Proposed Ball Python Feeding Chart

[GamerAgeDad]

Hello fellow ball python lovers,

I am a scientist and I am tired of people giving me the rule of thumb that I should feed my ball python prey approximately as large as it's girth. Feeding is the most expensive part of keeping snakes. Thus it is important to know what to buy, and how many to buy in order to come up with a good budget for feeding. One person that proposed a feeding chart (http://medusa-corns.webs.com/feedingchart.htm) for corn snakes is Dave (Roy Munson). Kudos to Dave for not being like the rest of the sheep. This is great for corn snakes, but how about ball pythons? The people of Ball Pythonz have come up with a nice feeding chart for ball pythons (http://www.ballpythonz.net/feeding.html). Funny enough, I was actually going to propose a ball python feeding chart according to my research that I have done, and while writing this post I came across the feeding chart from the people at Ball Pythonz. Needless to say, the chart the Ball Pythonz people came up with is extremely close to what I was going to propose and I will go over my rational for why I think their feeding chart is mostly correct. I will also add an addition to their chart and specify the weight ranges in grams I think should be appropriate for the common names which they have specified. ​Although I am a scientist, this post is going to be based off opinion and speculation. There is no evidence that any formulas specified here are correct, and nor will I be providing any. Therefore, I present to you Johnny Pittmans Ball Python Feeding Chart:

First off, here is what the people of ball pythonz proposed:

Weight of python (grams)	Size to Feed (grams)	Common Name
Hatchling-99	9-12	Hopper Mice
100-199	13-20	Weanling Mice (or small rat pups)
200-349	21-30	Rat Pups
350-499	31-45	Rat Weanling
500-799	46-79	Small Rat
800-1499	80-149	Medium Rat
1499-2499	150-265	Large Rat
2499+	266-360	Extra Large Rat

For my feeding chart I read various forum users, and yahoo answers users input on what they fed their adult ball pythons, and ball pythons that were a year old. I looked at the average weights of the plotted ball pythons of the 15 subjects of The Dragons Den (http://www.thereddragonsden.com/avgweight.htm) and there were some interesting observations I was able to make. For the first 3-4 months it seems baby ball pythons grow about 200 grams, for the next 4-5 months they grow about another 200 grams, and for the next 4-5 months after that they grow about 200 grams. The babies came to a stop around month 13 or so where it takes them about 10 months to grow another 200 grams, then again they grow 200 grams in 500 months. This is a pretty good rate of growth. My feeding chart should be able to help give a rough estimate of how long a ball python will need to feed on each different rodent size.

Given the suggestions by Ball Pythonz feeding chart, what I currently feed my snakes, and user responses of what they feed their ball pythons, I came up with a better suggestion than the rule of thumb about feeding a snake about the size of its girth. My new rule of thumb (according to my chart) is that you should feed your snake about 10 times less than the snakes weight (in grams). For example, if you snake weighs 350 grams, you would feed him a (350/10 = 35) 35 gram critter. This would be a Rat weanling. This seems to be right on par with what I have found users are feeding their ball pythons, and what I feed my ball pythons. The weight of the ball python being proportional to the weight of the critter by a factor of 10 seems like it would make sense given that the girth of every rodent size specified matches up with my snakes compared to their weight. There is probably a mathematical explanation of why a 10 gram rat is about as girthy as a 100 gram snake, but I am too tired at the moment writing this post to try to come up with that formula.

Anyway, this is my opinion of what a ball python should be fed based off this chart. I am enthusiastic about it and hope this feeding plan will work out well for my baby ball pythons. If it does, I guess I was right, if it doesn't well I guess I'll have a bunch of frozen critters to feed my boa or corn snake. Please critique this, share it, or tell me what you think because I would like to add to this chart.