Let's Discuss Dietary Requirements for Ball Pythons

[Skiploder]

I would like to know the answer to this first before we move on to the next subject of hot spots being futile or not.

The hot spot has to be figured in. No hot spot = lower digestion, slower return to needing to be fed again.

We can't answer questions without making an informed decision.

For the record, I would not call hot spots futile. I would call them not necessary and completely optional.

Keep this in mind: the ball python laying in wait does not weigh it's food. It eats when hungry and it attempts to predate on animals it feels it can ingest and flees from those it can't. One month it may eat a meal 20% of it's weight and it then doesn't eat for 7 weeks when it then takes something that's 10% of it's weight.

The idea here is to disabuse people of the notion that an inactive captive snake needs a 15% of its mass prey item every week. The idea here is to get people thinking about what they need, when to give it to them and how to optimize husbandry around that energy requirement.

I can make an educated stab at Steffe's question, but I can't answer it with any surety.

What I would need is a study that shows what different ball pythons at different ages consume in the wild and the energy expended per year and the energy consumed per year. Only then could I attempt to ascribe an absolute educated answer to the question.

Alexis, there is a lot of data here. Read it, think about it and tell me only two things:

1. What and how would you feed a female ball python (adult) in a tub?
2. What and how would you feed a male ball python (adult) in a tub?

Then answer why.