Quote Originally Posted by NickMyers03
actually you feed a little more than your snakes girth so that he has a small bulge after feeding.
That is certainly a popular point of view for feeding snakes, but personally I do things a little differently.

Over the last decade plus of keeping ball pythons, I've found that smaller meals help ball pythons feed and grow more consistently.

That doesn't mean that it's "wrong" to "lump" you're ball pythons or feed them meals larger than their girth ... it just means that in my experience, in my collection, I've seen that larger meals and lumps lead to higher incidences of fasting and growth in "spurts". When feeding smaller size meals, my snakes hardly ever skip a meal and their growth is much more predictable.

Even my largest adult females (3600+ grams) only get small small rats and I'm sure people on the forum that have seen them in person will agree that they are very well fed.

I think when you work with ball pythons for any amount of time you'll quickly understand that their feeding response and metabolism is very different than other types of snakes that do well with "lumping". In my opinion, they need a slightly different feeding style than other species.

In the end, the best thing you can do for your snake(s) is what works best for you and your animal. Don't be afraid to try different things in order to find the best way for you!

-adam