Would you purchase from a breeder who advocates power feeding?

[Beardedragon]

so your talking about force feeding I think they would regurge what they couldnt handle,like I said before I think under feeding & stunting is more of a issue because bottom line ,feeders cost money ,less money into snake means more profit.

It is force feeding, but normaly you use that term when you are trying to force a NON eating snake ( Like a hatchling who hasnt started yet) to eat.

[WingedWolfPsion]

I went with 'depends'.

It depends MOST on your definition of power-feeding. The OP's description does not constitute power-feeding at all in my opinion. It's simply frequent feeding. Power-feeding involves introducing another food item on the tail of the first one, to cause the snake to consume more food than it actually wants to.

The second 'depends' is the species. As someone pointed out, boas that are overfed do poorly. Some subspecies of boas are even more prone to problems than others when they are fed too much and too frequently as hatchlings.

Ball pythons do not appear to be prone to these issues. Of course adult ball pythons can become obese--when they are obese, they breed poorly. Females slug out often, and males are lazy. You don't want to put too much weight on an adult ball python.

However, there is no evidence I have seen that feeding YOUNG ball pythons as much as they care to eat does anything more than cause them to grow extremely quickly--all of them, including their head (no pinhead syndrome). Some young snakes have even made it to 1500 grams in their very first year, and they look normal.

It is an evolutionary advantage for a young snake to be able to take advantage of a plentiful food supply when there IS plenty of food, when it comes to a harsh environment like the African savannah. The faster a ball python can grow up, the less vulnerable it will be to predators. That size also provides a tremendous buffer against hard times--that 1500 gram yearling could go on to survive for a year without food if it had to.

Since these snakes appear to be growing very fast, and their growth is proportional, there is no reason to think that this is bad for the health. They also do not appear to be obese (there are signs you can look for that indicate that, such as visible skin between scales).

There is 0 evidence, even anecdotal, to suggest that ball pythons that have been fed heavily in their first 3 years of live will live shorter lives.

Logically, the result of all that feeding will be that their final adult size will be considerably larger than that of snakes that were fed more sparingly. Think about it--they will continue to grow FAST until they are around 3 years old. Around that point, their growth rate slows dramatically, and they continue to grow very slowly over the course of the rest of their life. The larger they are when they reach about 3 years old, the bigger they'll be in the end.

Now, a lot of a ball python's size is going to be genetic, we can see that some animals naturally grow much larger and much faster than others--but if you want an individual to reach its full potential for size, you have to get that growth in while it is young.

I don't want a 'slow-grown' female. She's going to be small. She's ALWAYS going to be small. Small females lay small clutches. Even if large females can sometimes lay small clutches as well, it's a simple fact--no 1500 gram female is going to lay 13 eggs for you.

Ball pythons are highly adaptable animals--a smaller body size will allow them to survive better in areas where food is scarce. Smaller clutches will also give hatchlings less competition for scarce food. It all works out for the ball pythons in the wild.

Now, I could be wrong in my conclusions, above...but I haven't seen any sign of it so far.

As for my own snakes--hatchlings start eating every 2 to 3 days for their first meals, then they move to feedings every 4 days for my holdbacks, and every 5 days for the animals for sale. I keep them on that schedule for as long as they will tolerate it. When they begin refusing meals, they are moved to a 7 day schedule.
I also put post-breeding females on a 5 days schedule to put their weight back on quickly after they lay, then they're moved to maintenance feeding through the breeding season. It appears to be working exceptionally well.

Ball pythons will eat an amount comfortable for them to process, if you give them the choice. That isn't power-feeding.

[SlitherinSisters]

I also said depends. If the breeder is power feeding a female like crazy just so he can breed her on her second winter, I don't support that. If the breeder is power feeding the babies to get them up to a good weight I have no problem with that. I power feed many of my animals, especially the babies so they get up to a comfortable weight faster. Although, my power feeding is one appropriate sized animal every four days.

[iCandiBallPythons]

I power feed many of my animals, especially the babies so they get up to a comfortable weight faster. Although, my power feeding is one appropriate sized animal every four days.

I wouldnt define that as power feeding.

[MarkS]

I wouldnt define that as power feeding.

Some people DO define that as power feeding, which is where a lot of the problem lies. There is no actual definition of 'power feeding'

[greghall]

really how many BPs have people riased for more than 5 years & bred every year that are commenting on this?

[Beardedragon]

Some people DO define that as power feeding, which is where a lot of the problem lies. There is no actual definition of 'power feeding'

I do not think that there is a set rule that gos for all snakes, but for each type I would say yes.

With ball pythons, feeding every three or four days is not. I could and did feed my younger ball pythons that way and they did great, but if I fed my boas as often I could see them gain weight, especially width, alot faster to a point where I slowed down to once a week.

[greghall]

Ive been doing it for 5 years & im still learning,it takes that long or more to establish a nice collection.

[Beardedragon]

really how many BPs have people riased for more than 5 years & bred every year that are commenting on this?

I think a better question would be who has actually had a controlled experiment with this. Who can say power feeding has no negative affects on their life span, if they have not had MANY snakes from baby to time of death with some on a controlled once a week feeding, vs always feeding as much as they can eat and when ever they will take the food, even if that means offering every day.

[WingedWolfPsion]

Well, there is no question that overfeeding adult ball pythons results in obesity, which is harmful to their health.

The assertion here is that feeding hatchling ball pythons that way also will result in health issues. But hatchlings don't become obese, so what health issues would it cause?