Ball Pythons and Eating

[LeahMichelle]

Hey all! i have a 3 year old Ball python that just layed 6 eggs about 5 and a half weeks ago.... we have fed our snake 5 rats in that time period so roughly one a week... is this bad? or should we try to power feed her to get her weight back up??

And I have a 4 and a half year old male python who hasn't eaten since January... is this normal?? some answers would be great because I tried looking on the net and got no where lol. Thanks!

[MasonC2K]

Hey all! i have a 3 year old Ball python that just layed 6 eggs about 5 and a half weeks ago.... we have fed our snake 5 rats in that time period so roughly one a week... is this bad? or should we try to power feed her to get her weight back up??

And I have a 4 and a half year old male python who hasn't eaten since January... is this normal?? some answers would be great because I tried looking on the net and got no where lol. Thanks!

There's a grey line between power feeding and getting a BP up to weight. There no real rule of thumb for it that I am aware of. It just simply means overfeeding. And that I believe is different for each snake.

I have been told, generally speaking, that feeding a normal sized meal every 5 days as opposed to the standard 7 is acceptable practice to get females up to weight and then return to the 7 day schedule after.

As for your male, it's not uncommon. If he's not lost a significant amount of weight I wouldn't worry about it. Otherwise you might want to check a vet.

I have found that boosting up the temps can stimulate a BP to eat. Males sometimes seem to get stuck in the breeding mode long after the season is over and can need something to knock them out of it. Not saying that's what you have but it's a possibilty.

[LeahMichelle]

Wow! awesome Info Thanks so much! i will give that a try and see what happens!!! Thanks so much again!!!