Are we feeding to much?

[Mina]

We have a male BP who is getting very big. He is about 43 inches long and I have no idea how much he weighs. According to the store we bought him from he was hatched around 10/05. My husband is concerned that we are overfeeding him with one medium rat every 6 days. If we feed him less often he becomes nippy in his excitement and hunger. Are we over feeding or power feeding and causing him to grow faster than he should?

[KIBPLOVER]

I have read somewhere that captive balls are over fed no matter what.. in the wild they do not eat as much as they do as we have them as pets...

[Mina]

I agree. We are worried that we are feeding him to much for him to be healthy. Of course the other option is we could have been lied to, he could be female.

[Rapture]

The largest prey item any ball python will ever need is a small rat. Maybe you could post a picture of your snake. If you continue to "overfeed" him, he will most likely go on a fast.

[Kagez28]

from what i have learned a BP can live a happy long life on a small rat every 7 days. snakes are opportunistic eaters in the wild, if its there they will eat it. but if you do feed them too much they will go off feed for unknown periods of time.