is it okay to feed every 3 days?

[snakesRkewl]

Sometimes, the ball python is smarter than the owner.
That's sad.

Nice dig.

It's sad when people spread rumors like:
I GUARANTEE you he will stop eating for a LONG time (usually at around 9-10 months of age).
Really?
I guess my snakes missed that memo

I have found there are very few absolutes in this hobby and almost NO guarantees.

[theartofsolitude]

thanks so much everyone for the responses and I find snakesrkewl answer best fits me.. yeah my bp is still a baby though it is growing way faster than my other 2 bps.. maybe got something to do being really a good eater and metabolizes food pretty well compared to the other snakes. Like what i said, i would know if they are hungry coz they come out of the hide and start wondering around when they are hungry and just stays in the hide when they are digesting.

[GoBoilers]

Nice dig.

It's sad when people spread rumors like:
I GUARANTEE you he will stop eating for a LONG time (usually at around 9-10 months of age).
Really?
I guess my snakes missed that memo

I have found there are very few absolutes in this hobby and almost NO guarantees.

Agreed, don't be upset...my snakes also missed that memo.

I'd also like to see the research/documentation regarding shortened life spans/rotting corpses/breaking ribs etc. I absolutely adore this website, but am saddened by the opinions that are stated as absolute fact.

[snakesRkewl]

Agreed, don't be upset...my snakes also missed that memo.

I'd also like to see the research/documentation regarding shortened life spans/rotting corpses/breaking ribs etc. I absolutely adore this website, but am saddened by the opinions that are stated as absolute fact.

It's all good, I wasn't upset at all

[zina10]

I don't think there have been any controlled long-term studies done on whether this would be detrimental to a snake, or not.

Ball Pythons can live up to 40 / 50 years from what I've learned. Who's to say what we do in captivity will make them live longer , or shorter ? Normally I would say, we prolong life, IF we keep them responsibly.

I believe it has been established that a snakes system goes into "over drive" during digestion. The organs work much harder.
Personally, I wouldn't want to put that kind of strain on organs non-stop. I'm sure in nature they eat whenever they find something. Sometimes that could be every day, sometimes once the month. But..I don't think they digest nonstop for months at a time.

That said, everyone has to do what makes sense to them, and what they are comfortable with. I prefer to feed once the week, adults even less. Back when I had many Ball Pythons , they ALL grew pretty quickly, but they never had that "fat" stuffed sausage look to them either. They ate regularly, sometimes taking a week or 2 off, that was it.

But thats what worked for me, and I don't criticize others. There just isn't any hard proof either way. Follow your gut.

Even though I buy some morphs this time around, I only buy them for their beauty and because I enjoy them. They are not investment snakes, I don't plan on breeding (though I might). I don't worry about what kind of money I will get before the morphs prices fall into the basement.

Breeders have good reason to grow/breed snakes as fast as they can, or they could possibly loose money on them. They also don't want to harm the snakes, of course.

Again, do your research, come to your own conclusions, and do what you feel comfortable with In this hobby there isn't just black and white, lots of gray

No offense to anyone !!!

[mykee]

My bad, I can't say that overfed babies WILL go off feed.
I do apologize for that.
You'll have to forgive me as I often forget when I post a lot of the time here that wholly 90% of the posters here (even the ones with thousands of posts) only have a few ball pythons and/or have only been a part of this hobby/business for a relatively short period of time, which equates to rather limited real-life experiences.
That said, I can tell you from my experiences of almost a decade of breeding, during which time, I have admittedly tried it all. In that time, I've collected some valuable information with my rather informal studies, (sorry, none of it has been published) that if you overfeed a baby early on (whether they 'want' to overeat or not, or whether or not you 'think' they have a 'faster metabolism' than 'normal babies') 95% of the time, that hatchling will hit a brick wall around a year and either stop eating altogether, or greatly reduce the amount of meals he will accept.
Another thing that I have learned over the years is that when a hobbyist comes to a forum 'looking for advice', he's not really looking advice, but rather someone to agree with his already made up mind.
Feed away, and good luck.

[KingPythons]

Agreed, don't be upset...my snakes also missed that memo.

I'd also like to see the research/documentation regarding shortened life spans/rotting corpses/breaking ribs etc. I absolutely adore this website, but am saddened by the opinions that are stated as absolute fact.

Would also like to see straight facts and research done on feeding ASF, gerbils, rats, and mice to ball pythons. Like do balls eating gerbils get fatter (still healthy) then rat eaters ect.

[snakesRkewl]

I don't have written down facts but I have fed and do feed both asf's and rats.
Most of my asf eaters are picky eaters and so don't grow as fast as my rat eaters.
I don't know if there is any nutritional difference but the rat eaters do tend to grow much faster but that would be because most of my rat eaters will eat larger prey items than my asf eaters.

[theartofsolitude]

i think i read somewhere that rats got relatively higher protein content compared to other rodents