I start my ball python babies on f/t fuzzies when I can (about 67% of it will take it first try), and most of the rest are on f/t by the 4th meal. The few remaining don't get sold until they're well established. F2 and onward tend to be near 100% success rate with minimal effort, just sight feeding right away, while F1's can sometimes take a bit of extra work and patience. I'm pretty small-time, with about 6 clutches a year year though.
But I know some much bigger breeders who have been at it for longer, and who get close to 98% success rate with f/t first try. Too many breeders breed for morphs and not for health, or focus on quantity over quality.
Regardless, ball pythons are super easy to get started as babies compared to most other species. Green tree pythons for instance, can take several hours to feed just a single clutch when getting babies established.
Reply With Quote