Questuon, Blood python feeding chart/schedule

I've been doing the research and have gotten just about everything nailed down in time for the expo this weekend where I'm planning to get a blood python. However, I've yet to find any more definitive feeding guidelines for a blood/short tail python. (I'm thinking of something like the chart for BPs that gets posted a lot on this site)

All I've seen are what size babies generally eat at the start, that adults don't need more than a large or a jumbo rat every 2 to 4 weeks (depending on source of info), and that the "feed by diameter" rule doesn't apply or stops applying when it is not longer a juvenile (no specifics on when that occurs by weight nor by age).

So, does anyone have some sort of guidelines they could share that would be reasonable for a pet blood?

My goal is a healthy snake, not an overly hungry or a starving one.

Thanks much!

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Nothing definitive from me and I’m not an expert by any means, but my male blood is about 2? Ish I believe. He is about 3.5 feet long, weighs about 9 pounds, and he gets a medium weekly. Occasionally he gets a large, and usually if I give him a large I give him a week off of food. He’s been on this schedule for quite a while and is in great health. He has a progression post if you want to see pictures

I'm mostly hoping someone can give me a more.. objective? way to figure when I should be bumping up prey sizes. I'm an analyst with an engineering degree, so I feel a lot better having a way to confirm by numbers rather than just how a snake looks or acts. And I'd like to avoid any excess crankiness from food being too small if I can, haha.

I'll definitely go check out your thread. I love looking at pictures! :)

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Have you watched Nerds YouTube channel? He gives tons of advice on blood pythons/ short tail care . Good luck on your new noodle hunting;) do you know the morph your hoping to get?

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Originally Posted by C.Marie

Have you watched Nerds YouTube channel? He gives tons of advice on blood pythons/ short tail care . Good luck on your new noodle hunting;) do you know the morph your hoping to get?

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I've seen several of those videos, but the ones I came across didn't say much about size of feeders, although he had some very good advice for handling with nervous ones. Is there any specific ones you can think of that he talked about it more?

I'm hoping for a T- albino, I adore the bright red and yellow, but I keep getting torn between a bunch of different morphs. I think the only one I don't care for as much is the ivory, but I have only seen one or two babies in person.

At the last show, I got to hold a matrix baby that was probably 150-200 grams if I had to guess (which I am awful at) that was super duper calm. Like a BP but without the hiding/balling up they tend to at shows and that size. The breeder said that most of theirs aren't even nippy as babies and that that matrix clutch was their calmest yet. Out of 6 of them, 2 sections with genders separated, none of the babies were defensive at all when she picked one up. One nearly crawled out into her hand even.


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Oh! I saw someone mention somewhere (forgot where) that they fed the "diameter of the body" rule, but used the head width instead of body. Does anyone have an opinion on that?

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It's really hard to give a set rule for feeding, because I find that some fed the same and at the same age grow faster and start looking a little lankier and I need to feed more, while others just seem to get chunky so I adjust to less. I threw together a database for tracking all my feedings, and realize that my adult males are fed on average about a large rat every 3 weeks, females every 2-3 weeks depending on the prey size. Sometimes they go longer, sometimes shorter. My babies are fed weekly up to about a year, then I start varying it to weekly to every other. I start my babies on FT rat pups or live mouse hoppers up to adults, if needed until I can switch. By a year, they are ready moving to mediums, by 2 years larges.

Some people choose to feed heavier and grow them as fast as possible, but that is not my preference. I keep mine having a nice taper to the tail, and the spine will show when you pick them up. Laying flat though, the ridge isn't overly prominent and there isn't a sunken look next to the spine. That would show they are underweight. If they look like intertubes with rolls, that's definitely too much. :D

I don't know if this helps at all...

Example of one of my adult males
https://2aeb1f6b-a-62cb3a1a-s-sites....attredirects=0

Adult female - I feed them a bit more:
https://2aeb1f6b-a-62cb3a1a-s-sites....attredirects=0

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Originally Posted by Dxw425

Nothing definitive from me and I’m not an expert by any means, but my male blood is about 2? Ish I believe. He is about 3.5 feet long, weighs about 9 pounds, and he gets a medium weekly. Occasionally he gets a large, and usually if I give him a large I give him a week off of food. He’s been on this schedule for quite a while and is in great health. He has a progression post if you want to see pictures

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Holy crap! He really weighs 9 pounds at only 2 years old? Is that normal? I don't know if i'm under feeding or if you're over feeding, but of the 6 Bloods and Short Tails that I have, 5 of them are 2 years old and none of them are anywhere near that size. My 3 year old female Blood isn't even anywhere near that heavy. I just threw her on the scale and she currently weighs 2,873 grams (6.33 pounds). I just recently started feeding her large size rats and since then i've only been feeding her every 14 days. As slow as their metabolisms are, i'm afraid to feed her a large any more often than that. All of the other ones are getting a medium rat every 7 days. Prior to that, they all got a small rat every 7 days and before that they would get a weanling every 7 days. I think I had them all on rat pups every 7 days at the size they were when I first got them. All of my Bloods and Short Tails (except for one with regurgitation issues) look nice and fat and I can only see a hint of their spines like you're supposed to. Other than that I don't know what else to go by...

