Underfeeding to maintain size

Before getting Java, I had never heard of this, and I'm shocked at how common it appears to be.

Seriously....shouldn't that ring about a hundred alarm bells in a person's head? I can't believe pet stores would tell people that its perfectly fine to starve an animal just so it stays cute and "manageable". Ugh.

I am absolutely disgusted.

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Once a Petco employee explained to me how they sparsely feed the BP's in order to keep them small. It is truly disgusting.

I once met a guy at Pet Smart buying his 3rd bp. He said the others kept dieing. After a few questions, I learned the pet store told them the snakes had to be force fed. Are you kidding me? That should be the last resort, and not done by a novice that hasn't even been shown what to do. Grrr!

It doesn't make any sense at all. You're starving an animal to keep it small so that you can sell it...and then what? You've started it out with a horrible life and then sold it to someone who clearly isn't going to take care of it is whole life if they'll only buy them small...there's so much wrong with this.

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My big boy J.R. is 19 years old and I remember when my mom bought him she was told he only needs to eat a couple times a year :O I was only 11ish when we got him, so I didn't know better. But she had him all these years only feeding him "when he looked hungry" (every 6 months or so). When she died 2 years ago and I brough him home, I started doing tons of research and reading and asking tons of questions to figure out how to care for him right. I was shocked to learn that she was basically sarving him all these years. He now eats whenever I think he looks hungry (I offer every 10 days) hahaha It's amazing that even though he is 19 years old, he still is packing on the weight and length. Im honostly shocked he lived all these years only being fed that rarely. He also puts off very pretty babies :D

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Originally Posted by Courtney281

My big boy J.R. is 19 years old and I remember when my mom bought him she was told he only needs to eat a couple times a year :O I was only 11ish when we got him, so I didn't know better. But she had him all these years only feeding him "when he looked hungry" (every 6 months or so). When she died 2 years ago and I brough him home, I started doing tons of research and reading and asking tons of questions to figure out how to care for him right. I was shocked to learn that she was basically sarving him all these years. He now eats whenever I think he looks hungry (I offer every 10 days) hahaha It's amazing that even though he is 19 years old, he still is packing on the weight and length. Im honostly shocked he lived all these years only being fed that rarely. He also puts off very pretty babies :D

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Wow...all I can say to this is wow. Speaks to the hardiness of these animals as well to the need for proper education!

I didn't know that people actually did this o-o That's like saying "Give that kitten food once a week, and it'll stay tiny and cute."

I want to go to all the chain pet stores and buy them out just so their snakes are fed well.

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Originally Posted by Ashleen Cook

I didn't know that people actually did this o-o That's like saying "Give that kitten food once a week, and it'll stay tiny and cute."

I want to go to all the chain pet stores and buy them out just so their snakes are fed well.

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Unfortunately, they'll just restock their BPs and do the same with the new ones. The only thing you can do is hope they AREN'T purchased, that way new ones aren't subjected to that life.

This is a disgusting practice, though. :tears: If I came across someone who gave me this "advice", I'd ask them if they would also recommend someone rarely feed their child, so it stays small and "manageable". :mad:

It's a bad practice and solely for the conveinence of the store. They don't want the snake to out grow the cage they have them in. Very very sad.

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Originally Posted by Ashleen Cook

I want to go to all the chain pet stores and buy them out just so their snakes are fed well.

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The problem is, if you did that it would just encourage the place to expand their Ball Python operation and end up causing more BP's to experience this.