Over-feeding

[cchardwick]

The biggest concern is leaving 3live rats in a tank and not checking for 5hours.

I agree, a live rat left alone with a snake can tear a snake to shreds, it's a horrible sight. Personally I don't feed live unless I absolutely have to and even then will try to switch over to fresh killed. All my snakes are on fresh killed now. I find it's best to put them down with CO2 and then have another snake as a backup that usually will always eat like a reticulated python or a boa, something that will take all the uneaten rats from your ball pythons so none go to waste. Or feed half of your snakes at alternating schedules so you have extra snakes to feed left over rodents. That's difficult to do with only one or two snakes, you may need more snakes HE HE HE!

Multiple snakes in the same enclosure is not good either, I've done it a few times when I first started. Usually one of the snakes will go into a long fast, usually several months and to the point where they are so skinny they look sickly. I think maybe it triggers a breeding cycle and they have to have the weight and age to support that breeding fast.

I had one snake that was beat up during shipping in the mail, he's an Austrailian Woma python. He went on a fast for about 7 months or so and didn't look like he lost any weight at all. He finally started eating, now he is taking medium rats on a regular schedule. An older mature adult snake can go on a fast for a long time, you'd be surprised how long. It takes more of a toll on a younger faster growing snake.

Snakes can and will overeat if they have the appetite for it. I usually feed based on the look of the snake. An overeater will get super fat like a sausage that is about to explode LOL. I used to feed all my left over rodents to one of my king snakes. She got so fat that now I only feed her a small hopper once a month, it's been several months and she still looks fat LOL. Some people put them into a hibernation cycle and cool them off and don't feed them at all for months.

Younger snakes can take over feeding much better than older snakes because if they get fat they grow out of it really fast because they have a higher metabolism. My reticulated python can take a lot of food to where she is looking fat, but about a week later she is skinny because she is still fairly young and growing fast, she probably weighs about 7-8 pounds now, will eventually get to about 50 pounds!

One thing I don't really like to see is feeding a rodent so large that the snake looks like it ate a football LOL. I like to see a nice big lump, but not to the point where the snake looks uncomfortable. It's amazing how big of a rodent a snake will eat, but I try to keep it on the smaller side, just enough to where you can see a lump in their belly the next day.

Also, most breeders will tell you that they feed twice a week, even older mature snakes. I tend to feed my females larger meals twice a week and feed my males smaller meals twice a week or even have them skip a meal now and then. Males shouldn't be bigger than about 1,000 grams, females as big as possible for the most eggs, just don't let them get too fat LOL.