Originally Posted by craigafrechette
Allow me to preface: I'm a pretty new keeper, I've only been in the hobby for a little more than a year, and I only have 2 ball pythons. I do not have years of experience and data to back up my method at this moment. But if I had a larger collection this is an idea that I still think is worth exploring.
When I got my pastel male I followed the feeding chart that flies around here like religion until he hit 500 grams. Which was mid-November of last year, he was 7 months old at the time. Up until then, he was putting away food like a machine. I noticed that he was looking a bit pudgy and he stopped strike feeding and I was having to drop feed and cover the viv. He started skipping meals in January, was eating every other week. March he went off feed altogether and only ate one time between March to mid-May. I wasn't too worried, he is a young male I figured it was time. He came out of his fast and was longer and about 10 grams heavier than at the start and had a good growth spurt after. He was still only taking food half the time. The female was a little over half his size and still a chowhound, but it got me thinking about things.
1. It is generally accepted that many ball pythons end up overfed in captivity.
2. These animals are biologically engineered to be able to fast for long periods of time. Weekly feedings are probably really unnatural. In the wild, they probably have a season of plentiful food and seasons where grub is a bit more scarce.
3. My snakes are chubby, and skipping a week even if I didn't see a colossal benefit wouldn't harm them in any way.
I started feeding this way as part experiment and part fat roll management. I've been happy with the changes I've seen in my animals' behaviour. Fluffy hasn't had any refusals other than when in shed and is striking off the tongs again and is at the front of his tub on feed day. His body condition seems to have improved, and he has still put on a couple hundred grams, so I'm happy. Kitty is still eating like a freight train, she is probably close to the 1000g wall so I will be watching her closely.
While I might dabble in breeding at some point my animals were purchased primarily as pets, so I'm under no pressure to push them to breeding weight. If my female doesn't hit 1500 by the beginning of next year because I skip one feed a month it will not mean any kind of loss for me. I'm just trying to do well by my snakes.
I also think that it is probably good for them to have time to "clear the system" but I have not done enough research to substantiate and my evidence is little more than anecdotal at this point.
It seems to be working for my animals, but it could also be serendipitous timing.
I've been feeding this way since Mid-June. Not really long enough to tell if it will cut down on food strikes but I'm interested in seeing how thing go moving forward.
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