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

[Patricia]

Gosh, that wouldn't be good! Thanks for starting this thread. I'll be tuned in to the replies.

[tbowman]

My 9-10 year old bp gets offered a small rat a week.

[Bundu Boy]

My 9-10 year old bp gets offered a small rat a week.

Thanks tbowman, tell me, what weight is this ball ? And have you had this routine for its entire life...... ?

[tbowman]

Well, I can't say his exact weight. I got him from a pet store when I was about 7 or 8. He/she was already a good size then. I have fed him up to large rats. But then I brought him down to smalls again because he is a finicky eater sometimes. I've had him for 7-9 years and he had to be a few years old when I bought him.

[Alice]

Over the years I've read and participated in some very interesting discussions about prey size, including many on this wonderful forum. From those discussions, about 2 years ago we decided to stop offering our BPs large feeders. We now offer 1 small or small medium once/week while they are eating.

I doubt we'll know if this helps in their long term health for many years (most of our BPs are <10 years old) but I do think they tend to stay on feed and eat more consistently with the small feeders.

[stealthk7gsxr]

the larger the prey, the more worried i tend to be. i have only fed her large prey once. for the most part i would stick with the larger of the small size rats (if that makes sense). that way im comfortable and i know she is not overwhelmed. usually two to three will do, depending on if she is in one of her moods. if its been a long while ( like over 9 months which she has done before) i would start with a mouse just to see if she is hungry or if she gives it the "please get away from me look".

[rabernet]

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.

Very interesting, and thank you for sharing! I did want to make one point about this poll. I would hazard a guess that MOST of the members here haven't been keeping ball pythons for very long, so "only" 27% of the respondents probably isn't an accurate representation of the life expectancy of our captive ball pythons.

Basically, the target audience of just this forum skews the results to the oldest being on the younger end (percentage-wise), simply because such a large number of our members (including myself) haven't been keeping ball pythons long enough to have any much older than 5 years. I've raised all but 2 or 3 of my animals from babies, and I got my first ball python in 2005. I do have a couple females that I acquired as adults who were pet store surrenders with no historical back-ground, so I don't know how old they were before they came into my collection.

This was also very interesting for me personally after listening to Tom Wolfe on Reptile Radio and his feeding methods (which was to pound food into his animals - basically feed them every time they were hungry), I was considering changing up my feeding methods for my girls that are in this year's breeding plans.

After reading this, I'm re-evaluating. I currently feed small rats to all of my adults, 1 a week. Even that may be too much if this LJ is any indication.

[Bundu Boy]

Very interesting, and thank you for sharing! I did want to make one point about this poll. I would hazard a guess that MOST of the members here haven't been keeping ball pythons for very long, so "only" 27% of the respondents probably isn't an accurate representation of the life expectancy of our captive ball pythons.

Basically, the target audience of just this forum skews the results to the oldest being on the younger end (percentage-wise), simply because such a large number of our members (including myself) haven't been keeping ball pythons long enough to have any much older than 5 years. I've raised all but 2 or 3 of my animals from babies, and I got my first ball python in 2005. I do have a couple females that I acquired as adults who were pet store surrenders with no historical back-ground, so I don't know how old they were before they came into my collection.

This was also very interesting for me personally after listening to Tom Wolfe on Reptile Radio and his feeding methods (which was to pound food into his animals - basically feed them every time they were hungry), I was considering changing up my feeding methods for my girls that are in this year's breeding plans.

After reading this, I'm re-evaluating. I currently feed small rats to all of my adults, 1 a week. Even that may be too much if this LJ is any indication.

I hear what you are saying about the age of the balls/their owners. I've only been collecting balls for 18 months and from the get go I've been reading about feeding babies every 3 days, then every 5-7 days, then as adults every 10-14 days.

Is this too much?....

I believe that feeding babies/juveniles more regularly is important to give them their start in life, but at what point do we slow down and adopt a longer break between feeding?

I've got a spider male that is 9 months old and weighs almost 800g, he will eat everytime I put food in front of him, now I cannot but think that he has been overfed. I don't believe that the view 'feed them if they will eat' is good for the animal and may result in causing more harm than good. A dog will eat at any opportunity it gets ( well mine will at least ) and end up obese.

Perhaps when we encounter a ball's 'hunger strike' it is telling us that we have gone too far and we need to give it months (not weeks) before trying to feed again. Perhaps....

Some people will feed their animals to get them up to breeding weight as quick as possible, but at what price? Sure you may get females to breed at their second winter but is it a good idea if you are halving the lifespan of the animal?

I'm interested in hearing from owners that have had balls a long time as I believe their input would be of value. Balls can live to over 40 years and I want to know how these animals are cared for when it comes to feeding....

Ball pythons are still relatively new in the grand scheme of things, especially when you consider the age they can go to. As depicted by that poll, the majority of owners may have had balls for about 5 years (or have ball that are 5 years old) ... most of those balls are still considered young....



BTW - What is a LJ?

[rabernet]

BTW - What is a LJ?

Live Journal (where you linked to).