how big of a meal in accordance to snake

[mwedgley]

So I have a ball python that I have been having a hard time getting to eat regularly. I'm wondering if I am trying to feed her to big of prey. She is 531g and the prey weighed in at 102g. Help me out let me know what I should be doing.

[Thor26]

the rat should be about the size of the widest part of their body
try letting the snake get a wiff of the rat to get it in the mood to hunt.
dont just wake it up and shove it in its face lol. other than that iono

[Brimstone111888]

102g is a lot for a 532g snake. I would cut those meals about in half to about 50g per rat.

[APBTOwner]

With most of my Pythons I like to feed 20-25% of their body weight weekly, equaling 100% of their body weight in food monthly. I do this while they are growing for the first few years of their life.

But, with Ball-Pythons I would do it a little differently. From talking to a few breeders and owning a few of these Pythons myself I came to feed like this...

.... I think smaller is better. Ball-pythons in the wild do not move around to much, not really climbers and seem to have a slower metabolism. I have noticed that after feeding a really large meal, my BPs have fasted for a while afterward. I think they would do this in the wild also.

So, to keep them from fasting we fed smaller meals that were digested much faster. The BPs almost always stayed on food. They grow just as fast and since they are not fasting, they are in reality eating more then if you were feeding them larger meals.

Just some thouhts.

[rabernet]

I agree - I feed smaller. Even my adults get small/small rats and they eat weekly with only occassional refusals throughout the year (usually no longer than 1 week off feed). I don't go by the slightly larger than the girth rule, or my big females would be feeding on large rats.

[JoshJP7]

just personally experienced this last week... I remember one of my females got a slightly larger than normal meal 2 weeks ago and refused this last week. Im assuming she did this bc she does not need the food bc shes got enough in her. The majority of my snakes will poop 2-3 days after being fed when the meal is appropriate size. Since the meal this girl got 2 weeks ago was larger than normal she didnt poop on schedule. This in turn tells me her meal was too big and I need to cut back.

[mwedgley]

Great feedback guys I'm going to try to cut back her feeding. This is really important. So often are new herpers including myself told to feed around the girth of the snake which is what I have been doing. I have had trouble with feeding with my snake and I have a suspicion that this is in part due to to large of rats. I also appreciate the last point about it's pooping. I'd love to get 8balls point of view on this. If anyone knows how to contact him see if we could get him on this thread. Thanks.

[rabernet]

I'd love to get 8balls point of view on this. If anyone knows how to contact him see if we could get him on this thread. Thanks.

He feeds small/smalls - even to his largest females.

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...39&postcount=6

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...1&postcount=12

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...9&postcount=13

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...3&postcount=14

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...=small%2Fsmall

And just for fun when someone wanted to debate Adam on whether his females could get very big from his feeding schedule:

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...4&postcount=48

That's just a few of his comments on the subject - there are many, many more (too many to post)

[TanyaL]

He feeds small/smalls - even to his largest females.

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...39&postcount=6

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...1&postcount=12

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...9&postcount=13

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...3&postcount=14

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...=small%2Fsmall

And just for fun when someone wanted to debate Adam on whether his females could get very big from his feeding schedule:

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...4&postcount=48

That's just a few of his comments on the subject - there are many, many more (too many to post)

Interesting stuff! After reading these, I'm wondering if maybe I should cut back a little. I've got a 170g little girl, feeding 25g small adult mice. What do you think? Based on girth size, prey is about right.

[JoshJP7]

25g is fine. I feed my smallest 07(whose around 170) a 25g large mouse every 5 days. I keep this schedule until they hit 300g or so and then move them to small weanling rats (25-35g) once a week.