BP Overfeeding?

[Keyboard Warrior]

Ok, so I got my BP almost 2 weeks ago. He's still a baby. He was born last year sometime, I'm not sure when.

He has given me no trouble when it comes to eating. He ate the first time I attempted to feed him. He ate a f/t after coming off of live mice at the pet store. He was still coming out though, so I gave him another one a day later. He's still coming out tonight, so this time I put a small mouse in a bowl, without prongs to stimulate life, and he went for it. So I'm thrilled he's eating like this. But it feels like I'm overfeeding him. I was told if he's still roaming at night, then he's hungry, thats why I keep feeding him. Should I stop? Or should I keep doing it, until he stops eating?

So to tally up, he's eaten 3 small mice, in the past 3 days.

[Wh00h0069]

If you are feeding him the correct-sized meals, then there is no reason to feed him nightly. If he is a baby, then feed him a rodent around the same girth as the largest part of him every five days.

[rabernet]

If you keep offering him food every day, there's going to be a day that you'll be posting "why won't my snake eat? He's been such a good feeder, but now it's been weeks and he won't eat!" when he stops eating to let his body catch up with all the amounts of food he's consumed.

Baby ball pythons are opportunistic feeders. It's in their best interest in the wild to get big and get big quickly. So, it's not surprising that you're getting this feed response right now. However, it's not necessary to feed him every day, since there are no predators in his enclosure that he needs to grow up fast to defend against.

Babies do well on an every 4-5 day feeding schedule. Sometimes they roam at night - just for the sake of roaming. They are nocturnal, after all.

[myanney]

Babies do well on an every 4-5 day feeding schedule. Sometimes they roam at night - just for the sake of roaming. They are nocturnal, after all. [/QUOTE]

My mom has the same problem with understanding my snake. She thinks that every time he's roaming, he's hungry (and I feed him proper sized prey once a week). I should show her this forum.

[Simple Man]

I've been feeding every 4 days and had great luck with my snakes so far. They are all mid/late 2010 around 250-400 grams. You might be feeding too small of prey items. Hatchling ball pythons have no problem with adult mice. I'm in the process of converting two of my larger snakes to small rats right now because feeding them 3 or 4 mice is a bit time consuming, especially when feeding F/T.

Regards,

B