perhaps im under feeding :(

I offer my adults a meal every monday. I have a six year male that is just under 4 ft also. He is healthy and has bred for me several times.

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Originally Posted by WingedWolfPsion

A ball python that goes off feed for 4 to 6 months over the winter should probably be fed every week while it's eating, but if it eats year-round, every other week is best.

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Then again, if that same snake were fed only every other week, or just fed a smaller meal, maybe it would decide not to fast. It appears that some fasts are caused by snakes that were overfed taking a break to even things out.

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Originally Posted by WingedWolfPsion

Since snakes rarely eat while in shed, just skip those weeks.

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Originally Posted by mainbutter

I have never owned a snake that never ate in shed. I realize some don't, in fact many don't(I have been blessed with strong feeding responses in my snakes), but I wouldn't say that snakes as a whole rarely feed in shed.

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I have to agree with mainbutter. I have 22 snakes, mostly BPs. I believe every single one of them eats while in shed at least sometimes. Most of them don't seem to care if they are in shed or not, or at worst are a little slower to strike.

I would say at least 70% of my collection routinely refuses food when in shed--some of them will take it occasionally, but they usually refuse.

I don't believe winter breeding breaks have anything to do with how much the animal was fed over the summer. I have had 2-year old juveniles take breaks, and they're still growing. I've had an underweight rescue take a break (she wasn't breeding of course). I have not had a single animal that was actively breeding continue to eat through the entire breeding season, though some females did eat right up til ovulation, and some males only took 2 months off.

I have some HUGE females that I had to reduce food for because they were actually getting too hefty continue eating right up to ovulation, while a smaller, pickier female stopped feeding in October and didn't start until May. So I have to disagree with the idea that feeding frequency or quantity has something to do with winter fasting.

Most of our snakes refuse food during shed as well.

We must keep in mind that our captive snakes almost always have more fat deposits than wild animals. And this is unhealthy, more so than most fatty deposits on other animals, because snakes hold their fat next to the organs, rather than inbetween the muscle and skin layers.