Size Equalization

[Finalflash50]

As some know, I now have 5 snakes. Lightning, Titan, Flash, Sonic and Plissken. Titan is the biggest, hence the name. I do not want him to become too much bigger than the other snakes though. I don't know how he, or they will respond to this. If possible, I would like to know any strategies in feeding the snakes that would slowly make the sizes of them equal. Even though 3 of them are butlers and 2 are easterns, I think that I should at least be able to somewhat decrease the size difference. I was thinking about either feeding him every other week while feeding the others every week, but that doesn't seem fair to him. What seems like it would work the best is to give him half a worm each week while I give the others a whole worm. They are big worms, so it should be enough for him. Thanks for any advice.

Note, if the only way to do this (assuming it's even possible) is prone to cause him stress, I won't even think on doing it. I am trying so hard to not sound picky with my snakes, and it still sounds like I'm only thinking for myself. I only want this done so that I don't have to release anyone in the future due to a failure to get along.

[guidofatherof5]

I think there is an inherent problem with this idea and it's the snakes fault. The two species(T.s.sirtalis and T.butleri) you are talking about really are different size snakes. You'll never get T.butleri to the size of T.s.sirtalis and asking T.s.sirtalis to stay in the T.butleri size range is not healthy and in my opinion not possible.
I think setting up another enclosure solves the problem of releasing and any other fears you might have.
Just my thoughts.

[mb90078]

Are you certain they are all males?

[Finalflash50]

Well if I can't get Flash, Sonic and Plissken to grow to be the same size, I at least want to get Lightning to the same size, since he and Titan are both T.s.sirtalis. I didn't want/expect to be able to keep them a size lower than what they should be, rather than boost up the smaller snakes instead. Thanks for the information.

Also, I am most certain that Lightning is a male, and the 4 snakes that I acquired a month ago are captive bred, and wouldn't have been given to me if they were males. Titan is just older than Lightning is all. I'd say by about a year. Maybe a little less.

[Selkielass]

My Butlers from Michigan seem to max out at just over 20 inches and at last weighing around 40 grams. An old skinny male was emaciated at 30 grams/22 inches. Males from around here are more delicately built than females. My captive born babies are 8 to 15 inches long and some show signs of sexual maturity.
My eastern is 3-4 years old, over 30 inches long and fatter than a garden hose.
Id house them together, by sex, except for feeding time. My eastern could send a butler flying across the tank with a tail flick - but she never would unless food was involved.

[Stefan-A]

Brumation.

[Didymus20X6]

Even within the same species, you're going to have genetic factors that determine the snakes' sizes, and you can't control those. It's like saying, "How can I get Don Knots to the same size as Shaquille O'Neil?"

The one factor you can control is how much they eat. But that would mean having to separate them for every meal, and somehow making sure that the smaller ones are eating much more than the larger ones. And I'm not sure that last part - overfeeding some and underfeeding others - is a great idea. However, separation would at least insure that the bigger snakes aren't hogging all the food from the smaller ones.