Snake feed conversion ratio Q.
Moderator: Scott Waters
Snake feed conversion ratio Q.
Anyone have any good data or links to studies on snake feed to gain ratios?
- Bryan Hamilton
- Posts: 1234
- Joined: June 10th, 2010, 9:49 pm
Re: Snake feed conversion ratio Q.
I'm not sure exactly what you mean.
Some basic feeding trials I'm doing with with captive Crotalus lutosus (n= two snakes), indicate that 25- 40% of prey mass is converted to snake mass. I'm sure this varies quite a bit.
Some basic feeding trials I'm doing with with captive Crotalus lutosus (n= two snakes), indicate that 25- 40% of prey mass is converted to snake mass. I'm sure this varies quite a bit.
Re: Snake feed conversion ratio Q.
I keep meal and snake weight records using the SerpenTrack.com system.
This link is to my collection. Clicking on the "Details" link for any given specimen will bring up a graph along with other data for most of the animals. I've been doing this for almost 2 years now and the younger snakes certainly show some interesting trends.
http://serpentrack.com/?c=browse&a=coll ... =keepers_1
Very generally I'd say that juvenile snakes commonly add about 30% of their meal weight in body mass. This conversion rate slows as they mature and as expected, mature animals more or less stablize or fluctuate according to life rythyms, unless grossly over fed, which I attempt to avoid.
Granted, these records of captive snakes so may not reliably infer natural situations. Nevertheless, it is certainly interesting to me and hopefully to others.
btw, SerpenTrack.com is open to all and anyone is welcome to enter one or all their captive snakes both to create your own collection gallery and track your snake husbandry events.
Brad
This link is to my collection. Clicking on the "Details" link for any given specimen will bring up a graph along with other data for most of the animals. I've been doing this for almost 2 years now and the younger snakes certainly show some interesting trends.
http://serpentrack.com/?c=browse&a=coll ... =keepers_1
Very generally I'd say that juvenile snakes commonly add about 30% of their meal weight in body mass. This conversion rate slows as they mature and as expected, mature animals more or less stablize or fluctuate according to life rythyms, unless grossly over fed, which I attempt to avoid.
Granted, these records of captive snakes so may not reliably infer natural situations. Nevertheless, it is certainly interesting to me and hopefully to others.
btw, SerpenTrack.com is open to all and anyone is welcome to enter one or all their captive snakes both to create your own collection gallery and track your snake husbandry events.
Brad
Re: Snake feed conversion ratio Q.
Thanks. I would assume that juveniles would have a better conversion rate than adults just as livestock do. (30% would put snakes on par with pigs but behind chickens.) Snakes obviously are much more efficient at garnering calories from food items than perhaps any other animal.monklet wrote:I keep meal and snake weight records using the SerpenTrack.com system.
This link is to my collection. Clicking on the "Details" link for any given specimen will bring up a graph along with other data for most of the animals. I've been doing this for almost 2 years now and the younger snakes certainly show some interesting trends.
http://serpentrack.com/?c=browse&a=coll ... =keepers_1
Very generally I'd say that juvenile snakes commonly add about 30% of their meal weight in body mass. This conversion rate slows as they mature and as expected, mature animals more or less stablize or fluctuate according to life rythyms, unless grossly over fed, which I attempt to avoid.
Granted, these records of captive snakes so may not reliably infer natural situations. Nevertheless, it is certainly interesting to me and hopefully to others.
btw, SerpenTrack.com is open to all and anyone is welcome to enter one or all their captive snakes both to create your own collection gallery and track your snake husbandry events.
Brad
Snakes in the wild certainly would have a variable rate of gain based on environment, age, sex and breeding status, but there would be a norm within a certain demographic of a population. What I'm on about is recording individual weights at the den both spring and fall of non breeding juveniles, and by backing in the correct formula determining how much feed intake actually occurred during a growing season.
Just curious if this sort of work had been done, can't find any.
- Don Becker
- Posts: 3312
- Joined: June 7th, 2010, 4:21 am
- Location: Iowa
- Contact:
Re: Snake feed conversion ratio Q.
I always read it as SerpentRack.commonklet wrote:I keep meal and snake weight records using the SerpenTrack.com system.
Re: Snake feed conversion ratio Q.
Well, here's a real Serpent Rack...psyon wrote:I always read it as SerpentRack.commonklet wrote:I keep meal and snake weight records using the SerpenTrack.com system.
... but glad you caught the word play Don
Re: Snake feed conversion ratio Q.
Are those real.....
snakes?
snakes?
Re: Snake feed conversion ratio Q.
They look real. I'd have to handle them to be sure.Bob wrote:Are those real.....
Re: Snake feed conversion ratio Q.
Quite frankly, I believe those would be designer morphs.