by Sico » Tue Nov 11, 2014 10:45 am
In my setup I had one Infrared basking lamp, one ceramic heat lamp (I stayed in one of the colder parts of the East Rand), and two straight forward fluorescent tubes of the kind you would use to grow aquarium plants under (one white, one pink). She stayed in this for the nearly two years I had her, before she outgrew it. I did not add any specific UV lights, once or twice a month I would take her outside for about 30-60 minutes in the sun, but I had an enclosed area that I could safely do this in.
I was feeding as much variety as I could, a LOT of insects (Flying ants, roaches, crickets and locusts, as well as large water beetles and water scorpions etc that I fished out of my dam) - remember as juveniles they will eat a large amount of these - Chicken necks, beef, beef heart, chicken heart, chicken liver, chicken fillet, the occasional strip of fresh hake - all chopped up into cubes around the size of the last joint of my thumb ('gator was about 24cm at the time and she took these without a problem), and then I would also use her as a trashcan for anything my cats left on the carpet during the night, as a result she got plenty of rodent heads (and assorted oddments), a variety of partially complete amphibians and the odd bat. She would get prepared food at least every other day (I would buy say kg of chicken hearts and split them into small baggies of 5 hearts/1 meal - the same with every other food items to a similar quantity), and I would try and not feed her the same thing twice in a week. I very seldom used any supplements, but occasionally I would very lightly sprinkle some Calsup onto the beef, as her diet wasn't high in calcium as it is hard to get small bones... Once she reached about 40cm whenever I feed my pythons piglets, I would cut the legs off them, and chop those into thumb sized sections and she would gobble those as well, which obviously boosted her calcium intake significantly, I then never used the supplement again. In the first year I had her, she tripled her length (over 90cm @ 2yr old - her clutch mates were still below 60cm) and after another 12 months she was sitting at 1.48m, weighed in at about 4kg and was one bloody strong beastie! When I get another, I will definitely feed the same way.
Mark
Good judgment comes from experience. Unfortunately, experience usually comes from bad judgment.