overfeeding a baby bp?

[sunnig96]

hi! I've had my baby banana bp for about a month and a half now and he is doing great! he was super skinny when he first came, but is now growing very quickly! he is an incredible eater, and has never once refused a meal. but now I have a question about feeding?

so I feed him small f/t mice once a week, about the size of the largest part of his body. recently he has been eating them very quickly, hiding for a little while while swallowing, and then sticking his head out flicking his tongue a lot as if he wants more. last week i fed him two in a row and he ate them both super quickly, and then a day later he was back out of the cage looking for more! i fed him this past saturday, and today every time ive walked up to his cage he comes out flicking his tongue, presumably expecting food.

so i guess my question is, should i just keep feeding him until he stops? or should i continue to limit it to once a week-ish? i know that it is possible to overfeed, but since he is clearly still looking for more every time, i should give it to him, right?

thank you!

[KevinK]

Limit your feeding to once a week. If it is a baby, every 5 days is ok. One rodent however!

Ball pythons (and most snakes for that matter) are opportunistic feeders, meaning they will eat as much as you give them and expect more food after.....this stems from their survival instincts in the wild where they might find and eat an entire nest of mice and then not find food for months afterwards.

However, it is not good for them to feed whenever you think they might be hungry. Maintain your 5-7 day feeding schedule with one rodent only.


Just because your snake WILL eat whatever you give it does not mean it's a healthy diet......for example, my dog would eat 10 lbs of food if I let him but it would be EXTREMELY unhealthy for him.

[MissterDog]

How much does he weigh? As a hatchling he doesn't need seconds and it's not unknown for ball pythons to be little pigs as they are opportunistic eaters. So they will want to take whatever they can get but that doesn't mean they should. Keep to your one week schedule otherwise you're going to have a chubby little guy :p

When in doubt follow this chart.



Edit: ack KevinK you beat me to it! How does everyone type so fast lol

[dylan815]

Limit your feeding to once a week. If it is a baby, every 5 days is ok. One rodent however!

Ball pythons (and most snakes for that matter) are opportunistic feeders, meaning they will eat as much as you give them and expect more food after.....this stems from their survival instincts in the wild where they might find and eat an entire nest of mice and then not find food for months afterwards.

However, it is not good for them to feed whenever you think they might be hungry. Maintain your 5-7 day feeding schedule with one rodent only.


Just because your snake WILL eat whatever you give it does not mean it's a healthy diet......for example, my dog would eat 10 lbs of food if I let him but it would be EXTREMELY unhealthy for him.

Very true, unless you've got a retic haha!!!

[Kcl]

Can confirm that many baby snakes will happily get fat. Have fat checkered garter snakes, they are gradually getting less fat and will bite my fingers for more food.