If you all recall, I started a thread about overfeeding/powerfeeding, and its potential negative effects. At the time, I assumed that feeding a snake such a large amount was completely unnatural, and that there could be no possible reason to do it other than to be able to breed your ball pythons sooner.

However, I have recently heard an interesting theory. It was suggested that in the wild, ball pythons will fast during the breeding season. However, as soon as the breeding season is over they will gorge themselves as much as possible, to regain or add weight. After all, gerbils, their natural prey, tend to live in colonies and a large ball python could potentially feed on several gerbils at a single sitting. So, it's possible that powerfeeding is a better simulation of a ball python's feeding behaviour in the wild.

This theory sounded plausible to me; I can't imagine a breeding female ever becoming overly obece, since producing eggs drastically diminishes weight. However, obecity could be a problem for males. I'm now wondering, if obecity occurs with males only fed prey items the size of gerbils or smaller, or only with males fed larger rats.

It would also be interesting to note whether longevity of over/powerfed ball pythons in captivity were any shorter than the longevity of ball pythons dying of natural causes in the wild.

It would be interesting if someone actually performed a study on the effects of over/powerfeeding. Since it would take 30+ years and probably a LOT of BP's to be of sufficient sample sizes, I highly doubt any solid data exists to argue one way or the other right now.

Anyway, although I will stick to my weekly feeding schedule, I will no longer assume that breeders who over/powerfeed are doing their animals a disservice. I would like to hear any thoughts, arguments, counter-arguments, or any other input on this topic, as I find it quite interesting.