Feeding too often?

[threadgoode]

Good morning all, and thanks again to everyone's kind and helpful replies to my previous posts. The BP.net community never fails to be an invaluable resource to fumbling new keepers such as myself!

My BP is 7 months old and 268g (last weighed sometime between June 17 and June 22). When I got her mid-March she was ~100 grams (born in November 2017) and has a naturally slow growth rate. I even suspect her of being the runt of her clutch. She's proportionately just fine and doesn't appear underweight at all.

In fact, I am concerned that she's putting on too much weight too fast, especially this past month where I've noticed she's gained the most in the least amount of time. She once jumped 20g in under 10 days (weighed on empty each time). I feed her every 5 days ~15% of her body weight, sometimes a little less since she is steadily outgrowing the rats I have in my freezer. I initially planned on following the "every 5 days until 500g" guideline, but because she is a naturally slow grower, is 5 days too frequent?

I sometimes feel that I'm almost -pushing- her to grow with how often she eats. I guess it also doesn't help that an old coworker of mine who keeps quite a few snakes himself told me that I shouldn't be feeding any more often than 7-10 days unless I plan on breeding her. He called my 5-day schedule "borderline powerfeeding" and warned me about obesity leading to early death and fatty liver disease and all sorts of complications, which scared me to be honest. Just to be safe, I thought I'd ask around here for more opinions. Reading through old threads about feeding schedules left me even less sure of what to think.

[richardhind1972]

I only keep boas, but every 5days is too much in my opinion, my snakes at that age are on weekly till 1yrs old , every 7 days Is enough or she will definitely get obese.

Really glad she’s eating tho, as the amount of people on here have problems with royals being picky eaters


Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk

[Craiga 01453]

At that weight, no need to feed more than every 7 days.

[Skyrivers]

I feed once a week and I have 2 BPs that age give or take a month. My boy is now 550 grams and girl is almost 723g. They both are long and healthy. The girl being slightly more plump but no over weight. Neither have ever refused food. In fact they chase it down and pounce on it. Yes I feed pre killed, twitching still. They prefer the twitching or would to FT.

[bcr229]

Every five days is for hatchlings on their first few meals. Yours is large enough now to go every 7-10 days between meals.

Your coworker actually sounds pretty knowledgeable; there aren't many snake owners educated enough to know about fatty liver disease.

[Lord Sorril]

For Me:
My Ball Pythons: I only offer food every 7 days, but, I will feed them as much as they want. If they aren't hungry or if they are in shed-they will choose not to eat.

If your BP is eating reliably every 5 days--I would begin to question the efficacy of the size of the prey item(s) and feed larger prey-less often.

[rufretic]

Honestly I don’t think there is anything wrong with feeding every five days, I’ve even had some of my better eating females eating twice a week. The key is the size of the meal. I like to feed on the smaller size but more frequently for my growing snakes. This is usually just the first year or two. My girls have not got obese and so far they have got to breeding size quicker than average and laid healthy good size clutches with no slugs. So that goes to show you all the negative talk about overfeeding isn’t all true. Now if your pushing the limits of prey size they can eat, then 7-10 days is plenty. I like to feed my adults large prey but some of them only eat every 2-3 weeks. For consistent healthy growth of young ball pythons, a small meal every five days works great.

[Craiga 01453]

For Me:
My Ball Pythons: I only offer food every 7 days, but, I will feed them as much as they want. If they aren't hungry or if they are in shed-they will choose not to eat.

If your BP is eating reliably every 5 days--I would begin to question the efficacy of the size of the prey item(s) and feed larger prey-less often.

OP stated that the snake is being fed prey approx 15% of body weight. In my opinion, that size prey every 7 days is a healthy feeding regimen.

[Skyrivers]

I don't think mine are fat. Just long. Let me see if I have photos.

Every five days is for hatchlings on their first few meals. Yours is large enough now to go every 7-10 days between meals.

Your coworker actually sounds pretty knowledgeable; there aren't many snake owners educated enough to know about fatty liver disease.

What are your thoughts. Do they look plump to u?

Sent from my N9560 using Tapatalk

[threadgoode]

Thank you to everyone for your input! I'll go ahead and bump her feeding down to once a week from now on. Every 5 days did start to seem like quite a bit after a while. I'm in no hurry to have her pack on a significant amount of weight, especially since she's not meant for breeding. Above all, her health is the most important thing to keep in mind.