Can you feed your bp more then once a week?

[angllady2]

I would advise double checking prey size as well.

I have 16 balls, ranging from a mere 160 grams up to 3000 grams, and mine eat every 7 days like clockwork. They know when feeding day is, because they'll come out the day before and give me the pitiful starving snake look, to make sure I don't forget to feed.

However, none of mine randomly strike at movement or heat signatures even on feeding day. The rule I follow is a sort of modified 15% rule.

My babies get one adult mouse or rat pup weekly, roughly 30-40 grams in weight, right up until the snake hits 250-300 grams. Sometimes one will get two as they reach the heavier end of that scale. From roughly 300-800 grams they get a weaned rat weekly, roughly 45-70 grams in weight. Over 800 grams of snake, they get a small rat weekly to every 14 days, roughly 60-100 grams in weight. Nobody gets bigger than a small. Not even my biggest females.

During the breeding season, males tend to get one size smaller than usual to keep them eating longer. Females building to lay eggs are offered 2 standard prey items, sometimes they take two, sometimes not.

If the prey size is correct, you might try offering two items for one feeding, and see if that seems to calm everyone down. If so, you could alternate by feeding two items one week and a single item the next.

Gale

[Skittles1101]

My first ball python was quite skinny, so I put him on a 4 day feeding schedule for about 2 months, he is now on a regular 7 day feeding schedule with the rest of them. I now feed 3/4 snakes once every 7 days (weaned rats....all between 300-400 grams) and my little female is on a once every 4-5 days feeding schedule (adult mice, she's only about 110-120 grams). Feeding every other day is way too often and doesn't give them any time to digest what they ate. Like others have mentioned, I'd check your prey size...they shouldn't be hungry enough to eat every other day. Mine eat their weaned rats and then I don't see them for 2 or 3 days because they are so stuffed lol.

[FINGAZZ]

THANKS GUYS.i always feed them a rat the size of the mid section and sometimes i feed them 2 rats per feeding.i only have one that strikes but hes been like that since i got him from the breeder he calmed down alittle but strikes at me if im clean his tank. the others just are very alert and they see movement they act like they seen food but realize its just me.i never been bitten by any of them (KNOCK ON WOOD) but just wondering if you could feed more then normal.i like to ask alot of questions and im sure i come off as i dont know anything about snakes but i know alittle about alot and still learning.im new to the whole breedind thing and all so i jjust ask dumb questions that make me look like i dumb.but how do you learn if you dont ask questions.i thank all you guys that respond to any of my post.

[kitedemon]

It sounds like from your post you are feeding heavy, it also sounds like they are acting like they are being lightly fed. It is always hard to offer opinions when the information is contradicting. They are feeding so I assume the husbandry is fine. So my guess and it is a guess that the rats you are providing are a bit smaller than you think.?? Have you weighed you snakes and your prey items? Personally I know what all of mine weigh give or take (monthly weights are taken and recorded) and I weigh all the rats I get and separate them according to weight. (frozen if you didn't figure that out yet...) I don't need to guess I just grab the right ones and feed them.

I personally don't stick to a ridged schedule either. I tend to feed every seven days the sub adults get 10% body mass but adults get a bit less like 5-7% but get every week rather than a wider spaced schedule, it is about the same amount of food but it is a, easier for me to feed everyone at once. b, I believe that it is better for the digestion of adults to have a smaller meal more frequently than large meals spaced farther apart. I think I read a study on that ages ago but I can't remember exactly so don't quote me on that one. I do it because it seems to make sense to me. I am not a breeder and like to handle my animals so big meals need more digestion time than smaller so it means a longer wait.

[Redneck_Crow]

OK, a funny feeding story.

At one time I had a mouse colony going tofeed my snakes. Way back ages ago when there were only a couple of morphs and nobody could afford them.

As mouse colonies often do, I hit a period where there was an unusually high number of pinkies and fuzzies. Way too many to grow out, and I didn't have anything amongst my reptiles which was eating pinkies and fuzzies.

Ever have on of those 3am "one beer too many" bright ideas? One of those "what if?" moments? I did.

I went through the mouse colony and thinned out the pinkies and fuzzies, gathering them all into a bowl. I took the bowl and presented it to my 4 1/2 foot long BP, Kaa.

Kaa looked at that bowl of writhing mice, flicked his tongue over it a couple of times here and there, then began eating the pinkies and fuzzies like they were popcorn. He didn't strike or try to constrict, he merely selected a mouse, picked it up and swallowed it, then selected it another one.

