How how often do you feed your full grown BP?

Once your BP has fully grown how often do you feed him/her?
Do you stick to feeding once a week or wait longer between feeds?


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For non-breeders, males every 14-21, days females every 10-14 days, either a small or medium rat depending on the size of the critter. Even then I'll get the occasional refusal.

If a female was paired I'll offer her what she typically eats weekly until she starts refusing b/c she's gravid, and then I'll offer her smaller meals every 7-14 days.

My adult male is eating every 14 days at the moment, but he decides when he wants to eat. He sometimes wants to only eat every 28 days.

I let my animals decide, some eat weakly, some eat monthly. Typically my females get a medium rat weekly with the occasional refusal. My smaller males get a small rat every 1-2 weeks sometimes less in the breeding season and my large males get a medium rat every 2-3 weeks.

With my adult BPs I let them dictate how often they eat. I only offer once I see the snake displaying "hunting" behavior on consecutive nights. So if I see a head poking out of a hide on consecutive nights I offer on night 3. So far zero refusals feeding this way.

I have on male about 5 years old and one about 3 years old. On average they eat every 10-14 days, but it's not uncommon for them to go closer to 21 days.

They get a small rat when they do eat.

Small prey once a week for females, and small prey every 10 to 14 days for males except during breeding season.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Craiga 01453

With my adult BPs I let them dictate how often they eat. I only offer once I see the snake displaying "hunting" behavior on consecutive nights. So if I see a head poking out of a hide on consecutive nights I offer on night 3. So far zero refusals feeding this way. .....

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Now this is what I am talking about. This is what I am trying to learn. The art of BP body language. Successfully following this technique will save me a bunch of thrown away or re-frozen feeders. I used this method Thursday
(after watching on Wens. and Tues.) and it worked good for me.

Thanks for sharing this method.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ballpythonsrock2

Now this is what I am talking about. This is what I am trying to learn. The art of BP body language. Successfully following this technique will save me a bunch of thrown away or re-frozen feeders. I used this method Thursday
(after watching on Wens. and Tues.) and it worked good for me.

Thanks for sharing this method.

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Another method that works well for those that can't always observe their behavior(racks), is to only defrost 3/4 of the amount you plan to feed. Offer to the ones that refuse more often first so if any refuse you still have hungry mouths to feed so the rats don't get wasted. Then if they all eat just defrost a few extras for your guaranteed eaters. I have somewhere around 50 and almost never waste a rat but I never defrost for all of them at once.

Now for hatchlings I do it a little different, ideally I want them all to eat every meal but occasionally when switching to f/t I'll get one or two that take a little longer to get with the program. So I defrost enough for all of them but slightly smaller than what would be ideal size so if any don't get eaten the good eaters get seconds. Takes the guess work out and the good eaters tend to grow quite well ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ballpythonsrock2

Now this is what I am talking about. This is what I am trying to learn. The art of BP body language. Successfully following this technique will save me a bunch of thrown away or re-frozen feeders. I used this method Thursday
(after watching on Wens. and Tues.) and it worked good for me.

Thanks for sharing this method.

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That's awesome!! I'm glad it's already been successful for you. I've been doing this with my 3 year old for about a year and with the 5 year old since I got him in April. So far, so good. They maintain a healthy body structure and no wasted rats is fantastic.

I'm hoping the success rate keeps up, and I'm pretty sure I've got those two boys pretty well figured out so I'm confident. But, they are BPs after all, so who knows when one will throw me a curve ball, hahaha.

Good luck! I hope you have the same luck I've had.

I have a 4 year old 1300g male. In the summer he eats a small rat every 10-15 days, he would like to eat every 5 sometimes I think lol. I wait until I notice hunting behavior, then rub the still frozen rat on something in the cage - if he comes out and is really interested in the rat smell, then I feed him. If he ignores the rat smell I wait 5 days. He usually has a small fast in Oct/Nov then will start dropping back on food to about every 3 weeks. He will have another fast (usually) from Jan-March. His longest was 73 days.

I am still occasionally fooled by his hunting behavior - he will window-wipe the glass, circle his cage, and act really excited by the rat smell, sits in the S shape over the rock where I offer food, and watches movement outside the cage - then when the rat is offered he is like "nah, I'm not really hungry after all...I want to come out of the cage instead", other times he hits it like a freight train after showing all the same signals.

I tend to wait longer in the winter just because he is more likely to refuse. I have also learned that he will refuse food after shedding even if he comes out of it acting hungry. So I wait 3 weeks minimum post shed to offer no matter what behavior he is displaying, any sooner and it is 100% a refusal.