their son’s birthday, since he loved my animal stories in class, and reptiles. So I did, and it was a hit. All the parents there suggested I start a business doing educational presentations. So I looked into it, within six months, I got my business license, and started advertising. People started asking me questions if their pet reptile needed help, I was getting two to three emails a week on reptile care problems. So, I started reading every care sheet I could find, several for each reptile. I researched care problems, health issues, and shortly thereafter decided there was a need in my area for a reptile rescue. I went through the registration process, I was soon vetted, and registered as a rescue.
Now I do kids birthday parties, and school shows to support my reptile rescue, in the last eight years I have rescued and re-homed about 600 animals, from two little dart frogs, to a massive eighteen foot one hundred and twenty-five pound Burmese python.
Over the years, I’ve had many clients ask the same basic question: my snake is aggressive, I can’t get him out, or he seems lazy, never wants to move. The discussion always ends up around feeding, so many times, they feed like the pet store told them to (remember the pet store wants to sell you feeders!) feeding every 3-5 days, 2-3 large prey items at a time, etc.
I have also talked to breeders, who power feed to get the animals up to weight to breed as soon as possible (It’s how they make their money as well).
Feeding Reptiles
I have read many different recommendations about feeding reptiles from many “Care Sheets” available, and there’s one thing I’ve come up with that I have never seen in one of them.
It’s what I call Off-Schedule Feeding.
What is it? A very simple, but I feel necessary, feeding approach for a healthy active snake.
In the wild, our reptilian friends aren’t used to getting fed every Thursday night at 7pm. They may go months without catching anything, sometimes they might happen upon a nest and gorge on a family of rats. I try to simulate their wild experiences. I feed my snakes like this, in the Spring/Fall I feed basically every week; in the Winter/Summer it’s basically every other week. Sometimes I feed a large prey item, the next week I feed 2 small, then 1 medium, etc. I vary the food size, and the day/time they are fed, occasionally skipping several weeks. Sometimes, I feed on a Friday, or a Sunday, or any other day of the week. If you feed every Tuesday at 3pm, very soon your snake will learn that they are getting food, Tuesday at 3pm.
WHY HUNT IF YOU ARE GOING TO BE FED IN BED?
So just like us, sitting on the couch, with the remote in our hand, eating three meals plus snacks, they will soon get fat and lazy, which isn’t good for them or us! I believe this stimulates them into normal “hunting” behavior, which means they’ll be looking around for food, not just sitting there because they know what time dinner is served. Won’t it make my snake have an aggressive feeding response? Not if you are interacting with them like you should be, if you are interacting with them more often than you are feeding them, the feeding response isn’t usually an issue. (I also have an article on treating aggression in snakes see link above)
Now I do not have any “Science” degrees, to back me up, just a lifetime of common sense, and a passion to give my “friends” the best life they can have.
I hope this little piece makes a difference to you, the corn snake owner, the ball python owner, because like you, I love my “friends” and want them to live as long as possible and as healthy as possible.