Feeding Additional Rats?

Hey guys... I wanted to ask a question that I have heard some mixed reviews on. Currently I have one normal female who is over 2000 grams. I have been feeding all my adult balls 1 medium rat every week. Now the mediums I pick up are roughtly 150-175 grams. Bonnie is right about 2200 grams now I believe.

Now if you consider the 10-15% body weight food method, which I think a lot of people do, would she be getting underfed? She seems to still be putting on weight, however, I am not sure if that's because she's been breeding and is building or its because of the food she is taking in. Every time I feed her she looks at me when she is through like she wants more. She acts like she's starving all the time... each time I pass her tub she comes out and looks at me expectantly.

Would you guys begin double up or feed more often or simply keep her on the schedule she is on?

125-175g rats IMO is over feeding.

I dont feed anything over 80g which is a large sm rat. They grow just fine and dont poop as often since their not being over fed.

If when you get poops and their big thats a sign ive noticed of over feeding as the food is just passing right though them.

Since i only feed 60-80g rats to adults, if i have a spare here and there, i will give the extras to females

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Originally Posted by RichsBallPythons

125-175g rats IMO is over feeding.

I dont feed anything over 80g which is a large sm rat. They grow just fine and dont poop as often since their not being over fed.

If when you get poops and their big thats a sign ive noticed of over feeding as the food is just passing right though them.

Since i only feed 60-80g rats to adults, if i have a spare here and there, i will give the extras to females

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That is a very different answer than most of the other people's advice on this board. I've heard so many different responses on this topic from supposedly knowledgable people that i don't know what to believe any more. From this board, to the breeder i got my 2500g female from, to the East Bay Vivarium which happens to be nearby.

What I've done is more or less average out the wildly varying opinions and stick with that. So far so good, but I've obly had my BP for a couple of months

There are times for double feeds, but in your case, no. 2200 is a solid weight.

All you can do is feed how you want, and you will know when its too much when you run out of rats too fast and so on.


Small rats every 5 days is how i feed my adults, And everything works fine.

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Originally Posted by Smoked Oyster

That is a very different answer than most of the other people's advice on this board. I've heard so many different responses on this topic from supposedly knowledgable people that i don't know what to believe any more. From this board, to the breeder i got my 2500g female from, to the East Bay Vivarium which happens to be nearby.

What I've done is more or less average out the wildly varying opinions and stick with that. So far so good, but I've obly had my BP for a couple of months

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My adults (ranging from 1000-3000g) get 60-80g rats (one) every 6-7 days. The only time I feed 125g+ rats is for the first few weeks after the females lay eggs, since their weight loss is so dramatic then. I apply the 15% "rule" to younger/smaller snakes. I have a few girls who would take the larger size if offered, but like Rich said, then I just get more poop! Those are the females that get an occasional second helping if someone else doesn't eat.

I'm with Rich on this one. I feed a small rat (up to 85 grams) once a week and I've had great results with growth and breeding. I'll give 2 to my real large girls. If you want to increase feeding I would feed more often rather then larger food items. I have females that I want to put weight on and I'll feed them every 5 days or twice a week.

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Originally Posted by Smoked Oyster

That is a very different answer than most of the other people's advice on this board. I've heard so many different responses on this topic from supposedly knowledgable people that i don't know what to believe any more. From this board, to the breeder i got my 2500g female from, to the East Bay Vivarium which happens to be nearby.

What I've done is more or less average out the wildly varying opinions and stick with that. So far so good, but I've obly had my BP for a couple of months

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That's because in all honestly there's no right answer. There's been no scientific studies on this so it's all based on personal experience. When you have mulitple successful breeders using different methods, it can seems like there's conflicting information because some breeders think their way is the way (not aimed at anyoen herel just to clarify). but it's not really. It's just that there's more than one way to do it.

Personally, I've never had a overweight BP. Most of mine have been underweight. I would think you'd have to nearly forcefeed a BP to get it fat in an unhealthy way.

If you have a mature female that's 1200g and you want to pump her for breeding then I see no problem feeding larger or multiple small meals to get the grams on. Just don't force it. My smallest female was 1050g in July and had never been above 1200g. At the advice of a fellow breeder I fed her 2 small (75g) rats a week for 3 months before I was satisfied and cut back. She's 1600g now.

Anyways, your snake in over 2000g which is plenty for breeding so I personally don't seen a need to provide extra meals.

I'm with Rich, except Sept. through December when I feed them as many as they'll take.
I don't like to feed over 100 gram rats but have many times without any problems, but then my smallest large female is 2400 grams.
I have a couple females over 3000 grams and they will take two 150 grams rats like they were snacks.

After feed up time is over I go back to small rats once a week for my breeders.

I also agree with Rich.

I use to feed my big girls medium rats once a week. The poop would be huge and it just seemed like a waste. They get small rats now and they poop every couple weeks and it is always small.

They have a slow metabolism and just don't need a huge meal as adults.

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.