Feeding Additional Rats?

Okay. My girls don't seem to have any issues with the size of the rat. They are not even as big a round as the girls are. I have heard people say to feed the side of their thickest point. I have heard 10% of their body weight. I wasn't sure if I was under feeding her because I was below the 10% or not. She's a very VERY good eater, right now especially. She cannot get the rat down fast enough and the poops are not huge by any means. Then again she is my biggest, so I don't know how big is too big lol.

i feed my males\non breeder females once every 6-7 days a small rat up to 80 grams give or take and will feed my breeder females that have been breeding or if I want to put a lil more weight on a female before i introduce the male i feed the same small rat up to 85 grams 2-3 times a week. This is only during breeding an briefly after to get weight on the girls. The rest of the year girls\males are fed once every 7 days. I picked up a few bags of medium rats to try them out with some of the larger girls and one every 7 days put some nice weight on them the past few months. I may tinker with that again next season but more than likely will stick with small rats. Also if the small rats i get are on the small side(say 40 ish grams) i will feed two of them

The following quotes are all taken from a single thread on this forum that I started when I first got my BP. The breeder I got her from initially said 200g/month. EBV said 200-250g/week. And you can see the widely varying opinions of those on this very forum, including Rich's opinion above in this very thread.

With all of that in mind, I've been feeding my BP F/T 250g rats every 2 weeks and she takes them down no sweat. I am not experienced with BP so I cannot say if her poops are big, small, or medium. I figured that's about in the middle of what others have said.

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Originally Posted by pythoncrazy

...A ball python of her size should be eating at least an XL rat(275-375g) if not an XXL rat(375-475g) every two weeks. Basically she needs to eat a rat that's as big around maybe slightly smaller than the biggest part of her body every two weeks. I don't know where this guy went to school but he's feeding you bad information. This is the best website for herp information. Some of the best breeders, herp experts, and herp enthusiasts are on this site. You need to listen to what we're telling you.

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Originally Posted by ballpythonluvr

For your information, I don't know anyone on this site that feeds their ball pythons XL or XXL rats.

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Originally Posted by L.West

Hi, I believe it is 15% of their body weight for the weight of the rodent.

Good Luck

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Originally Posted by Vypyrz

...Based on my previous experience with an adult BP that was comparable in size, weight, and age (54", 2500g, 5 y/o) as the OP's, and the feeding issues that I had to work out by trial and error, I would suggest feeding one rat (100g) every 10-14 days. While alot of Ball Pythons are more than capable of taking larger rats, and many do, still, there are some who will not eat anything much larger. The only reason that I can come up with as to why is that a Ball Pythons natural prey would be African Soft Furs, and it is my understanding that adult ASF's are only about 70-90 grams. So possibly, there is some instinct that that dictates what prey size they are attracted to.

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Originally Posted by wwmjkd

...as for the feeders, again it is variable. many people feed various sizes and with changing frequency depending on the circumstances and on what they have determined works the best for their set-ups and goals. certainly power feeding is to be avoided, but there is no 'formula' because no two snakes are exactly alike. the formula also changes throughout the life cycle. young hatchlings can be fed 'appropriately sized' meals every 5-7 days. fully grown adults may not need to eat more than twice a month. as a general rule, 10-15% of the body mass, avoiding anything that is larger than your snake at its midsection, is good advice. the frequency is largely left up to you. you can feed almost any ball that is willing every 7 days without worrying. some snakes also go on protracted hunger strikes for months but remain healthy. if your personal goals are not breeding and simply to own a healthy snake, you could feed once every 10-14 days given how old your pastel is. either way it's up to you.

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Originally Posted by pythoncrazy

I would assume that since you used 10% per month as an example that L.West meant 15% per month. 15 goes into 100 6.666666 etc times. So if an adult ball python should eat 15% of body weight per month and she weighs 2500 grams then she should be eating 375 grams of rat per month. This would be 187.5 grams every two weeks. Since large rats are 175-275 grams you should feed her a large rat on the smaller side. Or a rat that is as big around as the biggest part of her body which is what everyone I know uses. For an adult female ball python this would be a large rat every two weeks. Up until they reach adult size you should feed a ball python every week, only adults should eat every two weeks.

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Masonc2k has it right. If you ask 10 different breeders you may wind up with 10 different answers. Unless you really go out of your way to powerfeed a ball python it's hard to get them to become too fat. They are heavy bodied snakes and will eat when and how they want to. If they don't want a meal they are the first ones to just sit in the hide and ignore it.