• Posted 12/19/2024.
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    I am still waiting on my developer to finish up on the Classifieds Control Panel so I can use it to encourage members into becoming paying members. Google Adsense has become a real burden on the viewing of this site, but honestly it is the ONLY source of income now that keeps it afloat. I tried offering disabling the ads being viewed by paying members, but apparently that is not enough incentive. Quite frankly, Google Adsense has dropped down to where it barely brings in enough daily to match even a single paid member per day. But it still gets the bills paid. But at what cost?

    So even without the classifieds control panel being complete, I believe I am going to have to disable those Google ads completely and likely disable some options here that have been free since going to the new platform. Like classified ad bumping, member name changes, and anything else I can use to encourage this site to be supported by the members instead of the Google Adsense ads.

    But there is risk involved. I will not pay out of pocket for very long during this last ditch experimental effort. If I find that the membership does not want to support this site with memberships, then I cannot support your being able to post your classified ads here for free. No, I am not intending to start charging for your posting ads here. I will just shut the site down and that will be it. I will be done with FaunaClassifieds. I certainly don't need this, and can live the rest of my life just fine without it. If I see that no one else really wants it to survive neither, then so be it. It goes away and you all can just go elsewhere to advertise your animals and merchandise.

    Not sure when this will take place, and I don't intend to give any further warning concerning the disabling of the Google Adsense. Just as there probably won't be any warning if I decide to close down this site. You will just come here and there will be some sort of message that the site is gone, and you have a nice day.

    I have been trying to make a go of this site for a very long time. And quite frankly, I am just tired of trying. I had hoped that enough people would be willing to help me help you all have a free outlet to offer your stuff for sale. But every year I see less and less people coming to this site, much less supporting it financially. That is fine. I tried. I retired the SerpenCo business about 14 years ago, so retiring out of this business completely is not that big if a step for me, nor will it be especially painful to do. When I was in Thailand, I did not check in here for three weeks. I didn't miss it even a little bit. So if you all want it to remain, it will be in your hands. I really don't care either way.

    =====================
    Some people have indicated that finding the method to contribute is rather difficult. And I have to admit, that it is not all that obvious. So to help, here is a thread to help as a quide. How to become a contributing member of FaunaClassifieds.

    And for the record, I will be shutting down the Google Adsense ads on January 1, 2025.
  • 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.

What size rats do you feed your adult female balls? POLL

What size rats do you feed your adult female balls(approximate weight)

  • Small(40-70 grams)

    Votes: 24 42.1%

  • Medium(71-100 grams)

    Votes: 11 19.3%

  • Large(100-150 grams)

    Votes: 15 26.3%

  • Larger(150 grams+)

    Votes: 7 12.3%
  • Total voters
    57
Jake,

I thought you were going to provide big breeders that have told you they feed mediums/larges? I don't think this poll qualifies.

For the record, all my adults, male or female get "small smalls". Slightly larger than weans.
 
One mans small is another mans medium..... I consider 80-120 grams a small, which is typically what a 4-6 week old rat weighs. Which is the size I feed to all my adult Balls.

As long as you are not feeding a rat that is bigger than the widest part of your snakes body it is fine. There really isnt a right or wrong there. Just a matter of what works best for your snake and you.
 
So a 5 foot 4000 gram female should only get a rat slightly larger than a weanling? That would be a snack for her.

To make it easy for people to know what size I am referring to, I get feeders from Rodent Pro and all of my adult BP's get smalls except for 2 which get mediums (those are pretty large for BP's).
 
I guess I cannot just chose one.. cuz some adults are greatly smaller then others. I have one that gets smalls, a couple mediums, and a couple larges. I don't personally think it is a one size eats all answer.
 
Whatever prey i happen to buy that week mostly. Might be a few mice, might be a medium rat, maybe a bit larger. Just nothing that is obviously too large for the animal who is being fed. I stick to girth sized prey and smaller :)
 
SPJ said:
So a 5 foot 4000 gram female should only get a rat slightly larger than a weanling? That would be a snack for her.
Click to expand...

My really big girls get to eat as many 4-6 week old rats as they want on feeding day. Typically after two they are done. Once in a while they will take a third.
 
