Are we feeding too much?

[Bundu Boy]

I don't think feeding an adult ball once a week is over feeding. They use a tremendous amount of energy just to kill their prey. They have to flex every muscle in their body for up to 15 minutes. That is a lot of work!

Cobras need to be active in order to exercise since they kill their prey with venom, not by constriction. Its really comparing apples to oranges.

You may have a point there but I think that we should be wary of discounting the energy exerted in day to living of these animals. Elapids are much more active than boids on a daily basis so I find it difficult to accept that a ball python will use as much or more energy than a cobra over , let's say, a month.

This is an educated guess on my part. I may be wrong, but I need facts on these matters.

I've only had ball pythons less than two years so I cannot say that my current feeding regime is right. Ask me in 15 years time, then I'd be able to give a more factual answer.

I'm afraid in this matter that I cannot agree with opinions made by owners that have had their ball for less than 5-10 years (myself included), overfeeding issues may only show themselves 10 years from when the animal is hatched. What we think is a healthy happy ball python may actually be an obese ball python that has been conditioned to accept food when offered (like my male spider!)...

Again this stresses the importance of hearing from the age experienced ball python owners out there