The keepers in my area...

[cmack91]

He is 1700 grams. He'll never be 3000 grams unless I grossly overfed him until he was beyond obese. The ten day diet has nothing to do with money. Thats how fast his body metabolizes, and how big his genes have alowed him to get. The female gets fed on five day now because I am trying to put on more weight, and because she's a monster, and will take anything I throw at her. By my ways, she is perfectly healthy. And she would be by yours too.

I'll let you know when they become sickly, malnourished, and eventually die, and you can laugh in my face about it if you wish. Until then, neither of us is right, or wrong. Both of our ways simply work.

[PitOnTheProwl]

I'll let you know when they become sickly, malnourished, and eventually die, and you can laugh in my face about it if you wish. Until then, neither of us is right, or wrong. Both of our ways simply work.

[wolfy-hound]

As far as "a smaller snake could have issues", any female with eggs can become egg bound and die, or purge the eggs/follicles whatever it's called and die, at any size, at any weight.

I don't feel like I've seen young/small pythons having issues being bred at a smaller size. I don't do it by my own choice, and I'd feel like a hypocritical idiot trying to dictate what size a female has to be, or how to best feed anyone else's snakes. I don't want anyone telling me that breeding a female under 2000g is stupid and risky and I won't run about telling other people that feeding every 2 weeks is wrong on their part.

You are welcome to run about the internets, judging how everyone else keeps their snakes, and how you feel they should be doing it instead. I'm certain you've got plenty of experience to advise everyone with. Just don't be surprised when you get shot down when folks don't appreciate your pushy tactics.

[satomi325]

It really depends on certain things.

Females can be bred as early as 1000g and if they aren't ready, they just won't (I harken here to legitament rape?)

Some females are just small girls and will never exceed 1000-1400 grams. Does that mean they will slug out or become egg bound? No.
When breeding, you have to look at the female's body condition, fat reserves, and age(sexual maturity). Not just how many grams they weigh.
A shorter chunky girl at 1200 grams is better suited for breeding than a long skinny 1800 gram female in my opinion.
In this example, the 1200 gram snake can withstand the breeding process better than that 1800. (Think short 5 ft human girl of average weight vs 6 ft size zero model. Both are of the same age. Who's better suited for having children?)


And I do agree with the notion that if the female is not ready, she will not take. Even seasoned veteran females will give themselves breaks between years of breeding if they feel like they are not ready that year.

Also, every two weeks is how often you should feed adults, babies once a week.

Depends on food size.
We at BP.net tend to favor "Smaller prey more often" compared to "larger prey less often".
I feed small rats once a week to my adults. But if someone fed jumbo rats once every 2 weeks, that would be ok and equivalent too. But the reason we don't do that is because many of us feed live, and it's safer to feed smaller rats more frequently.

It is also acceptable to feed babies 4-7 days.

As long as the animals are healthy and thriving, it's all really personal preference and what works for you.