Feeding?

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Originally Posted by Razaiel

I think I read in a post yesterday somewhere that power-feeding can seriously shorten a BP's life

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That's garbage. There is no scientific data to support that statement. Don't listen to that junk.

Ball pythons do a very good job of regulating themselves when it comes to food. They know when they have "filled up" and will shut down once they do. That's one of the many reasons why that have such a reputation for fasting ... because most people over feed their ball pythons and they fast to "catch up" with all of the food.

-adam

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Originally Posted by Adam_Wysocki

That's garbage. There is no scientific data to support that statement. Don't listen to that junk.

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And if you need any of your own data to back up what you're feeding... just do what I do. Weigh them the day before feeding, and two days after.

I put three mice into one of my pastel girls this week, avg 27 grams a piece. She was 368g on Wednesday, ate on Thursday (like a champ as always) and last night, she was a little over 390g. She gained all of 22 grams out of 81g of food. Not a bad metabolism. :)

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Originally Posted by JLC

Sue, there are TONS of different opinions and methods for feedings snakes in general, and bp's in particular. If the snake consistently and readily takes the second rodent, I'm sure you're doing just fine. It'd be easy to second-guess yourself into a frenzy by reading all the various posts about how everyone else does it.

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Yeah, ain't this the truth. I think I should stop reading and worrying and just pet my kitties...

/anxious snake mom mode ON ;)

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Originally Posted by Adam_Wysocki

Ball pythons do a very good job of regulating themselves when it comes to food. They know when they have "filled up" and will shut down once they do. That's one of the many reasons why that have such a reputation for fasting ... because most people over feed their ball pythons and they fast to "catch up" with all of the food.

-adam

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I guess Pythons have a faster metabolism than boas. With boas you can tell which have been power fed to the extreme by their unusually small heads to body proportions. Boas won't regulate themselves and will have negative effects on them in the long run.

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Originally Posted by ssscales

I guess Pythons have a faster metabolism than boas. With boas you can tell which have been power fed to the extreme by their unusually small heads to body proportions. Boas won't regulate themselves and will have negative effects on them in the long run.

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You know - I may well have read that on a Boa forum - I'm currently researching into them as I want to get a redtail - if I remember the more or less exact words were from a breeder (not Adam of course) who said at one time he consistently power-fed fed his snakes and none of them lived beyond 5 years of age ... and he did mean power-feeding as opposed to just popping a second mouse in to be ate or not.

Thank you very much for your replies, everyone, I am much relieved that I'm not doing anything detrimental to Emily's health.

With Boas, there are a number of breeders that have made the statements about power feeding there early breeding stock and running into problems. Whether those problems were from power feeding or early breeding, who knows...

Read any care sheet on boas and all will advise you not to power feed or over feed.

I feed my boas one appropriate size meal every five days from their 1st shed up to 3-4mo. After that it's one item every 7-10 females and every 15 days for males up until 3yrs. After that they are both fed every 15 days, males are kept at medium rats while females move up to Jumbo rats.

My Jungle Carpet Pythons were also raised and fed in the same way. If I feel they need two items, I simply increase the size of prey rather than feed two small ones.

Just my $0.02.

I plan on raising my BP's the same way unless I learn otherwise, it seems based on reading BP's handle two smaller meals better than one larger meal (2 small rats, rather than 1 medium rat). I'm new to BP's and their habbits and learning as I go.