Re: so feed when there hungry or scheduale
To answer the questeion of, "In general, should you feed a snake on a schedule or when it appears hungry?":
Feed on a schedule. They will appear hungry when they are willing to eat. If you feed them whenever they are willing to eat, you will overfeed them, just like with any animal.
I've been lucky to never have to deal with a problem BP that refused food other than during breeding time. The rest of the time, they've always pounded food, and would definitely allow themselves to overeat if I offered food too often.
My corn snake I had as my first pet (who has now since passed away) was a notoriously voracious eater. He had regular vet checkups, during one of which I was informed he was getting a bit overweight. If I wasn't diligent and getting expert opinions, since this was my first snake and all, I would have kept of feeding him on the same schedule and he would have easily gotten too fat to be healthy.
My carpet python is even more of an eager feeder. She pounds medium rats like no tomorrow, and would probably eat daily until she burst, given the choice.
The point is, without a schedule and understanding snake metabolism, overfeeding is extremely easy to accidently do. Determining a proper amount to feed and correlating schedule is part science and part intuition knowing your snake. For adult BPs (or BPs large enough to feed on medium rats), as many have said, 7-14 days is pretty common. Your 2 week schedule was on the lower range for feeding frequency, but certainly not anywhere near what could be considered "underfeeding".
Re: so feed when there hungry or scheduale
Quote:
Originally Posted by
WingedWolfPsion
Someone suggested that it was plausible that because of the way reptile eggs develop, turning them could result in smothering the embryo. Now everyone believes this. The few actual experiments done on it have revealed...nothing. No change in hatch rates when eggs are turned, and with several different species, including ball pythons. The theory was wrong after all.
Not arguing with you, because the little anecdotal evidence I've seen agrees that at least some eggs can be turned and be fine. However, if you could provide references for this, that would be great.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
WingedWolfPsion
So I ask...do ball pythons really tend to fast more if they're fed larger prey? Are you sure? :)
Maybe someone did a study on it--if so, I'd be really interested in seeing the data...but if not...well, you'll just have to try it yourself and see.
No, I'm not sure. That's why my post said "It seems...." But I have done an small, extremely informal "study", based purely on anecdotal evidence. It seems to me that I see more reports of fasting from people who feed larger meals, and fewer reports of fasting from people who feed smaller meals. Also, I have NEVER seen nor heard of a grossly obese BP, yet I have seen pics of some frighteningly obese corns, and heard of it in kings. So it does seem that somehow BPs manage not to get horribly overweight, even though I am sure there are at least some keepers out there that offer enough food to make the snake obese, just like there are some with corns and kings.
