gentle biak

[bertone]

hey...I'm a new member..just wanna share my yellow and orange GTP..
lunch time
http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j195/bertone_2006/trydrtunsdtrustr67676767.jpg
after she eat 10 homegeckos and 10 goldfish by forced feeding
http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j195/bertone_2006/asdgaseasefsef.jpg
eating a mouse
http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j195/bertone_2006/1sttiput4.jpg
I often forcedfeeding my biak a catfood with water to supply most protein and calcium, is it bad??

[dankink]

yes it's bad. why are you forcefeeding it???

[bertone]

to make she bigger...her shed period is about 2weeks..she is 30inches now and doesnot seems to color change yet...
it is affect her condition???

[dankink]

how often are you feeding it? if you want it to get bigger for your own interest and pleasure, force feeding is not the way to go about it. all you're doing is stressing the snake out and, from what it sounds like, you are power feeding which shortens your snake's life. be considerate of the snake.
so how often are you feeding it?

[bertone]

every 6 days....it is too quick?? thanks for the warning bro...I almost forget the snakes emotion..

[dankink]

well 6 days is fine, but... if it's not hungry, it's not hungry. its that simple. you should never force feed. force feed is basically a last resort option that you should only use like if your snake hasn't ate in like 5 or 6 months or something and it's losing significant weight. pythons, i'm assuming gtp's are no different than the other constrictors in this aspect, can go for months and months without eating. it's one thing to offer the food and have them refuse it... but when it's being shoved down your throat... that's completely different and uncomfortable.

just offer a good sized meal (approx. 1.5 times the girth of your snakes fattest part) and offer another good sized meal a week later.

[bertone]

and what do you think about the cat food and fish as meal??? is it not right??
I often put these things into her mouth after she almost done her first own meal...thanks for your advise..

[dankink]

snakes should not be fed cat food. its for... cats. fish are ok i think, i know that some people feed their smaller snakes fish sometimes so i'm assuming its ok. just feed your snake mice or rats, depending on how big your snake is and what it can handle.
she's a beautiful snake, wouldn't want her health to be put at risk.

[williamclark77]

and what do you think about the cat food and fish as meal??? is it not right??..
I may be wrong and hope someone corrects me if I am, but I wouldn't feed one cat food. First, I'm sure it leaves some nasty turds since processed food lacks bone and hair to form solid waste and more than likely passes through them much quicker. Second, and along those same lines is the protein and calcium content; it depends on exactly what brand but I'd bet those values are far less than what one appropriately sized rat has to offer.

I would try my best to avoid force feeding at all costs. If they begin to lose weight, ribs showing, backbone pronounced, and/or the skin begins to seem "loose" or wrinkled on their bodies then I'd contemplate assisting. That should take, as Dankink pointed out, several months without a meal though. Good luck with them and great pics. I loved the first one. Welcome to the forums!

[RKO]

Catfood is a no no. I guess the goldfish are ok. But I don't think they have much protein. Just feeding a good sized mouse/rat once a week is good enough.

[bertone]

I guess I understand now...
one more question:''my orange biak is about 29-30 inches long..and still not change its color yet...I wonder if its normal or not??? ''
here's the pic
http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j195/bertone_2006/gysex5shqwy45thw5y2232323.jpg
thanks for answerin my problems....

[Tim Rash]

You should read Greg Maxwells book I think you could learn a lot from it. Lizards and constant force feeding is very bad for them. Its a Biak it can take a long time to change fully.

[codenamecrash]

give it time, it will change color. nothing you do is gonna speed the process up so stop force feeding it and feeding it cat food...thats the most obserd thing i ever heard.

[bertone]

thanks bro...for about 1 year, I start to used a cat food for all of my snakes, now that ritual is over..

[codenamecrash]

i hope so, feed them mice, rats or even chicks.

[NJFyneztWhiteBo]

CATFOOD?!...wth..dont mean to critizise...fish isnt necesarrily a bad thing...but if their feeder goldfish...they have a HUGE chance to have diseases that can very easily be passed to your snake..stick with mice..and rats...and stop forcefeeding..thats one of the worst things you can do to a snake..nothing but stress...and if u stress it enough it wont be a 'docile biak' anymore...i dont mean to sound like an ass...but powerfeeding?...if you love ure animals you definatley woul not power feed..it will drastically reduce the life of ure snake...i had a friend who force fed a Ballpython..and he only had it for 6 years...they can live up to 25+ years..so forcefeeding should seize immediatley other than that..you have a beutiful snake..and goodluck in the future

[bertone]

thank's NJ. I already stopped it..last night he ate 2 prekilled rats...nice

[Tommygun]

I was wondering how can you force catfood down a snakes mouth? Is the food hard or soft? Well, I heard that Biaks can take about 5 years to change. Sooooo goooluccckkk!!!

[Carlos Boillat]

I heard somewhere that goldfish are bad to feed your snake, and if she is already eating by herself there is no reason to feed her more. welcome to the forums, those are some great animals you've go there, good luck.

[bertone]

@tommy: its about time. just a sec when the meal goes down the throat, put that food in there.. the food is soft, I used water on that..sometimes when the cat food is hard, it get stuck in my snake's throat..that time I use a soft finger massages for emergency support peristaltic..sounds bad isn't it?? really 5 years to color change??? :kll:

@carlos: I heard a goldfish may containt a disease for the snakes..but, during my own bad experiences, that was good for snakes..nothing affect the snake's movement or it's conditions.

thanks for the advices bro... :049[1]: :049[1]:
nice to be in this forum.. :trink39[1

[noahtheboa]

Bertone, I strongly recommend Greg Maxwells "The more complete chondro book" Rats provide a better nutritional meal than mice. Just don't force feed, and not huge meals either. All my chondros are fed juvenille rats or rat pups that are beginning to walk/open their eyes. Just out of curiosity, where did you get the cat food idea????? Stay away from geckos. They eat bugs, whom might have been sprayed with bug spray or insecticide, and the next thing you know you have a very sick snake that is poised, or probably dying. This goes to all lizard/tarantula/scorpion owners that their pets eat bugs also. Don't be cheap and buy the food.

[noahtheboa]

Bertone, I strongly recommend Greg Maxwells "The more complete chondro book" Rats provide a better nutritional meal than mice. Just don't force feed, and not huge meals either. All my chondros are fed juvenille rats or rat pups that are beginning to walk/open their eyes. Just out of curiosity, where did you get the cat food idea????? Stay away from geckos. They eat bugs, whom might have been sprayed with bug spray or insecticide, and the next thing you know you have a very sick snake that is poised, or probably dying. This goes to all lizard/tarantula/scorpion owners that their pets eat bugs also. Don't be cheap and buy the food.

I meant poisoned.

[oregonelkslayer]

in the close up pic you can start to see it start to change to green but very little and the white spots look lime green so it looks like its on the way. and NO cat food. they dont eat cat food in the wild so they shouldn't eat cat food in captivity.

[bertone]

hahaha..I repent bro..I thought if the cat food had a lot of nutritions...
allow me to ask another questions, my gtp is failed in shed, I thought the hummidity was bad, so I help the process..and now she had no desire to eat..it's about 1 month from now...what should I do next??? :confused:

[noahtheboa]

What % is the humidity?
What is the temp?
Are you misting the GTP daily?