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Originally Posted by Aedryan Methyus

Holy crap! He really weighs 9 pounds at only 2 years old? Is that normal? I don't know if i'm under feeding or if you're over feeding, but of the 6 Bloods and Short Tails that I have, 5 of them are 2 years old and none of them are anywhere near that size. My 3 year old female Blood isn't even anywhere near that heavy. I just threw her on the scale and she currently weighs 2,873 grams (6.33 pounds). I just recently started feeding her large size rats and since then i've only been feeding her every 14 days. As slow as their metabolisms are, i'm afraid to feed her a large any more often than that. All of the other ones are getting a medium rat every 7 days. Prior to that, they all got a small rat every 7 days and before that they would get a weanling every 7 days. I think I had them all on rat pups every 7 days at the size they were when I first got them. All of my Bloods and Short Tails (except for one with regurgitation issues) look nice and fat and I can only see a hint of their spines like you're supposed to. Other than that I don't know what else to go by...

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haha, my bad. That was supposed to be 7lbs, commenting from my iphone is a pain and you cant see the text as you type without scrolling and its a whole ordeal.. but anyway he's about 7lbs now. I haven't put him on a scale but he weighed in a few grams over 6lbs in April. He also hasnt pooped for me in a while. The only other thing i can figure is maybe he is older than i was told when i bought him, i'm not sure whether or not that would affect his growth rate though.

My boy will be 2 years old in august. His weight is about 7,3 pounds now. He gets a large rat (220 - 250 gramm) each 10 days. He knows his feeding day very well. When I get near his enclosure at this day he always sticks his head out of his hide and looks at me , begging for food.

I always fed mine about weekly or every other week until they hit the year mark, then I bumped it back a bit. I fed my adults every 3 weeks. My largest female would eat rabbits just slightly bigger than the largest part of her body with no issue. Don't be alarmed if it doesn't poop very often, I don't have any experience with pbs but my bloods could go for quite some time without pooping.

I do weekly up to a year, then every two weeks, then every three weeks once they are on mediums or larger. Mine are mostly males and non breeders, they usually get a medium prey every three weeks or a large once a month, the oldest are 4-5 years old and sitting about 7-8#.

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Originally Posted by GoingPostal

I do weekly up to a year, then every two weeks, then every three weeks once they are on mediums or larger. Mine are mostly males and non breeders, they usually get a medium prey every three weeks or a large once a month, the oldest are 4-5 years old and sitting about 7-8#.

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Wow... So, your full grown 4 - 5 year old adults are only weighing in around 7 - 8 pounds? Don't most Bloods generally weigh around 15 - 20 pounds as adults? I've seen ones that were even 40 + pounds that weren't obese... I feel like I might be feeding mine a little too conservatively since i'm trying to get them all up to breeding size. I guess you're maintenance feeding, because you aren't planning on breeding them, huh? I should probably be putting the food to my 3 year old girl a lot more right now, because she could theoretically be ready to breed by fall. But, her boyfriend is the one that has had some regurgitation issues and he is under size, because I keep having to take him off of food. There is no way I could have him big enough to breed by fall, so i'm not pushing her...

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Originally Posted by Aedryan Methyus

Wow... So, your full grown 4 - 5 year old adults are only weighing in around 7 - 8 pounds? Don't most Bloods generally weigh around 15 - 20 pounds as adults? I've seen ones that were even 40 + pounds that weren't obese... I feel like I might be feeding mine a little too conservatively since i'm trying to get them all up to breeding size. I guess you're maintenance feeding, because you aren't planning on breeding them, huh? I should probably be putting the food to my 3 year old girl a lot more right now, because she could theoretically be ready to breed by fall. But, her boyfriend is the one that has had some regurgitation issues and he is under size, because I keep having to take him off of food. There is no way I could have him big enough to breed by fall, so i'm not pushing her...

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Even on my version of a heavier feeding schedule, I don't breed females until 4-5 years of age. Bloods take longer than ball pythons to mature to breeding age, generally. At 3, they are still usually growing pretty quickly.

Oh, and how long was a 40+ lb non-obese blood? Just asking out of curiosity, because I have a large girl, 6'9" who is 32 lbs and she's not even lean.

I consider it conservative, not maintenance but maybe either or. I doubt they are full grown, more slow grown. Neither is over four feet and right about 7.5# according to me holding them standing on a scale lol. I think the majority of snakes are vastly overfed and with their slow metabolism and low activity level, that there's no reason to offer larger prey or more often. You can't tell obesity level by outside appearance until they are ungodly fat.

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Originally Posted by aahmn

Even on my version of a heavier feeding schedule, I don't breed females until 4-5 years of age. Bloods take longer than ball pythons to mature to breeding age, generally. At 3, they are still usually growing pretty quickly.

Oh, and how long was a 40+ lb non-obese blood? Just asking out of curiosity, because I have a large girl, 6'9" who is 32 lbs and she's not even lean.

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One in particular that comes to mind belonged to Garrett Hartle. She is 7' 7" long and about 60 pounds. Here is a video of her:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oTtlX_K7_E

That's a big ole' girl you have, too, Aahmn! You should share some photos of her!

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Originally Posted by Aedryan Methyus

One in particular that comes to mind belonged to Garrett Hartle. She is 7' 7" long and about 60 pounds. Here is a video of her:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oTtlX_K7_E

That's a big ole' girl you have, too, Aahmn! You should share some photos of her!

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I've seen that video, that girl is a beast!! A beautiful beast!