Stubborn Beginnings
July 2000
The snake pictured here is a Jungle X Diamond X Diamond that I bought in January 2000 when it was approximately 1 year old. The previous owner was selling the snake because he couldn't get it to feed on its own and, despite numerous attempts, neither could I. The only way this snake had eaten so far in it's life was through force feeding, which was necessary as it would have died otherwise. PS - Force feeding should only be conducted by experienced keepers as many snakes have killed by newcomers attempting this.
In late October of 2000 a couple of friends (Daniel & Christine) offered to have a go at getting her to feed. As I had two clutches of eggs due to hatch any day this offer was gratefully accepted. To their credit they succeeded where everyone else had failed by getting the snake to regularly take defrosted mice.
Jan 2002
Despite it's newly acquired appetite this three year old snake is only 2 feet long and weighs 130 grams when I picked it up on the 29/12/2001 (The snake's brother is 1,650 grams and 6 feet long). Daniel, Christine and I wondered whether or not this lack of food at the beginning of it's life would stunt the growth of the snake preventing it from reaching normal carpet/diamond size. Advice from Chris Weinholt on the Pythons of Oz Yahoo Group was:
"Realistically the growth rate of your carpet, while it may seem exceptionally slow and small for it's age, is probably no different than what it would go through in the wild.
I remember Dave Barker mentioning at the AHS conference a study he did on burmese pythons. He deliberately stunted their growth by feeding them the bare minimum and housing the snakes in small cages.
While under those conditions their growth rate was extremely slow, once placed in larger cages and fed more regularly they achieved the same overall size and weight of any other burmese.
I'm sure if you feed your snake up it will end up reaching its adult size no problems."
After letting it settle back in it's enclosure for a couple of days I attempted to feed it a mouse and it is hard to describe my elation at seeing it bite, wrap and consume a mouse. I have built this page to record the food intake and respective weight increased to test this theory.
01/01/02 130 grams
The Brother - Male Jungle X Diamond X Diamond 1.6 Kg and 6 feet long
