feeding question less than year old female bp

[dgrout1989]

i have a maybe 1.5 ft to 2 ft female bp when i got her the person said she was eating twice a week a regular size frozen mouse. now my question is she seems to have no problem eating twice a week but if im suposed to wait 48 hours to handle her that really only leave one day a week? do i have to wait 48 hrs? and can i up the size of her meals so maybe she will eat once a week instead? when she eat there is a hardly noticible lump not big at all. i know the rule of dont feed bigger than biggest part of body im just curious because i want to be able to handle her more than once a week thanks in advance

[Eric Alan]

Do you know how much she weighs (in grams)? If you have access to a kitchen scale, that's an easy way to measure. If not, do you have a picture of her that you can share with us?

Once they reach about the 500 gram mark, you can start feeding them an appropriately sized meal once/week. For this size BP, that will be a small rat (which is the equivalent of about three adult mice per feeding). Once you get on this schedule, you've solved your wanting to handle problem.

[dgrout1989]

Id love to share some pictures but im new to forum and im not sure how to do so it ask for a url but doesnt give me an option to browse photos???

[Eric Alan]

Id love to share some pictures but im new to forum and im not sure how to do so it ask for a url but doesnt give me an option to browse photos???

If only someone would make a how-to guide on how to post pictures. Oh wait... I did last week and it's stickied at the top of the Site Info and Pictures subforums! Enjoy! http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...-Post-Pictures

[dgrout1989]

That helped alot thank you I posted a couple pics under my first bp can you check them out ley me know what you think

[Velrys]

Hey pretty snake!

Yeah you can definitely bump up the size so that you can decrease number of feedings per week.

Can you get rats? That will open up a whole new world of sizes for you.

Though if you can't you can also feed multiple items per feeding so that you are still only feeding once a week but she is still eating twice as much.

[Mr. Misha]

If you feed a proper meal, feeding once a week is just fine. I've been feeding mine once a week since they were about a 100g and they're all doing just fine.

Get a scale to monitor her weight. That will also give you a much better idea of what meal to offer.

By the way, if you have a smartphone, you can download the Tapatalk app and post photos straight from your phone.


Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk

[John1982]

You can feed a larger meal every 2 weeks and grow ball python plenty fast.

[The Golem]

48 hours seems long. I have 10 month old BP @ 350 grams, feeding him weaned rat (35 grams) every 5 days, around 7:30 pm. He's fine 24 hours later. When we move up to next size of rat I'll give him 48 hours to digest the first couple of times.

For instance I fed him Thursday night and then Friday night I left the front door of vivarium open and allowed him to 'escape'; we played a session of Hide And Seek for around 3 hours so I was picking him when he headed for places I didn't want him to go, and held him a couple of times for 15-20 minutes with no problems. He's very curious and likes to explore.

One great piece of advice I read here is: observe your snake - get to know his 'personality', and when he's comfortable being held and when he wants to be left alone.

[dgrout1989]

If you feed a proper meal, feeding once a week is just fine. I've been feeding mine once a week since they were about a 100g and they're all doing just fine.

Get a scale to monitor her weight. That will also give you a much better idea of what meal to offer.

By the way, if you have a smartphone, you can download the Tapatalk app and post photos straight from your phone.


Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk

i will for sure pick up a scale the next day im off work or maybe have my wife pick one up.