Feeding Additional Rats?

[Crawly's Mom]

Hey guys... I wanted to ask a question that I have heard some mixed reviews on. Currently I have one normal female who is over 2000 grams. I have been feeding all my adult balls 1 medium rat every week. Now the mediums I pick up are roughtly 150-175 grams. Bonnie is right about 2200 grams now I believe.

Now if you consider the 10-15% body weight food method, which I think a lot of people do, would she be getting underfed? She seems to still be putting on weight, however, I am not sure if that's because she's been breeding and is building or its because of the food she is taking in. Every time I feed her she looks at me when she is through like she wants more. She acts like she's starving all the time... each time I pass her tub she comes out and looks at me expectantly.

Would you guys begin double up or feed more often or simply keep her on the schedule she is on?

[RichsBallPythons]

125-175g rats IMO is over feeding.

I dont feed anything over 80g which is a large sm rat. They grow just fine and dont poop as often since their not being over fed.

If when you get poops and their big thats a sign ive noticed of over feeding as the food is just passing right though them.

Since i only feed 60-80g rats to adults, if i have a spare here and there, i will give the extras to females

[Smoked Oyster]

125-175g rats IMO is over feeding.

I dont feed anything over 80g which is a large sm rat. They grow just fine and dont poop as often since their not being over fed.

If when you get poops and their big thats a sign ive noticed of over feeding as the food is just passing right though them.

Since i only feed 60-80g rats to adults, if i have a spare here and there, i will give the extras to females

That is a very different answer than most of the other people's advice on this board. I've heard so many different responses on this topic from supposedly knowledgable people that i don't know what to believe any more. From this board, to the breeder i got my 2500g female from, to the East Bay Vivarium which happens to be nearby.

What I've done is more or less average out the wildly varying opinions and stick with that. So far so good, but I've obly had my BP for a couple of months

[MasonC2K]

There are times for double feeds, but in your case, no. 2200 is a solid weight.

[RichsBallPythons]

All you can do is feed how you want, and you will know when its too much when you run out of rats too fast and so on.


Small rats every 5 days is how i feed my adults, And everything works fine.

[Annarose15]

That is a very different answer than most of the other people's advice on this board. I've heard so many different responses on this topic from supposedly knowledgable people that i don't know what to believe any more. From this board, to the breeder i got my 2500g female from, to the East Bay Vivarium which happens to be nearby.

What I've done is more or less average out the wildly varying opinions and stick with that. So far so good, but I've obly had my BP for a couple of months

My adults (ranging from 1000-3000g) get 60-80g rats (one) every 6-7 days. The only time I feed 125g+ rats is for the first few weeks after the females lay eggs, since their weight loss is so dramatic then. I apply the 15% "rule" to younger/smaller snakes. I have a few girls who would take the larger size if offered, but like Rich said, then I just get more poop! Those are the females that get an occasional second helping if someone else doesn't eat.

[Dave Green]

I'm with Rich on this one. I feed a small rat (up to 85 grams) once a week and I've had great results with growth and breeding. I'll give 2 to my real large girls. If you want to increase feeding I would feed more often rather then larger food items. I have females that I want to put weight on and I'll feed them every 5 days or twice a week.

[MasonC2K]

That is a very different answer than most of the other people's advice on this board. I've heard so many different responses on this topic from supposedly knowledgable people that i don't know what to believe any more. From this board, to the breeder i got my 2500g female from, to the East Bay Vivarium which happens to be nearby.

What I've done is more or less average out the wildly varying opinions and stick with that. So far so good, but I've obly had my BP for a couple of months

That's because in all honestly there's no right answer. There's been no scientific studies on this so it's all based on personal experience. When you have mulitple successful breeders using different methods, it can seems like there's conflicting information because some breeders think their way is the way (not aimed at anyoen herel just to clarify). but it's not really. It's just that there's more than one way to do it.

Personally, I've never had a overweight BP. Most of mine have been underweight. I would think you'd have to nearly forcefeed a BP to get it fat in an unhealthy way.

If you have a mature female that's 1200g and you want to pump her for breeding then I see no problem feeding larger or multiple small meals to get the grams on. Just don't force it. My smallest female was 1050g in July and had never been above 1200g. At the advice of a fellow breeder I fed her 2 small (75g) rats a week for 3 months before I was satisfied and cut back. She's 1600g now.

Anyways, your snake in over 2000g which is plenty for breeding so I personally don't seen a need to provide extra meals.

[snakesRkewl]

I'm with Rich, except Sept. through December when I feed them as many as they'll take.
I don't like to feed over 100 gram rats but have many times without any problems, but then my smallest large female is 2400 grams.
I have a couple females over 3000 grams and they will take two 150 grams rats like they were snacks.

After feed up time is over I go back to small rats once a week for my breeders.

[aldebono]

I also agree with Rich.

I use to feed my big girls medium rats once a week. The poop would be huge and it just seemed like a waste. They get small rats now and they poop every couple weeks and it is always small.

They have a slow metabolism and just don't need a huge meal as adults.