Little Frustrated...

My 08 female pastel has been slamming ASFs since October but she's just recently decided to go off feed. She was weighing in at 800g and after 3 weeks of not eating, she's weighing 750g. I know it's not a huge deal but I'm just a little frustrated with this...

I wouldn't worry about it. It can be frustrating, true :)

I always hear of people who want to breed their girls and then they magically go off feed when they are like 100g away from a healthy breeding weight. :giggle: Now THAT is frustrating.

Hopefully she will start pounding down the ASFs for you soon!

I've found on many of my females that they hit a plateau around 700-900 grams. They eventually come back around and start eating and growing again. Anyone else have this happen consistently?

Alice,
It seems to be the norm with Ball Pythons. Some of what I deem as my most important females always seem to take 3, sometimes 4 years to get to decent breeding weights. My suggestion to Mitch would be not to get any more Ball Pythons, if that is so frustrating, because that is what they do.

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Originally Posted by Alice

I've found on many of my females that they hit a plateau around 700-900 grams. They eventually come back around and start eating and growing again. Anyone else have this happen consistently?

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I sure do...

I was under the impression that they plateau around 400g but if you all say it's actually around 700-800g, that definitely makes me feel better! I'm in no rush to get her up to breeding weight... I think I'd rather wait and see if any regulations or rules come out of HR669 over the next few years before I dive into breeding!

Muddoc, ARE YOU CRAZY ABOUT NOT BUYING ANY MORE BPs!!? Lol, how else am I supposed to satisfy my addiction!?

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Originally Posted by muddoc

Alice,
It seems to be the norm with Ball Pythons. Some of what I deem as my most important females always seem to take 3, sometimes 4 years to get to decent breeding weights. My suggestion to Mitch would be not to get any more Ball Pythons, if that is so frustrating, because that is what they do.

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LOL YEP.. Its just one of those things..I have several females that I have taken and when they get to that 700 +/- range I slack off feeding I may feed them once every two weeks..and smaller meals..did that with my het pied female she kept eating smaller meals till she hit 1000 +/- grams. I then boosted her back to every week small rats and she's never looked back shes an 07 and is 1500-1600 grams and eats every week with out fail. Where as I have an 06 female Mojo that I tried to hard to get to weight this year and shes still 900 +/- grams has been for a year and stopped eating AGAIN :rage::rage::rage:..

Its just what they seem to do.. I think it has something to do with the way their body uses the energy at that weight.. almost like they go through a metabolism change that causes them to plateau off then to come back with a vengance

I do the same thing, Ed. If a snake starts getting picky, I hold out on her before she has a chance to hold out on me, and it seems to keep them eating steadily. It might not be as much as I'd like, but I think it's better that they are eating something small every other week and slowly gaining weight than for them to only randomly and occasionally take a meal and stay at the same weight for months.

Pretty much all of my adults will go off of feed from time to time. This seems to be the norm. I've also noticed that my yearlings will take a month off sometimes, which I have to say can be frustrating. Agreeing with the other posters, my females usually take at least 3 yrs(more often than not 4 yrs) to get to breeding size(or to breeding size in my opinion).
I don't think you have to be too worried. Jason

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Originally Posted by PythonWallace

I do the same thing, Ed. If a snake starts getting picky, I hold out on her before she has a chance to hold out on me, and it seems to keep them eating steadily. It might not be as much as I'd like, but I think it's better that they are eating something small every other week and slowly gaining weight than for them to only randomly and occasionally take a meal and stay at the same weight for months.

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Jake I have used tough love on some of my animals..I have a het pied male that is such a freaking picky eater..So I fed in one mouse every three weeks for 4 feedings.. He wasn't loosing weight but he wasn't gaining and since he wasn't breeding I wasn't worried.. Two weeks ago I tossed in a small rat WHAM!!!!! first rat he's eaten in 2 years!!!! this week tossed in another rat..WHAM!!! he seems to be back on rats.. I don't suggest anyone that doesn't know their animals back to front top to bottom doing that but its worked on a few animals of mine.