Myth or factual?

[muddoc]

I agree with all of the posts in this thread, and all have given very good information. However, I did want to make 2 comments regarding information that I did read in this thread. Below are the quotes including the information I wanted to expound on.

Your BP will not overeat, BP's will stop eating if they are not hungry.

This is not completely true. A bal python will overeat, and can become "overweight". I have had a female that I got as an adult in 2006, and I fed her every week, an medium rat. The first year she laid eggs, they were all slugs, with the exception of one egg that died before it hatched. After speaking with many people, excessive fat stores can be the culprit of fertilized ovum not having enough room to develop, thus causing slugs. I have since had to cut this girl back to smaller meals every 10-14 days to regulate her weight and get viable eggs from her.

While this is not the case with every snake, it is possible to overfeed a ball python. A fat snake is not a healthy snake.

I recommend trying to get your snake on rats as they are more nutritious.

That debate has been held for many, many years, and I have never seen any data that suggests that one rodent is more nutritious. However, it has been proven that mice are leaner. If you can supply some documentation of this please do so, as I have been looking for information on the subject for a long time, and always enjoy adding to the articles that I have read. The common argument for getting a ball python onto rats, is that it is much easier to feed an adult BP rats, since a rat gets larger than an adult BP can eat, it makes it much easier to select one food item that is appropriately sized, versus having to feed a large adult female 9 mice a week. Switching babies to rats is easier than attempting to switch a 2 year old animal that has only eaten one type of food item it's entire life.