Proposed Ball Python Feeding Chart

[MarkieJ]

For example, I fed my female a 19 gram mouse the other week and when I weighed her this week she was over 25 grams larger. Where she is getting that extra weight from, I have no idea. Again though, I agree with everything you said and it is great input on the topic. Thank you for your contribution!

Water weight unless you've been reading the no water bowl thread.

[Southern_Breeder]

LMAO Im sorry but Im gonna be "that guy" and say that the OP's chart is an absolute joke. Now Im military, and in my world, the OP has done what we call... "nuking it." You sir, have put wayyyyyyy to much thought into something that does not need to be "scientific"... AT ALL. When you bought your first dog, or cat, or whatever it may have been. We are gonna say its a dog in this example. I can almost bet that you didn't go google "dog feeding chart" just so you felt safe enough to know how much to feed your dog. Its just "common sense" to "eye ball" how much to feed your dog to keep him fit but not let him get over weight. Same rules apply to ball pythons. Or any animal at that. You did give me a great laugh though. Feeding a jumbo rat to a ball python... haha... that was good.

[Mike41793]

LMAO Im sorry but Im gonna be "that guy" and say that the OP's chart is an absolute joke. Now Im military, and in my world, the OP has done what we call... "nuking it." You sir, have put wayyyyyyy to much thought into something that does not need to be "scientific"... AT ALL. When you bought your first dog, or cat, or whatever it may have been. We are gonna say its a dog in this example. I can almost bet that you didn't go google "dog feeding chart" just so you felt safe enough to know how much to feed your dog. Its just "common sense" to "eye ball" how much to feed your dog to keep him fit but not let him get over weight. Same rules apply to ball pythons. Or any animal at that. You did give me a great laugh though. Feeding a jumbo rat to a ball python... haha... that was good.

x2 i'm not military but i agree haha

[Aztec4mia]

LMAO Im sorry but Im gonna be "that guy" and say that the OP's chart is an absolute joke. Now Im military, and in my world, the OP has done what we call... "nuking it." You sir, have put wayyyyyyy to much thought into something that does not need to be "scientific"... AT ALL. When you bought your first dog, or cat, or whatever it may have been. We are gonna say its a dog in this example. I can almost bet that you didn't go google "dog feeding chart" just so you felt safe enough to know how much to feed your dog. Its just "common sense" to "eye ball" how much to feed your dog to keep him fit but not let him get over weight. Same rules apply to ball pythons. Or any animal at that. You did give me a great laugh though. Feeding a jumbo rat to a ball python... haha... that was good.

Me x3,

Maybe it's just me but lately I see the trend of people putting way to much thought into simple things and expect an answer-all solution to be posted, it's good to ask questions and share answers thats how ideas and information are spread but the truth is most of the answers to questions posted should be used as a guide or a base starting point for YOU to go off of and tweak and draw your own conclusions from thus building your own experience/knowledge. There are far too many variables to take into account for there to be a cookie cutter answer.

Personally, I eyeball my feeders because I don't have time to weigh each one and I am not conducting a controlled study where each snake at Xsize needs a feeder at Xweight and I have never had a snake shrink in size, some have grown slower then others but that's more along the lines of genetics.

[Annarose15]

One thing to remember for anyone who thinks "eyeballing" a feeder's size isn't precise - with reasonable experience, most breeders/hobbyists/owners can tell you within ~10% variance what a rodent weighs, just by "eyeballing". THIS is where experience IS science (or simple math, or whatever you want to call it). No one is going to search through feeders to find one that is 43.7g because that is EXACTLY what the "correct" size is for their snake; that's why the size classifications have ranges.

[Mike41793]

Yea, what anna said.^

It's sorta like a 6th sense. I'm psycho. I mean psychic.

[MarkieJ]

LMAO Im sorry but Im gonna be "that guy" and say that the OP's chart is an absolute joke. Now Im military, and in my world, the OP has done what we call... "nuking it." You sir, have put wayyyyyyy to much thought into something that does not need to be "scientific"... AT ALL. When you bought your first dog, or cat, or whatever it may have been. We are gonna say its a dog in this example. I can almost bet that you didn't go google "dog feeding chart" just so you felt safe enough to know how much to feed your dog. Its just "common sense" to "eye ball" how much to feed your dog to keep him fit but not let him get over weight. Same rules apply to ball pythons. Or any animal at that. You did give me a great laugh though. Feeding a jumbo rat to a ball python... haha... that was good.

Eyeballing it (making observations), and making adjustments (experimentation), and keeping feeding cards (collecting and analyzing data) are very scientific. Normal folk just tend not to think of what they're doing as science, when in reality they are performing the foundation of what science is all about.

[MrLang]

/Thread.

[sorraia]

One thing to remember for anyone who thinks "eyeballing" a feeder's size isn't precise - with reasonable experience, most breeders/hobbyists/owners can tell you within ~10% variance what a rodent weighs, just by "eyeballing". THIS is where experience IS science (or simple math, or whatever you want to call it). No one is going to search through feeders to find one that is 43.7g because that is EXACTLY what the "correct" size is for their snake; that's why the size classifications have ranges.

This.

I periodically weigh my snakes (once or twice a month) to keep tabs on their growth. For growing snakes I'll also make a quick calculation of how much they should eat based on the "10-15% rule". With my rats (growing my own) I'll pull out a baby or two from a litter and weigh them just to see where they are at in their growth. This has helped me learn how to eyeball their approximate weights. There will be variations, and it will also depend on when the rat last ate, if their bladder or rectum are full of waste products, how much water they drank and when, etc. A few grams in variation isn't a big deal. But by doing this I've learned to eyeball my rats and match up the right size to the right snake without weighing everyone every time. It works for me, and my snakes are thriving.

[pap5033]

So the "rule of thumb" not feeding your snake anything larger around than the thickest part of its body....is this always true or should we start to weight in our feed?