Soaking?

[Homebody]

I wonder if BPs have undergone some semblance of domestication because I can't help but look at how finicky and picky they can be even when under the best care and go "How do you guys survive in the wild..."

I think a better explanation is that when you're short, fat, slow and nonvenomous, it pays to be cautious. So, their survival strategy is to forgo feeding if anything is even slightly amiss. As a result, they also have the ability to go long periods of time without eating. In captivity, this strategy doesn't make sense because there is no danger. I imagine when ball pythons become fully domesticated, they'll be bolder and easier to feed, not harder.

[Malum Argenteum]

I wonder if BPs have undergone some semblance of domestication because I can't help but look at how finicky and picky they can be even when under the best care and go "How do you guys survive in the wild..."

Behaviors such as tendency to eat anything all the time can be selected for, but I don't know that anyone does so with BPs; quite the opposite, from what I read. I and some others do it with lizard feeding colubrids, and the effects can be seen in just a couple generations. "Assist" feeding troublesome hatchlings selects for the need for assist feeding. In my own experience and in that of breeders I've mentioned this to, snakes that are problematic feeders when they're younger birth problematic feeding offspring at a much higher rate.

I'm sure the same is the case to some extent for parameter tolerance (temps, RH), but there are probably other more important factors at play with BPs such as unidentified/undiagnosed asymptomatic pathogens.

[Snagrio]

Behaviors such as tendency to eat anything all the time can be selected for, but I don't know that anyone does so with BPs; quite the opposite, from what I read. I and some others do it with lizard feeding colubrids, and the effects can be seen in just a couple generations. "Assist" feeding troublesome hatchlings selects for the need for assist feeding. In my own experience and in that of breeders I've mentioned this to, snakes that are problematic feeders when they're younger birth problematic feeding offspring at a much higher rate.

I'm sure the same is the case to some extent for parameter tolerance (temps, RH), but there are probably other more important factors at play with BPs such as unidentified/undiagnosed asymptomatic pathogens.

Oh yeah, I've heard of this before and it makes sense. Especially with the massive morph craze with everyone trying to find the next 10k-selling snake. Even the most stubborn feeders will have rodents forced down their throats if that's what it takes and be bred with reckless abandon. In the wild such animals would simply fail to thrive and better genes would continue. So if that hypothesis is true, "bad eaters" are perpetuating in captivity at an alarming rate because little care is put into the physiology of breeding stock, only the colors and patterns (not to say morphs are inherently bad, I myself own one, but problems arise when that becomes the sole focus over everything else regarding the animals in our care).

[Bogertophis]

Behaviors such as tendency to eat anything all the time can be selected for, but I don't know that anyone does so with BPs; quite the opposite, from what I read. I and some others do it with lizard feeding colubrids, and the effects can be seen in just a couple generations. "Assist" feeding troublesome hatchlings selects for the need for assist feeding. In my own experience and in that of breeders I've mentioned this to, snakes that are problematic feeders when they're younger birth problematic feeding offspring at a much higher rate....

I totally agree with this- whether it's for commercial gain or because we (humans) just love snakes too much to let any of them fail to thrive if we can help it, natural selection in the wild does a far better job of creating strong, viable snakes. It's why I prefer the wild-type "natural" snakes over the hard-to-resist "eye candy" morphs created for the pet trade. Even though many defend the practices saying they're "only captive pets", the process isn't doing them any favors in the long term.

In the past, I've had some albino & other aberrant snakes- but the more I've thought about it, I much prefer to put my support behind what nature decided was viable. It makes no sense to me to select for "defects" that don't favor survival, no matter how commercially successful they might be. What's more, it's no fun at all to keep a snake that feeds poorly, or has other unseen issues that develop later. "Mother nature" may seem cruel in the short run, but she's kinder in the long run.