I've heard of "keeping males lean" for breeding

[SnakeySnakeSnake]

Do you do that? If so, what kind of feeding schedule, or do you just downsize the prey?

[mr~python]

i've been keeping my male kinda lean for breeding season. im not getting him skinny, just to where he has an "athletic" look. know what i mean? ive been feeding him one small rat once a week. they're about 2/3rds his girth or a little less.

ive been feeding vanessa one prey item that is close to her girth but a little less once a week to get her a little heavier for breeding season but im being careful not to get her fat. i dont want her to slug out.

[Adam_Wysocki]

Do you do that? If so, what kind of feeding schedule, or do you just downsize the prey?

YES YES YES ... fat/chubby male balls (pythons) are lazy sacks of poop ... they don't want to breed, they only want to sleep ... females too, fat/chubby female balls (pythons) IME are more prone to slugs or just not being receptive to males .... keep your males lean and your females "athletic" ... for males I feed one "small small" rat per week or 2 small adult mice ... for females I feed about the same, sometimes girls get 2 "small smalls" depending on their size. You don't need to feed ball pythons "big food".

People that visit are ALWAYS shocked at how small the rats that I feed my giant girls are ... but it's really all that they need.

89% of everything I bred this year laid eggs and out of several hundred eggs, I can count my slugs on my fingers ... a lot of that is in the diet.

-adam

[frankykeno]

Our male Malachi will go into his first breeding season this fall (he turned 1 at the end of June 2006). His weight as of yesterday was 980 and he's never seen anything larger than a small small rat. In fact most of his growth has been on weanling sized rats and as far as I know he's a good size for his age. I don't know if his parents at 8Ball were particularily good sized BP's or not but we are more than impressed with his growth rate on smaller prey sized rats and wouldn't dream of wanting him on anything bigger ever.

Malachi at 1 year of age.

[JenHarrison]

Adam, how can you tell if a ball python is fat vs. naturally big?

[Adam_Wysocki]

Adam, how can you tell if a ball python is fat vs. naturally big?

I believe that it's more experience than anything else ... once you've had your hands on 4, 5, 6 hundred different adult ball pythons, you begin to get a "feel" for how an individual animals "body type" is and what that "good breeder" weight would be.

-adam

[JenHarrison]

Hmmmm. Is there a certain weight range a male should be in as an adult? One of my males is 8 years old, 4.5 feet long, and weighs a bit over 1800g...then I have an 11-year-old male that is 5 feet long and weighs just shy of 2500g. My 3-year old male is 4.25 feet long and just over 2100g.

[joepythons]

I also try to keep my ball pythons to a limit of small to just barely mediums on a every 5 to 10 feeding schedual.I recently changed from a 5 to 7 day feedings to the 5 to 10,as i was noticeing more waste then being absorbed by my snakes.I was told two years back when i first wanted to breed ball pythons to not let them get to be fatties lol.I am sure if i threw rats in their enclosures on a daily process they would eat them with no problems.I personally would like to see my snakes live along time instead of rolling over dead from overeating .Plus like said allready a healthy snake is a better breeder compared to a overweight snake that will slug out.

[SnakeySnakeSnake]

YES YES YES ... fat/chubby male balls (pythons) are lazy sacks of poop ... they don't want to breed, they only want to sleep ... females too, fat/chubby female balls (pythons) IME are more prone to slugs or just not being receptive to males .... keep your males lean and your females "athletic" ... for males I feed one "small small" rat per week or 2 small adult mice ... for females I feed about the same, sometimes girls get 2 "small smalls" depending on their size. You don't need to feed ball pythons "big food".

People that visit are ALWAYS shocked at how small the rats that I feed my giant girls are ... but it's really all that they need.

89% of everything I bred this year laid eggs and out of several hundred eggs, I can count my slugs on my fingers ... a lot of that is in the diet.

-adam

Good info. Have you noticed if some snakes just dont seem to put on thet weight very well with the smaller meals?

[Adam_Wysocki]

Good info. Have you noticed some snakes just dont seem to put on thet weight very well with the smaller meals?

No, not at all. You could pull out any female in my shop that laid eggs this season and you wouldn't be able to tell that she had lost 1/3 of her body weight a couple of months ago. People are amazed that the size of many of my big girls and how little they actually eat. I really believe that a majority of the ball pythons in captive collections are severely over fed.

I think there are some ball pythons that are just fussy ... big meals, small meals, doesn't matter, they're a PITA no matter what you do ... but I've found that with small meals it's actually easier to get all of them to eat very regularly.

-adam