Let's Discuss Dietary Requirements for Ball Pythons

[Kaorte]

Why do we not come up with a new guideline to advise new keepers?

I dunno! Lets do it.

I would assume we would have to address the feeding amount for hatchlings, juveniles, and once they are mature, adult females and males all separately.

Hatchlings
Juveniles
Adult Males
Adult Females

What would you consider an approximate gram weight to be for each of these groups? I assume the line between Juvies and Adults to be blurry between males and females since males are generally 'mature' at a smaller size.

Once that is figured out, we could approximate a a gram amount (or percentage) of rodent that the animal needs based on their activity levels.


This is an important topic. I haven't used the 10-15% rule in many years because I just eyeball it or feed whatever is on hand. I know I have seen many obese ball pythons. You can't just feed them every time they are hungry. Its like giving a kid as much food as they want and being confused when they get fat. I even saw one posted on the forum today, and the keeper was proud of their size. People will overfeed hoping to breed them sooner, but all that ends up happening is they slug out.