well I was talking with becky (satanicintention) earlier tonight, and we were discussing what I think is an interesting issue, so I thought I'd post a thread here and see what you all think...

what do you all think is a healthy growth rate for ball pythons? what food do you think is appropriate for various size balls? I just find myself thinking a lot of balls that I see are much smaller than I would expect for their age. I know a lot of mine (and becky's) grow quickly, but I feel like ours aren't the usual... how large do you think a healthy ball python should be at 1 year of age?

I'll let becky speak for herself about her own, but here's a few examples of mine... these are some of mine that are VERY good feeders (miss something like less than 3% of meals offered)... most of the ones that don't eat regularly, don't experience growth like this, which should be quite obvious...

one year old male: ~1,000 grams - one/two adult mice every 5-7 days while > 650 grams, and then small rats after that about every 7-8 days...

one year old female: ~ 1,200 grams - one adult mice every 5-7 days while > 500 grams, and then small rats after that every 7-8 days...

two month old female: ~250 grams - one adult mice every 5-7 days...

any thoughts would be appreciated... I don't feel like mine (specifically those listed) are overweight, none of them have "fat"-folds or anything like that while coiled, and all of them are quite large in length as well...