Feeding Question

[bbkaren]

Hi, I've got an adult male ball python who just took a medium rat for us after eating nothing since November (when his previous owner gave him 7 mice in 7 days!)

Now that he's eaten we want to make sure we're feeding him properly. Is a medium rat a week the norm?

Or just whenever he'll take it--maybe they won't overeat if they're not hungry? Any info would be appreciated!

[Kathy]

Give him a size of rat depending how thick his thickest spot in his body is. The food should be just large enough to leave a small bulge for about 1-2 days. I usually feed my 8mo old female about 2-3 days after she poops

[Kyle Walkinshaw]

A medium to large rat should be enough for a large ball and should be fed every 7 days. Like Kathy said it depends on the girth of your snake, they can vary quite a bit in size. Do you happen to have a pic we could see?

[Linds]

Snakes will over eat so you have to keep things controlled (or you would never see any obese snakes, or "powerfed products"). An appropriate sized rodent once a week seems to work out fine for most snakes. Some snakes may require more or less, jsut pay attention to your snakes behaviour. If he doesn't eat at this time of year don't be alarmed (unless he appears sick or is losing large quantity of mass). This is the time of year many mature BP's fast. Hope this helps :)

[Sir Hiss]

Linds is right. Ball pythons can overeat. Just because they are eating it does not mean they are hungry. I try to feed them at longer intervals and gradually work my way to those intervals. I start out one rat a week them move to one rat every nine days and then one very 12 days and try to keep it at about there, though you could very easily go longer. I posted the following statement in another thread but it applies here. I have been in the presence of two snakes. One was a snake that ate a large rat every week and the other ate a large rat every three weeks. They were almost identical in weight and both were very freindly and healthy. I do know that a hungry ball is more apt to strike hoping that you hand may be food, but this graduall process tries to elimate that. The reason for all of this? With so many snakes or even just one it becomes way less expensive and there is simply less work to do.