BP's eat and grow more than we thought?

[Scirlygirl]

Ya they will.
Just like a person eating McDonalds every day will considerably shorten their life-span.
There is a reason captive animal usually live much longer than wild counterparts that does not include predation. We as sentient beings with the tools to study these animals can give them an overall healthier life than they would have in the wild. Things like elimination of parasites, proper nutrition, all the things that go into good husbandry.
There are things we have to do that never happen in the wild. There is no one spot cleaning, changing substrate or filtering and purifying their water.

This is not a new or novel species where we need to try everything and figure out what works. If you are feeding the right size prey every 3 days for the size of snake you have for an extended period you will have a fat snake.

I understand your concern BUT I have to disagree to a degree. This is a baby ball python I am talking about, which means he is growing at a fast pace and since he is growing it makes sense that he is eager to eat 3-5 days. When is comes to adult snakes then I can understand feeding once a week or once a month. I have a 3 year old pastel male who eats once a month since he isn't going through a growth spurt and is at a healthy weight. I have an older female (5-6 years) who is eating once a week. All of my snakes know when they want to eat and when they don't want to eat. My pastel male went 6 months without eating and then BOOM he was eating like a pig for a few months and now is eating contently at once a month.
In the wild no one REALLY knows how much they eat. If you think about it, tons of different food sources are available to them everyday and a growing baby needs to eat in order to grow. So to conclude, I think fast growing baby snakes should eat as often as want as long as they will take it eagerly. And adults don't need to eat as often because they are pretty much done growing.