Boosting my females growth

Just watching an episode of snakebytestv. and noticed he gets his females to breeding weight in 1 year. I feed my male and female normal balls one meal every 7 days. My male is a 225g July 2012 and my female is a 155g Sept 2012. Would it be a horrible idea to change feedings to every 5 days? Or even more dramatically every 3 days? Im guessing 5 days wouldnt hurt but would like expert opinion on this so i dont greedily pursue my own goals over the health and well being of my snakes.

We feed all of our under one year old snakes twice a week if we have the supply or are able to get it.

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Originally Posted by snakesRkewl

We feed all of our under one year old snakes twice a week if we have the supply or are able to get it.

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Ive heard this multiple times but again didnt want to push progression past safety. Thanks for the advice

I offer every 5 days for the 1st year and then move to 7 days after a year.

I was wondering this, as right now my lesser pastel is just under/at 500g and I have often heard that is when people switch to 7day. She hatched July 10th, so she's not even 6 months old yet.

Op, I definitely wouldn't worry about a 5day feeding schedule especially under 5/600g.

I feed every 5 days lol

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I feed every 5 days

thanks alot for the input guys. thats why ball-python.net is number 1

I also feed my snakes twice a week. if you continue to feed like this past the 500 gram mark, many females will hit a weight around 800 grams and go off feed. you will get some females that will continue to feed twice a week past the 800 gram mark. all the females that I got up to size like this. only one that I had to slow her feeding down being that she was getting too big for her length. she was a spider. I feel that you should feed your snakes well, most will know that they had enough to eat before you do. (going off feed) the ones that don't, you have the option of slowing their feeding down if you feel it's needed.

power feeding, this is just my opinion, is when your snake eats and you know it's most likely done feeding. and you feed it more. by sticking another rodent in the mouth right behind the one it just ate or by force feeding again and again over time.

a snake thats eat on it's own, how can you consider that power feeding?

if you feed your snake every 7 days or whatever. if the snake has a good look (weight to length) I don't see anything wrong with that. if you're going to breed that female, I hope she has the added weight to help support a healthy clutch of eggs and maintain her health.

We feed our babies every 5 days until they get to be 1000+ grams then we back off to every 7 days..the thing I've noticed is that even doing it that way there are animals that will grow much faster than others. I had a bumble bee that hit 1200 grams at 8 months old and was 2500 grams by her second year, then I've got a super mojave that is 2 years old that is just now over 1000 grams. Every snake is different. to me I see no point in trying to figure out what it take to grow a snake faster than I currently am. The way I see it is that as babies they are very vulnerable to predators and it's in their best interest to eat as offten as they can and get to size that they can be less of a bite-sized snack for something. So that's why I offer every 5 days because I've noticed that babies fed like that in my collection simply see to do as well if not better than the ones that only eat everty 7-10 days,.

Boosting feeding to promote growth IMO is not the way to go. It is proven in any creature to have a negeative impact on their life. Why rush things? As Freakie frog said, each animal is different. We have had females hit over 1kg their first year and others that are around 500g. They atain their size at the rate thats right for them. We never "try" to get them bigger faster. We let them decide. If they want to eat, feed them. They will either gain weight faster or slower than others. We have 4 year old balls that havent past the 1200g mark and 2 year olds that are over 2k.

I'm in no rush. Every 7 days for me and everyone is healthy and happy.


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I feed all my babies ever 4-5 days. Once they hit 1000 grams, they get put on a 7 day diet. (7-10 days depending on the snake)

Everyone is healthy. But not everyone grows at the same rate. I have 4 females born in the same month that was fed on the same schedule on the same size prey. One girl is 1400 grams and the others are 400-600 grams. Ironically the youngest is the largest of the 4.

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My little kids eat every 5 days. And boy oh boy my little enchi guy knows when day 5 is, lol. He can be found out looking for food on day 5, like clock work. The big kids get fed every 7 days. Sometimes I think my bee would eat more if I offered, if she so much as catches wind of a rat, she's out looking.:p My boa gets fed every 10, (he is under a year old).

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5 days is totally fine. I usually feed my youngsters every 3-4 days, but this year I've been struggling to keep up with that heavy of a schedule. I used to be able to breed all my own feeders and keep up, but I can't do that anymore! Luckily I got smart and ordered a bunch of frozen rats last month!

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Originally Posted by satomi325

I feed all my babies ever 4-5 days. Once they hit 1000 grams, they get put on a 7 day diet. (7-10 days depending on the snake)

Everyone is healthy. But not everyone grows at the same rate. I have 4 females born in the same month that was fed on the same schedule on the same size prey. One girl is 1400 grams and the others are 400-600 grams. Ironically the youngest is the largest of the 4.

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Whoops. Not once they hit "1000" grams, they get put on a 7 day diet. I meant to say 500. Guess I can't multitask. :P hehe