Summary:
When to feed?
Live or thawed?
How to feed? There is a great divide within the reptile community wheather it is better to feed snakes within their enclosures, or outside in a tub dedicated to feeding. Both have their pros and cons. Personally I feed within the enclosure, I make sure to put down paper towels where I intend the meal to be eaten as to avoid having any substrate being injested. The way I offer up meals is always the same, the tactics I employ are very important when it comes to picky eaters.
Whenever I offer a meal I make sure to warm it up with a Hair Dryer to ensure it warm, replicating how it would be in the wild. Once ready I offer it to my snake with feeding tongs over the paper towels. Sometimes you will have to move the food around, mimicking how it would be in the wild. I find this helps with picky eaters.
*If you wish to learn more about the pros and cons on the location of feeding your snakes please read the in-depth section.
Food Size: The girth of the animals you are feeding your snake should be no bigger than 1.25 times the size of your snake. Some people will say 1.5 times and others will say 1 times, it is up to you to make an educated decision based on what you are comfortable with. If you go too big it could potentially injure your reptile, cause them to regurgitate or put them off of food
In Detail:
As stated above it is strongly advised you get an enclosure that equals at least the same length as your snake, this gives them rooms to “stretch” their metaphorical legs.
Royal Pythons get up to between 3-5 feet as Adults depending on their gender (Males 2-3 Feet & Females 3-5 Feet). This means that for the largest size Royal Python you’ll be looking at a Vivarium that is at least 4 feet long by 1 foot deep. Royal Pythons are not aboreal snakes so it isn’t really expected to go above 1 foot in height either.
Decoration is more imporatant than you think:
There is another rule that you shouldn’t give a Royal Python an enclosure that is too big for them. This rule is true if you’re packing (or decorating) the enclosure with the bare minimum, that being 2 hides and a water bowl. An enclosure too big and also empty will stress out any snake.
To combat this issue it is highly recommended you pack out your enclosures as much as possible, this keeps your snake happy and also usually produces a very nice looking set up.
The rule of thumb for keeping a snake in an “over sized” enclosure would be pack it out to the point where the snake could travel from one size of the Vivarium to the other without being seen (or at least rather difficult).
