What is the biggest in a year?

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So how many people feed little and often and how many feed larger and less frequent? My animals tend to have 1 larger prey item weekly and they seem to grow at a similar rate to animals fed smaller items every 4 days or so, so it seems there's not a huge difference.

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Little is in the eyes of the beholder, lol.
When I feed two prey items the weight of those two is more than the "appropriate size" single item they could eat in one meal, so they gain more than what one meal would give them.
This only works if they continue to eat :P

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I prefer this as it means my animals are normally empty come feeding time so usually feed more consistantly, there is less frequent cleaning out required and of course, it works out cheaper!

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Breeding your own rats takes the cost factor out, unless your feeding hundreds of snakes, lol.

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Also, has anyone studied the weight gain from different food items? I've heard it's typically 20% for mice, 30% for rats and 40% for multis (ASFs)? That means for every 100g of mice you feed, the weight gain is only 20g compared to 30g for 100g of rats and 40g for 100g of multis.

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I noticed that mice sucked when I first got into ball pythons, so I have never fed mice since then.

I haven't noticed the difference in weight gain per type of prey because I switch mine over to rats as soon as I can.
I start hatchlings with asf's because they readily take them, then it's all rats all of the time.

Wow Freaky frog that's some killer weight gain :P

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Originally Posted by snakesRkewl

Wow Freaky frog that's some killer weight gain :P

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That's feeding her every 5 days till she hit 1000 grams and then switching her to every 7 days.She has NEVER (knock on wood) missed a meal. I feed small weaned rats to all my snakes a 500 gram male gets the same size rat as a 2500 gram female. Doing another female this way and the results are the same. I got this albino female in June of 2009 she was 250 grams same deal fed her every 5 days till she hit 1000 then switched her to every 7 she's now 1200 grams. Thats about 1000 grams in 8 months. Shes a great feeder still (knock on wood)

One of my female pastels from '07 was 1200g at one year of age. The other was in the 900s.

My Ornate monitor is a year-and-a-half old, and he is almost five feet long. Does that count for anything?

Chris

I got my female pastel Nov-15th 2009 @ 68 grams. On 28 Feb 2010 she was 608 grams empty :) 504 grams in 3.5 months around 150 grams a month at my count.

Xavier

Ive got two het alb that are at 14 months and both weigh 1200 my pastel male who is the same age is at 685 :(

Mike

What type of rack are you using? How many hides and what are your temps? I think that good feeding has a lot to do with husbandry although some balls seem to feed and not really care. I have been told that when you feed balls often and they put on weight, they are more likely to go off feed. And this is probably why I have a few balls that are off feed.

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Originally Posted by lesserlover

What type of rack are you using? How many hides and what are your temps? I think that good feeding has a lot to do with husbandry although some balls seem to feed and not really care. I have been told that when you feed balls often and they put on weight, they are more likely to go off feed. And this is probably why I have a few balls that are off feed.

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Mine are in a melamine rack in 28 qt tubs, they start out in 6qt tubs until around 200 grams then I move them up. They each get an appropriately sized hide except for my big girls (2000+ grams).

Yours are not off feed due to heavy eating, they are off feed because of the time of year. :gj:

I have fed twice a week till 700 grams or so and then backed off,
nobody went off feed because of feeding so often.

I have no snakes off feed right now except my large breeders, and all of my snakes have eaten all winter, strange, but whose to argue, lol

Husbandry would be my choice for #1 reason why any ball python goes off feed,
except gravid females of course :P

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Originally Posted by snakesRkewl

Husbandry would be my choice for #1 reason why any ball python goes off feed, except gravid females of course :P

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Explain this to my yb female....