Are we feeding too much?

[Bundu Boy]

Hey All

I came across this article recently which I found very interesting...

http://community.livejournal.com/herpers/1595022.html

It details how much extra fat appears on an active species of snake (adult cobra) from a feeding schedule of 10-14 days. They think this snake got ill from excess fat placing pressure on nerves.

Boids (pythons) are very inactive species in comparison to elapids hence do not metabolise their meals as quickly which would lead to a larger build-up of fat.

This has made me think about my feeding routines and how much I feed my balls. My concern is that even on a 14 day schedule adult ball pythons may be getting too much food which build up fat reserves too much which affects the snakes longevity.

According to this thread

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...47#post1138747

Only 27% of respondants in the poll have balls that are 5 years or older. The majority of balls are still relatively young, and won't show any overfeeding issues for a few years yet.

Similar concept to the obesity issue in our society today. Kids are eating way too much without proper exercise and this is reducing their life expectancy.

I was wondering what fellow forum members thoughts on this are. Are we seeing a time bomb here, that in 5-10 years time we are going to see an increase in premature deaths due to overfeeding of our balls at a young age.

And, those of you that have ball pythons over 15 years of age, how often and what size prey are you feeding?

Thanks