Ball Python problem feeder

[GoingPostal]

I would really recommend you look at your husbandry because chances are the reason your snake only eats once a year is something correctable. I also would never feed that many rodents in a feeding and it's best to wait 10-14 days in between feedings to let the snake digest. Otherwise you are really risking serious issues, regurge or all that food rotting inside before it's able to be digested. I'm not clear on why you would think live feeding can't be dangerous simply because it hasn't been dangerous to your snake yet?

[Armiyana]

I also would never feed that many rodents in a feeding and it's best to wait 10-14 days in between feedings to let the snake digest.

I will disagree a little bit. I don't know exactly how many they are feeding at a time, but personally if I had a mouser female like that I wouldn't feed only 10-12 days apart. A mouse is such a small meal for a large adult female. They'll digest them a bit quicker as well.


It would take a bit of time to figure out the exact schedule for the individual snake, but I had a smaller male who would only take rat fuzzies for a while even at 700 grams. So we did one fuzzy every 4-5 days to make sure he had some time to digest between meals. But again. It takes a while because you don't want to start throwing meals that quickly because they need to build up that stomach acid. Start on a 10 day week and every other week cut it back by one day sort of thing
In the case of a large adult female like this I'd probably see if I could get them to eat one mouse every 3-4 days vs trying to feed multiple mice in one meal. Or at the most 2 mice every 4-5 days.

Of course, once the snake is a good body weight, you can test and see just how much they'll maintain in body weight when spacing out food a bit.

[GoingPostal]

I will disagree a little bit. I don't know exactly how many they are feeding at a time, but personally if I had a mouser female like that I wouldn't feed only 10-12 days apart. A mouse is such a small meal for a large adult female. They'll digest them a bit quicker as well.

Considering they mentioned 34 mice over the course of a few days, I think it's pretty safe to say that's too many. Even over a few weeks, that's way too many. It sounds like they are feeding a good dozen at a time and then repeating this several times over a few weeks? Some clarification would help.

[Bogertophis]

Considering they mentioned 34 mice over the course of a few days, I think it's pretty safe to say that's too many. Even over a few weeks, that's way too many. It sounds like they are feeding a good dozen at a time and then repeating this several times over a few weeks? Some clarification would help.

Yeah, that sounds like an awful lot to me too. But years ago, when I took in a mature under-fed & much-under-weight rosy boa* from a nature museum where she was too stressed to eat (for a few years!), she actually ate 40 mice in one month, in her first month with me- BUT, many of those were fuzzy mice for easy digestion & certain appeal- she was plenty warm -for a change - so she could digest well, & she was finally able to relax in my home environment, & slowly gain some of her weight back. (*for reference, rosy boas are small desert/coastal snakes- adult females get to about 40" long)

Still, by later that month, she was putting away adult mice- her appetite with me seemed to know no bounds for a while. So there are some exceptions, where "you just have to be there"- to know whether or not you're feeding a snake the right way, but since many people who visit our forum may be new snake-keepers, it does help to mention this is not "the usual way it's done" & would NOT normally be recommended. (And it always helps to see the actual size of the prey compared to the size of the snake.) And after the first month with me, that rosy boa was fed at more normal intervals & more normal amounts- happily she made a good recovery & lived many years with me.

For anyone interested in rosy boas, I'll just add that it's not unusual for an adult reproductive female to eat 2 or 3 mice in one sitting in the summer months, but bear in mind that they also go off feed to brumate thru the winter. The male rosy boas don't eat as much, nor do they get quite as big as the females- they stay around 30".

[Armiyana]

Considering they mentioned 34 mice over the course of a few days, I think it's pretty safe to say that's too many. Even over a few weeks, that's way too many. It sounds like they are feeding a good dozen at a time and then repeating this several times over a few weeks? Some clarification would help.

she actually ate 40 mice in one month

34mice a couple of days apart over a few weeks

They're not feeding 34 mice a day. It's maybe two mice 3-4 days apart for a month or so from the sound of it.

Again, some clarification is needed, but unlikely given OP's history here

[Armiyana]

Also going to add that weight wise... 40 large mice is only about 6 medium size rats.