accidental power feeding

[therunaway]

ok, so i accidentally power fed my 5-6 month old bp, and im thinking it was tuesday last time he ate, but it was fairly big, the lump is gone, and before tuesday, he ate friday, but was still slithering around his tank, and then now, hes starting again. feed or not?

[ballpythonluvr]

Stick with feeding your snake every 5 to 7 days and you will be fine. I would wait a few days before offering food again.

[dragonboy4578]

If your bp ate last on friday I personally would wait until I fed again. I feed my younger bp's every 5 days. Once they hit around 800 grams I switch to every 7, but that is just me.

[m00kfu]

You can't 'accidentally' power feed all ball python. Power feeding is when you make it eat more than it would on its own. If it ate a couple days after you fed it, that's not a problem, just means he was hungry already.

[therunaway]

ok thanks guys ;D i have to go get food for my corn, ill hold off on monty.

[ballpythonluvr]

ok thanks guys ;D i have to go get food for my corn, ill hold off on monty.

Very wise choice!

[WingedWolfPsion]

I've never seen any harm come to young ball pythons from offering them food as often as they care to accept it. They don't develop 'pinhead syndrome' or any of the other issues displayed by power-fed animals.

Power-feeding means tricking the animal into eating more than it chooses to, not simply over-feeding it.
Ball pythons are geared to grow fast when food is available. I've had some hatchlings accept food every 3 to 4 days for half a year before slowing down. Their proportions are normal, they just get big.
(Boas are an entirely different story. What ball pythons can do, and what other species of snakes can do, shouldn't be compared. Some snakes will develop serious health problems and even die if they are overfed, but ball pythons seem to be just fine).

I think that appetite during the first few years has a huge impact on the adult size of a ball python.
Remember, some fully grown adult ball python females are over 5 feet long, and weight over 3000 grams. They get most of that size in just 4 years.
Compare that with a 1500 gram girl who's under 4 feet.
Obviously, the amount of food that goes into making a BIG snake has to be more than goes into making a smaller one. Feeding a hatchling when it wants to eat may ensure it reaches its full potential size.
So, if you toss in an extra treat once in a while, and the snake is happy to eat it, that's not an issue, it's just fine.

[wolfy-hound]

It's not power feeding to feed off schedule occasionally. That's just a extra meal. If you were feeding constantly or trying to push food on it super often, that would be power feeding. A single early feed isn't going to hurt anything.

[Brion99]

Remember, some fully grown adult ball python females are over 5 feet long, and weight over 3000 grams. They get most of that size in just 4 years.
Compare that with a 1500 gram girl who's under 4 feet.
Obviously, the amount of food that goes into making a BIG snake has to be more than goes into making a smaller one. Feeding a hatchling when it wants to eat may ensure it reaches its full potential size.
So, if you toss in an extra treat once in a while, and the snake is happy to eat it, that's not an issue, it's just fine.

What they said.

My Lesser was a pretty slow grower. Got at bout 70 grams in July, and will undoubtedly blow by 310-320 next time I weigh him. Not big, I know, but he took months to get to prob 160 or so, and ever since my roommates went off feed I started offering him his refusals and he took em pretty much every time, and over the last 2 months he's almost doubled in size. The problem was I was sticking to that 7 day rule (which isn't bad), but I kept him on hoppers & small too long...he now just pummeled a rat prob bigger (girth) than him on 6 days after a rat even bigger and he's lovin it...and I'm lovin the growth.

[VEXER19]

I'm really glad you brought this up. I've always wondered about my 4 month olds appetite. I feed every 7 days but I give her 2 adult mice every feeding and she gobbles both of them in 10 min or less. And a few days later seems hungry again. She only comes out of hiding for food usualy and I alway wondered if I feed her too much but I figured she is just hungry and 1 mice obviously wasn't cutting it for her. In the last month she has gone from 169g to about 230. She eats in shed even and never misses a meal.