Snake suck in feed mode, or has he turned evil?

mann, seeing this thread just makes me jelous, i still have a 960g mouser :(

Originally I felt as if I was over feeding at 14-15% body weight per meal, but haven't had one regurgitation or refusal after he has struck/wrapped. The odd meal he just smells and then goes back to bed, but that is likely due to my low ambient temps (fixing with an RHP tomorrow).

The idea that you have to feed a certain % or a certain set feeding schedule is silly. Snakes don't have that in the wild, if he's acting like this- give him a big meal, let him sit on it for a few weeks. Usually gets them to calm down for several days after taking it, and then by the time they come down off the big huge feed, they are calmer and not so jumpy. More frequent and small feedings make them jumpier in my experience, the small meals are just not filling enough for them to realize they don't have to hunt and eat everything that moves in fear of going hungry.

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Originally Posted by FrankieCarbone

mann, seeing this thread just makes me jelous, i still have a 960g mouser :(

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I know that feel, brah. I have a 750g mouser. This is the first time in 3 years (aka, since I've had him) that he took TWO mice in one feeding. Next stop, rats! *crosses fingers*

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Originally Posted by UpNorth

A 90g rat seems fairly small for a 1200g ball python. 10% of his body weight is 120g, and that is the low end of the feeding "rule of thumb". Possible he is still hungry?

I'm feeding my 800g ball python rats that are bigger than that.

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The 10-15% rule of thumb is for hatchlings and juveniles, not adult BP's.
We feed our males 1 small 60-80 gram rat every week and our females top out at about 120-130 gram rat every week. The females may occasionally get something that is slightly bigger, but never anything over 150 grams.

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Originally Posted by MMReptiles

More frequent and small feedings make them jumpier in my experience, the small meals are just not filling enough for them to realize they don't have to hunt and eat everything that moves in fear of going hungry.

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I have to completely disagree with you on this statement.
All of our animals get fed smaller meals on a weekly basis and it doesn't make any of them "jumpy" or always hungry. Besides a couple of animals in our collection that are always little jerks and don't like to be bothered at all, the rest of our collection is perfectly fine 99% of the time and aren't 'jumpy" or "sketchy" at all.
Now when it comes to feeding day all bets are off!

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Originally Posted by C&H Exotic Morphs

The 10-15% rule of thumb is for hatchlings and juveniles, not adult BP's.
We feed our males 1 small 60-80 gram rat every week and our females top out at about 120-130 gram rat every week. The females may occasionally get something that is slightly bigger, but never anything over 150 grams.

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Looks like I missed this part. I guess I'll space out the remaining ~120g rats over 10 day feedings and then toss the bigger ones in the garbage (only about 6) unless I can find another local Harper with boas or larger pythons.

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Originally Posted by C&H Exotic Morphs

I have to completely disagree with you on this statement.
All of our animals get fed smaller meals on a weekly basis and it doesn't make any of them "jumpy" or always hungry. Besides a couple of animals in our collection that are always little jerks and don't like to be bothered at all, the rest of our collection is perfectly fine 99% of the time and aren't 'jumpy" or "sketchy" at all.
Now when it comes to feeding day all bets are off!

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Because all snakes are the same and should be treated as such, and everyone's experiences are the same. I've had many snakes over many species that when fed larger less frequent meals, or even a couple larger meals thrown in are much calmer than if fed smaller meals more often. Sometimes, it works, no reason not to try it.

People will tell you; OP, that you are power feeding, over feeding- but this is beyond incorrect. Snakes would take larger prey and larger meals in the wild, and do not eat every 5-7 days in the wild. Nothing about what we do to these snakes is natural, while I don't agree that you should give it a large rat ever 5 days, varying prey size is more than acceptable.