I would rather feed one appropriately sized prey item than multiple. That's why she gets the bigger size. Just easier to feed her and her digest it IMO.
 
Well for an update, the debate is that even the largest bps don't need anything bigger than a small(about 50-70) gram rat lmao

I guess each person can keep their balls how ever they want and feed any size rat they want but I was told at an un named forum that it is basically in a conclusion unhealthy to feed your balls a rat anything bigger than 50-70 gram range. Other than put the ignorent name calling one sided man on ignore on all of the forums, I'll keep an eye on this thread seeing both sides.

My basic statement was that there are plenty of big breeders and keepers that feed larger than small rats to their balls and I simply stated that either way works, just feed what works best for you and your animals and all I got was a bunch of thats not oppinion, its fact about feeding balls(50 gram rats?!? lmao) and I am an uneducated and basically stupid guy. I think the one who continues to call someone out who is attempting to talk something out shows the maturity level of this one person who's name will remain unmentioned here.
 
I tend to feed my big girls 150g rats. I have a pastel female who's putting on weight like it's her job, she's about 700g and she just ate a 130g rat two days ago. Is there a reason that people are feeding smaller prey items? I would think the bigger ones would help them put the weight on faster. My males tend to get smaller meals so they don't get quite as big.
 
It depends on the place you buy the rat from and also the strain of rat. Domestic colored rats tend to be smaller than the big lab strain of white ones many feeder breeders use. For instance, I buy the white kind from Brad Benike at GrossBoy Exotics, and the closed-eye pups from that strain are the same size as a weaned regular colored rat. They're huge. I feed weaned rats from that strain to all of my snakes -- the large adults just get 2-3 of them on a 10-day schedule.

I choose to feed smaller prey items for multiple reasons:

1 -- Weaned rats pose MUCH less of a threat of fighting back than an older/larger rat. They are naive and often times just sit there and do nothing while the snake approaches and goes to strike. They never bite back and if they do, their teeth aren't large/strong enough to inflict damage.

2 -- Feeding smaller prey allows my snakes to choose how much they want to eat at any given time. If one feeding day they aren't very hungry, they can only eat one if they want. If the next feeding day they're really hungry, they can eat 2-3. Which large prey items, it's either all or nothing...there's no in-between.

3 -- I keep my feeders in holding tanks when I buy them in large groups. Weaned rats eat, drink, pee, and poop far less than adult rats, leaving less for me to have to clean up. They also are not skittish and mean and bitey like adult rats so there isn't a need to grab them with tongs and possibly drop them.
 
All my adult females eat X Larges from Rodent Pro for the most part. Unless they are smaller of course. But usually it is Medium and Up. X large is the biggest I ever had to go. All the males that stick around 600-800 get either a small or 2 or a medium.
 
SPJ said:
I would rather feed one appropriately sized prey item than multiple. That's why she gets the bigger size. Just easier to feed her and her digest it IMO.
Click to expand...
lol The concept is that ONE (1)50 grams rat is all a bp should eat every week
 
This is always a fun topic LOL

Me personally I feed my breeder females and anything in the 800-1000 gram range RodentPro larges generally but i also like to change it up and i will sometimes give my breeders really large meals as well like RP XXL or XXXL and i also feed alot of retired breeders from a buddy's colony nothing like 2-3 pound rats to make a nice healthy poo at the end of the month ;)
 
Ive also been known to throw my really big girls a small rabbit from time to time as well ;)
 
Nice try Jake. Just because it is done, doesn't mean its the right thing for the animal. But as I said on the other thread, everyone can do what they want. You claimed that all the big breeders are feeding mediums/larges. I asked you for names and you haven't made that happen.

If I said you were an idiot (which I don't recall doing), it has to do with much more than your position on a topic that you have limited experience with, yet spoke on like an expert and even claimed sources to back it up.
 
filez41 said:
I tend to feed my big girls 150g rats. I have a pastel female who's putting on weight like it's her job, she's about 700g and she just ate a 130g rat two days ago. Is there a reason that people are feeding smaller prey items? I would think the bigger ones would help them put the weight on faster. My males tend to get smaller meals so they don't get quite as big.
Click to expand...

What is the big rush to put weight on them?
 
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