Over-feeding

[bcpythons]

Hello,

Did you face problems with over-feeding? What happened? Did they stop to eat for a long time? Problem with breeding?
I have heard that obese ball pythons are too fat to breed, females won't ovulate. Did you experiment it?
We also see a lot of big mamas, huge females (usually normal females, I don't know why, because morphs aren't smaller)

What is the fastest grow you got? Usually, it takes 2 to 3 years for a female before to reproduce.
But I guess some may breed at 18 months. As said Stefan Broghammer in his book, in the wild, there are only gravid female, or yearlings. If it took 3 years, we should meet intermediate sizes in the wild.

Males can grow fast too. I have a GHI male that weights 65 grammes when I bought him 2 weeks ago. He's a great eater. He jumps on it. I feed him every 4 days with hoppers. I am wondering what may happen if I give him as much food he wants, let's say every 2 days. Did some of you ever tried this?

I think it is not a good way to proceed. If long time breeders respect that schedule, there should be a reason. They aren't stupid
Pythons teach you patience.
But I am interested by theses points. Usually, we hear a lot about picky eaters not huge eaters.

Thanks for your replies.

[bcpythons]

Yesterday, I have tried to give à rat to my piedbald 2 days after her last meal. She grabbed the prey but I found it in her terrarium this morning.
I have tried this because she was in shed and didn't eat for 17 days.
Over-feeding is not easy.

[ElliotNess]

You are intentionally trying to over feed it? Why?

[CptJack]

Not eating for 17 days is... nothing for a healthy ball python.

And as you're discovering overfeeding them is just about impossible. They tend to self-regulate. They may eat a lot in one go for a little while and then fast to make up for it or just refuse if you offer more. They aren't dogs, or even corn snakes. They aren't going to eat more than they want or need.

"Fastest way to grow" is to feed appropriate sized prey on an appropriate schedule They will grow as fast as they grow and you just have to deal with it.

[MrsLove]

We are new to the Ball Python world, and my mother-in-law got me and my husband one each for Christmas. We already have a female and now have acquired 2 males. We transported them home, not knowing we would be doing so, and all we have is a 75 gallon tank atm. We got 2 rats for the male's and already had one for the female. She did not eat hers, and though it may not have been smart on our end (like I said we are new to this world) we just put them all in together in the same tank. Female is used to being fed in her cage, but we were not sure on how the male's were used to eating. Yes we do feed live rats. That's what they are all used to. Our female did not eat, which she is close to shed for her eyes are fogged over, both males are their rat. We did not remove the 3rd rat for we got distracted by Christmas wrapping (our fault) and one of our males are the other rat. Now do we need to be concerned with the fact he ate 2 rats within a 5 hour window and now looks as though he ate a small squirrel instead of rats? No we are not sure of weight at this time for we don't have scales yet, and as previously stated...We did not know we would be returning with 2 males of about 1-1/2 years old.

[chakup]

The biggest concern is leaving 3live rats in a tank and not checking for 5hours.

[cchardwick]

The biggest concern is leaving 3live rats in a tank and not checking for 5hours.

I agree, a live rat left alone with a snake can tear a snake to shreds, it's a horrible sight. Personally I don't feed live unless I absolutely have to and even then will try to switch over to fresh killed. All my snakes are on fresh killed now. I find it's best to put them down with CO2 and then have another snake as a backup that usually will always eat like a reticulated python or a boa, something that will take all the uneaten rats from your ball pythons so none go to waste. Or feed half of your snakes at alternating schedules so you have extra snakes to feed left over rodents. That's difficult to do with only one or two snakes, you may need more snakes HE HE HE!

Multiple snakes in the same enclosure is not good either, I've done it a few times when I first started. Usually one of the snakes will go into a long fast, usually several months and to the point where they are so skinny they look sickly. I think maybe it triggers a breeding cycle and they have to have the weight and age to support that breeding fast.

I had one snake that was beat up during shipping in the mail, he's an Austrailian Woma python. He went on a fast for about 7 months or so and didn't look like he lost any weight at all. He finally started eating, now he is taking medium rats on a regular schedule. An older mature adult snake can go on a fast for a long time, you'd be surprised how long. It takes more of a toll on a younger faster growing snake.

Snakes can and will overeat if they have the appetite for it. I usually feed based on the look of the snake. An overeater will get super fat like a sausage that is about to explode LOL. I used to feed all my left over rodents to one of my king snakes. She got so fat that now I only feed her a small hopper once a month, it's been several months and she still looks fat LOL. Some people put them into a hibernation cycle and cool them off and don't feed them at all for months.

Younger snakes can take over feeding much better than older snakes because if they get fat they grow out of it really fast because they have a higher metabolism. My reticulated python can take a lot of food to where she is looking fat, but about a week later she is skinny because she is still fairly young and growing fast, she probably weighs about 7-8 pounds now, will eventually get to about 50 pounds!

One thing I don't really like to see is feeding a rodent so large that the snake looks like it ate a football LOL. I like to see a nice big lump, but not to the point where the snake looks uncomfortable. It's amazing how big of a rodent a snake will eat, but I try to keep it on the smaller side, just enough to where you can see a lump in their belly the next day.

Also, most breeders will tell you that they feed twice a week, even older mature snakes. I tend to feed my females larger meals twice a week and feed my males smaller meals twice a week or even have them skip a meal now and then. Males shouldn't be bigger than about 1,000 grams, females as big as possible for the most eggs, just don't let them get too fat LOL.