Quote Originally Posted by Bundu Boy View Post
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?
In my family, we have a 8 year old black lab. Gorgeous and best dog ever. Anyways. We had her since she was very few months old. She ALWAYS had and has food in her bowl. She has always fed herself. She is not obese and never has been.

But then again every dog breed is different. I Just wanted to let you know and about her self feeding and not being obese.