In my beer induced slightly hazy euphoria that was one of the most wonderful things I had ever seen. I pulled up a chair and watched that python eat the baby mice one by one.

It still makes me laugh when I think about it. Snakes will do some majorly unexpected things.

[Evenstar]

OK, a funny feeding story.

At one time I had a mouse colony going tofeed my snakes. Way back ages ago when there were only a couple of morphs and nobody could afford them.

As mouse colonies often do, I hit a period where there was an unusually high number of pinkies and fuzzies. Way too many to grow out, and I didn't have anything amongst my reptiles which was eating pinkies and fuzzies.

Ever have on of those 3am "one beer too many" bright ideas? One of those "what if?" moments? I did.

I went through the mouse colony and thinned out the pinkies and fuzzies, gathering them all into a bowl. I took the bowl and presented it to my 4 1/2 foot long BP, Kaa.

Kaa looked at that bowl of writhing mice, flicked his tongue over it a couple of times here and there, then began eating the pinkies and fuzzies like they were popcorn. He didn't strike or try to constrict, he merely selected a mouse, picked it up and swallowed it, then selected it another one.

In my beer induced slightly hazy euphoria that was one of the most wonderful things I had ever seen. I pulled up a chair and watched that python eat the baby mice one by one.

It still makes me laugh when I think about it. Snakes will do some majorly unexpected things.

That is one of the funniest stories I've read!!

Also, I agree with kitedemon - I would go by weight. Do you have a gram scale? If so, weigh your snake and then offer as many rats/mice as equal about 15% of his weight. You could do this every 5-6 days rather than every 7 for a month or two to see if that helps and then slowly back him off to every 7 - or keep feeding on a looser schedule. Ella eats anywhere from every 6 to 9 days depending on her mood. It works well for us.

And if you haven't seen it yet, check out this thread. http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...38#post1571738. There are other reasons for a BP to be snappy....

And no worries - no question is too 'dumb'. I didn't think you didn't know anything. Sometimes, basic issues can be totally confusing!

[AK907]

OK, a funny feeding story.

At one time I had a mouse colony going tofeed my snakes. Way back ages ago when there were only a couple of morphs and nobody could afford them.

As mouse colonies often do, I hit a period where there was an unusually high number of pinkies and fuzzies. Way too many to grow out, and I didn't have anything amongst my reptiles which was eating pinkies and fuzzies.

Ever have on of those 3am "one beer too many" bright ideas? One of those "what if?" moments? I did.

I went through the mouse colony and thinned out the pinkies and fuzzies, gathering them all into a bowl. I took the bowl and presented it to my 4 1/2 foot long BP, Kaa.

Kaa looked at that bowl of writhing mice, flicked his tongue over it a couple of times here and there, then began eating the pinkies and fuzzies like they were popcorn. He didn't strike or try to constrict, he merely selected a mouse, picked it up and swallowed it, then selected it another one.

In my beer induced slightly hazy euphoria that was one of the most wonderful things I had ever seen. I pulled up a chair and watched that python eat the baby mice one by one.

It still makes me laugh when I think about it. Snakes will do some majorly unexpected things.

I did that once too! I picked up a couple ASF and on the way home one of them had 16 babies. We didn't have the room at the time to raise the babies, so I took the ball of ASF pinks and offered them to one of our corns. Problem solved, he ate every last one.

[FINGAZZ]

Is there realy a science to feeding ball pythons?i always thought one nice size mouse,rat would be fine once a week.10-15% of body weight should be fed now.i have books on ball pythons and never read that befor.hmmm see i learned something new.you guys rock!!!ill start trying that with some of my females they eat and gain weight but it doesnt look like they are thick/fat enough maybe if i try that % scale.they thicken up a bit.thanks again guys..

[mark and marley]

"Kaa looked at that bowl of writhing mice, flicked his tongue over it a couple of times here and there, then began eating the pinkies and fuzzies like they were popcorn. He didn't strike or try to constrict, he merely selected a mouse, picked it up and swallowed it, then selected it another one.

In my beer induced slightly hazy euphoria that was one of the most wonderful things I had ever seen. I pulled up a chair and watched that python eat the baby mice one by one. "


hahahahahaha that is tooo funny!!!!!
i wouldve probably reacted the same way.
you two should have a movie night!
+ =

[HisRickness]

you should be careful not to over feed but every 5 days isn't bad. i just got a female spider and she ate a huge rat on monday then i gave her a smaller rat on saturday.. now ill give her 7 days before i feed her again..