How Frequently Do You Feed Your BPs?

[autumn75]

I'm new to BPs and am wondering how frequently a young BP should be fed?

My BP is 124 grams. I've been feeding him (an adult live mouse) every 10 days and he's gained 10 grams in just over a month. Is this a good gain or not?

I've read that if you feed too frequently they can fast and I want to avoid that happening.

I'm also going to be attempting to feed f/t tonight. Can you pre-scent the room with frozen?

[51-50 Python]

for that size.. i would recommend 1 mouse a week.. n when it gets bigger like 2 feet long.. start giving it small rats once a week... but dont ever give it something u think it cant handle because i made that mistake once by giving my ball a huge rat.. and i would also recommend giving ur ball live mice instead of frozen.. i dont know why poeple even give it frozen food at all i guess some people are scared the mouse or rat will damage the snake but ive never had that problem and ive had my ball for 5 months

[autumn75]

I'm switching to frozen because it's much safer for the snake. I won't put a live rat in with him when he's older. The last mouse I fed him got a bite in during constriction and I've been tending to the wound. Two meals prior to that, the mouse bit him too although not hard enough to do damage.

[rabernet]

I feed babies every 5 days. When they start to refuse a meal on the 5 day schedule, I switch to once a week.

[51-50 Python]

I'm switching to frozen because it's much safer for the snake. I won't put a live rat in with him when he's older. The last mouse I fed him got a bite in during constriction and I've been tending to the wound. Two meals prior to that, the mouse bit him too although not hard enough to do damage.

how big is ur snake? any rat or mouse ive ever givin 2 my ball has never even had a fighting chance because my BP bites and squeezes the life out of it.. ive rarely heard of a mouse or rat damaging the snake so ya i would just go with feeding live because i think its healthier, more exciting for the snake, and more enjoyable for the owner to watch

[rabernet]

how big is ur snake? any rat or mouse ive ever givin 2 my ball has never even had a fighting chance because my BP bites and squeezes the life out of it.. ive rarely heard of a mouse or rat damaging the snake so ya i would just go with feeding live because i think its healthier, more exciting for the snake, and more enjoyable for the owner to watch

Feeding should never be for the entertainment of the owner. It's not healthier or more exciting for the snake to feed live.

I do feed live exclusively myself, because I breed my own rats, but I didn't choose live for any of those reason.

Each owner should decide what works best for them.

[51-50 Python]

Feeding should never be for the entertainment of the owner. It's not healthier or more exciting for the snake to feed live.

I do feed live exclusively myself, because I breed my own rats, but I didn't choose live for any of those reason.

Each owner should decide what works best for them.

ur right each owner should decide what works best for them. But how would you know if feeding live isnt healthier i mean if u feed it frozen.. that thing has been frozen and then thawed its a whole process compared to feeding live which is fresh and more nutritious in my opinion.. and whats wrong with getting entertainment out of it i mean its ur snake u would like to think that its aggressive and could easily kill a mouse or rat.. to me i think its impressive.. my snake usually strikes at the rat the first second or two i toss it in there so it makes me feel good everytime it does

[rabernet]

ur right each owner should decide what works best for them. But how would you know if feeding live isnt healthier i mean if u feed it frozen.. that thing has been frozen and then thawed its a whole process compared to feeding live which is fresh and more nutritious in my opinion.. and whats wrong with getting entertainment out of it i mean its ur snake u would like to think that its aggressive and could easily kill a mouse or rat.. to me i think its impressive.. my snake usually strikes at the rat the first second or two i toss it in there so it makes me feel good everytime it does

Can you point me to a study that says that live is healthier and more exciting for the snake than f/t? The fact that there are thousands of animals feed f/t that are thriving in collections around the world is proof enough that f/t is no less healthy than feeding live.

I am impressed with my snakes and the fact that they are perfectly designed to dispatch their prey - but if entertainment value is the reason to choose to feed live, the keeper might want to re-think their reason for having a snake.

[littleindiangirl]

We feed our young snakes that size every 5 days

[Jenn]

I'm going to have to agree with Robin. I feed live, but not for MY entertainment. In fact, once I'm sure everything's OK, I shut the lights off and let my snakes eat in privacy.