FEEDING. When to stop?

GOOD DAY....

It really feels good when my ball pythons are eating, especially they never miss a meal every friday or saturday. Because, i always believe that a good eater is a very good definition of survival, especially my balls. Nevertheless, i have this question of when to stop, why?
SMANTHA, my femme 1y/o ball seems to take in whatever i give her, and it seems she never refused, she just would engulf one after another (by the way, i'm feeding live adult albino mice) and im afraid she would choke so i stopped giving her when she consumed 5 mice.
While,
SAMI, my 9 mos old male ball, would only prefer 1 adult albino mouse and wont take the second offer.
IS THIS FEEDING PATTERN OKEY?
IS IT OKEY IF I KEEP FEEDING SMANTHA UNTIL SHE REFUSED?
DO I HAVE TO WAIT TILL SAMI TAKES THE SECOND MOUSE?
GOOD PEOPLE IN THIS THREAD, PLEASE HELP...

Defently a good thing lol. honestly i would try to switch to rats, im told 1 meal is easier to digest than multiple, it might be cheaper and less time consuming also.

SMANTHA, my femme 1y/o ball seems to take in whatever i give her, and it seems she never refused, she just would engulf one after another (by the way, i'm feeding live adult albino mice) and im afraid she would choke so i stopped giving her when she consumed 5 mice.
While,

Have you tried to feed her rats.

I wouldn't suggest feeding her until she stops...BPs are opportunistic hunters and many times once they are in feeding mode, will just keep eating. My biggest girl (~1500 or 1600g) will get 3 mice in a sitting if they don't have rats (or if she is in a 'no rat' mood that she likes to go through every couple of months). I could probably give her more than that, and I know she can take it, but for one...it gets expensive!

If you girl is doing well on 5, keep it at 5. Just b/c she will keep eating, doesn't mean she needs to. If she still looks hungry after 5, she will probably still look hungry after 8 or whatever.

I feed my breeder females as much as they want. For some that's 3 or 4 rats a week. For some it's 1 rat a week.

Males get 1 rat a week (or 3 mice for the mousers). Gotta keep them lean and in the mood. :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mikels

smantha, my femme 1y/o ball seems to take in whatever i give her, and it seems she never refused, she just would engulf one after another (by the way, i'm feeding live adult albino mice) and im afraid she would choke so i stopped giving her when she consumed 5 mice.
While,

have you tried to feed her rats.

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i havent tried smantha on rats, though im already looking forward to breeding rats once of this days so i can start her on it... Thanks....

If you have the rodent supply, I would keep feeding her three to five mice each week. I also agree that rats may be a better prey items since they get larger and you normally do not have to feed multiple rats.

i am far from a subject matter expert on this.

But i havbe been told by a fairly reliable friend that mice offer the least effeciant nutrients out of the options.

Rats may be hard to swap her to, so I would try ASF, they are actually healthier than a hooded, and more of a natural food.
Plus the adult ASF is a good size for an Adult ball :)

Also the adjustment from mouse to asf is supposed to be easier than from mouse to rat :)

I plan to get mine all to asf soon I think.

Shawn

1 appropiatley sized rat weekly at her age.They're more nutritionly complete and it'll be cheaper and more convenient. She wont be an eating machine her whole life, you don't want to back her up. Hatches you can feed more frequent.

At 1 year old I would be sticking to the 10 to 15 percent of the body weight. My BP is currently about 800 grams empty. I have 30 gram adult mice. So I would stop at 4 mice. I personally think all the talk about nutritional differences is nonsense. There are minor differences for sure but in my opinion they do not make enough of a difference to be a determining factor.