Ball Pythons can get overweight. And I do agree with whoever said that keepers do tend to overfeed. And the most common reason is because they go off feed so often and want to pack on fast reserves to endure those fasts. Why are females so much *thicker* than males?? Fat. Fat to keep breeding females from getting their energy and resources sucked dry into producing eggs. But if a female is too fat, it often results in slugging out and poor reproduction.
BPs in the wild probably do not eat regularly and their prey certainly isn't big. An ASF never exceeds small Norway rat size and I see people offering large rats. And feeding 15-20% of an adults weight is ridiculously overkill. And I recall someone in another thread saying they feed 20% of their snakes weight no matter what the age. My hatchlings get rat fuzzies every 4-5 days. My 250g balls get rat pups every 4-5 days. My 500g balls get small rats once a week. My 1000g balls get small rats once a week. My 2000g balls get small rats once a week. That's all they need to achieve and maintain a healthy body condition.
Hatchling metabolism is faster because they use that energy to grow. Adult metabolism is slow because they are no longer growing at that rapid pace.
And people seem to try to grow out their hatchlings as fast as possible to breeding size. I can bet many females in the wild are not breeding till they are 4+ years old, while some breeders try to breed their girls as soon as possible, which could be as young as a year old.
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