Quote Originally Posted by Smoked Oyster View Post
I have heard and read a lot of conflicting information about how much to feed a ball python, all from supposed experts. However, the (conflicting) information is always too vague for me. "1 large rat per week." "1 rat slightly smaller in diameter than the snake every few weeks." Since the experts can't agree, is anyone taking this to the next level to determine the actual appropriate/ideal caloric intake or grams per kilogram per month? There are very well established guidelines for ideal human consumption, and for other animals as well, such as dogs, cats, horses, etc. Those animals have been kept by humans for so long that real scientists have had plenty of opportunity to study them thoroughly and determine ideal diets with specific calories per kg. Seems to me that snake keeping is either too new or too niche for scientists to take the time to study this in depth.

I really want to get it right and not over or under feed my bp. I had been feeding "jumbo" rats (i weighed them myself at about 225g each) every "few" weeks (i translated that to 3), but the snake exhibited signs of over feeding, as in, frequent shedding, large poops, and refusal to eat for 2 months after 4 of those feedings. We broke her fast with a "small" rat, at around 90g a week ago, and then another at 90g yesterday. The snake went from 2000g when we got her last oct, up to about 2500g, and now she's back down to about 2000g again, after her fast, which seems to be her comfort zone where she eats best. I definitely don't want to under feed her, since the 90g rats seem so small, but I don't want to overfeed her either.
Your girl is absolutely fine with 90g a week. I don't even feed my 3100g girl jumbos. The swing in her weight was because she was holding 500g in poop/food in her at any given time, not truly gaining weight. Extremely large rats are also much more dangerous when feeding live (which you may or may not be doing). 90g is borderline small/medium, which is fine for her. Even if there have been studies on caloric needs in BPs (of which I'm not aware), they still would not be specific to YOUR BP, who has shown you what she wants by fasting when she was too full and starting to eat again when the prey went to a more reasonable size and she had had time to digest the jumbos.