• Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

  • IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!! About the Google Adsense ads being displayed

    =====================
    Posted 08/15/2025
    =====================


    Yeah, I know. They are a pain in the butt. But they pay the bills to keep my server running. Just a fact of life, I am afraid.

    Want to get rid of them? Simple. Just become a Contributor level member or above and they will be gone. -> Please click HERE."

    Is that too much for me to ask of you to keep this site running? Well, sorry about that. I too wish I could get everything for free. But alas.....

    =====================
    Addendum: 01/10/2026
    =====================


    Google Adsense ad revenue for December, 2025 was just $30 over the cost of the lease for the server running this site. So, in effect, the money providing the incentive for me to continue running this site is coming SOLELY from the paid memberships and sponsorships here. Which honestly ain't much....

Power Feeding?

J

joshcosta56

New member
Joined
Feb 17, 2009
Messages
101
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Location
Mentor Ohio
I'm interested in trying to grow one of my retics impressively large. How much is it safe to feed a 3' retic? Right now I have mine eating a large mouse 2x a week. I feel as though he can easily take more but I don't want to push him if its going to effect his health.

Also, I'm interested in knowing how old/long/heavy your retics are, and what were/are their feeding habbits? Thanks a lot guys, Josh.
 
do not powerfeed your tics. you will get them big, but they will die way too early (ie, 5 years). they grow enough and quick on their own. all my hatchlings are started out on rat pups, then by the time they are 3 feet, they are taking small-medium rats. 5-6 feet i get them on rabbit pinks/weanlings. 1-2 days after they defecate. sometimes they defecate within just a few days after feeding, sometimes its 8 or 9 days. so sometimes, they get fed twice in a week, other times they get fed once every couple weeks. now speaking from a veterinary standpoint, a snake that is powerfed will die, because the heart muscle cannot pump blood out of the heart quick enough to keep up with the body growing at such a high and fast rate. therefore, the heart will begin to fail, thus leading to other major organ failures. so its smarter to just feed appropriate sized prey either on a 5-7 days schedule, or each time they defecate. granted, a 20 foot retic is beautiful, but not when its dead at 5 or 6 years old
 
I once spoke directly to one of the most well known breeders about this. He has all sorts of snakes, and many that are old and huge. He said that he does not "power feed", but he does feed the snakes that he keeps appropriate sized meals about twice as often as most people.

He countered the fact that people say eating more often is not natural with the fact that it is completly natural for snakes to eat when they get a chance. Naturally that is more often for some than for others.

I'm not going to reveal the breeder, because some people would start saying bad things about him, and I don't want to open up that can of worms. So, take that third hand info for whatever you think it is worth.
 
Back
Top