Do BP,S ever overeat?

[humpee316]

My year and a half female normal recently came off a stretch of first,Refusing to eat ft mice,then didnt eat for three weeks,so i decided to try live,well now she is acting like she hasnt eaten in years,She is taking 3 adult mice per feeding every 7 days for a month now,is growing rapidley and shows no sign of slowing down,My question is do these snakes ever overeat and should i just trust that she knows when she is full and continue to feed her as i have been.also she will not take rats period,believe me i wish she would,be alot less hit on the wallet,any insight would be appreciated

[anatess]

Yes they can overeat. You will need to control how much food your bp ingests. Usually 15% of its body weight every 5-7 days is a good rule of thumb for baby bp's, every 7 days for bp's over 500 grams.

[mykee]

Ball pythons cannot over eat as they have no acess to their own food source. They can be overfed by keepers however.
I do think, that for a 1.5 year old female ball, 3 mice a week might be considered underfeeding if anything...
Rats.

[steveboos]

I used to have a mouser, i would feed her between 3 and 5 mice in a single feeding, after a month or so of that, she started to get real, real hungry whenever there was a rodent smell around. Now she will pound out rats of any size, but lately i can only get smalls, so 2 smalls every 7 days for her is what she gets and shes still hungry.

Even though they can overeat, i don't see that big of a problem with it unless your purposely power-feeding to get them up to weight, then your just going to have problems and slugs. Now if its just a pet or your not planning on breeding any time soon, i don't see any problem with feeding them more often and more food.

[humpee316]

I used to have a mouser, i would feed her between 3 and 5 mice in a single feeding, after a month or so of that, she started to get real, real hungry whenever there was a rodent smell around. Now she will pound out rats of any size, but lately i can only get smalls, so 2 smalls every 7 days for her is what she gets and shes still hungry.

Even though they can overeat, i don't see that big of a problem with it unless your purposely power-feeding to get them up to weight, then your just going to have problems and slugs. Now if its just a pet or your not planning on breeding any time soon, i don't see any problem with feeding them more often and more food.

Thanx for the info...the age of my girl is estimated at 1.5 years,I bought her at petco back in April and no one could tell me her age,so im probably overaging her,last time i weighed her she was 450g and 32 inches long,I found a herp Dr, but he is very expensive.and that is just to walk in the door,Can you give me an idea how old she is by my numbers,im still new to all this,she is healthy and seems happy...

[jbean7916]

petco normally sells hatchlings, so I would put her at under a year old. Def. switch to rats if you can though, so much easier and they put on weight faster. My little guy I got in Feb of this year weighs 600g now.

[snakesRkewl]

the age of my girl is estimated at 1.5 years,I bought her at petco back in April and no one could tell me her age,so im probably overaging her,last time i weighed her she was 450g and 32 inches long

I've yet to see a mouse eater be able to over eat, I suppose it's possible, lol, but not likely.
If anything 450 grams and 32 inches long sounds like she's a bit skinny?

[Jeo123]

My girl is still on mice(until I run out at least) and my guess is that if I put a mouse in front of her every day of the week, she'd still eat it until she got to the point where they wouldn't fit inside her anymore.

Of course I'm not going to test that theory out, but I could easily see her overeating if given the oppourtunity. She's currently about 350g and 25 inches.

[snakesRkewl]

My girl is still on mice(until I run out at least) and my guess is that if I put a mouse in front of her every day of the week, she'd still eat it until she got to the point where they wouldn't fit inside her anymore.

Of course I'm not going to test that theory out, but I could easily see her overeating if given the oppourtunity. She's currently about 350g and 25 inches.

I bet she will stop when full or goes into a shed

[Jeo123]

Actually she eats in shed. But yeah, she probably would stop at maximum capacity...

or just start making more room in there...