Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a pair of het pieds. The female is a finicky eater at best. She will eat rat pups left in over night (usually), but not much else. I saw all the post earlier about other peoples frustrations with het pieds. Do pieds have the same feeding issues too or is this just a few people voicing thier frustrations to a post. Are thier any great feeding pieds or het pieds out there? Do pieds have a rep for taking longer to reach breeding size? Thanks in advance!

I have a pair of 2005 het pieds. The male was approx. 600 grams at a year old and the female was 1500g at a year old. I fed both one rat per week up until October 2006 when feeding slowed down for breeding season. The female het pied is currently in the middle of her pre-lay shed
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Balls, Milks & Coxi!

I have 2 05 male het pieds (no females yet, but I should have female poss. hets this year). Both of my males eat great and they bred this past season, so I haven't noticed any problems.

My male pied is an 05 and weighs about 1000 grams. My two female het pieds are 04s and weigh about 3000 grams.

The issues I have are not with the het pieds , but a pair of female het albinos. They are 04s and each weigh about 1000 grams. I'm lucky if I can get them to eat about once every two months.

This photo is of my male pied as a hatchling.

Brian

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Brian Gundy

www.for-goodness-snakes.com

I've got a pair of het pieds and they're the most picky feeders in my collection. It took me 6 months to get the male to start eating when I got him, and another year to get him on pre-killed food. The female is three years old but one third the size she should be. She eats every once in a while, but not often enough to gain much weight. I wonder if she'll EVER be big enough to breed.

They're a challenge.

Do you feed the female live or PK?
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John Vandegrift

I've fed her everything. She'll eat f/t mice just fine for a while then decide she's stubborn and only wants live. Then she doesn't want those again after a few weeks and only accepts f/t again. She's eaten f/t and live mice, and f/t and live small rats...but only once every 2 or 3 weeks and usually with a short fast in between. She can never make up her mind and her fasts are getting longer and longer. She's not skinny, but just never eats frequently enough to grow.

It's been long time rumored that pieds and het pieds had "issues" with feeding - some were hard to start - some prone to fasting - other wouldn't eat regular and others were just picky - some would eat great for their first year and then just stop feeding altogether.

All of which are pretty typical for balls - so it's kinda hard to tell if it runs more in pieds than it does in normals. Perhaps, like many things, it's just noticed more in morphs because we pay closer attention because are in a hurry to get them to size.

On another note: I have noticed that feeding responses and food preferences do seem to be somewhat genetic - which might also lead to the possibility that some pieds carry the "poor feeder gene" and others have had it bred out.
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Tosha
JET Pythons

I have 2 female August 05 het females that are 1200g and 1500g(1500g female ovulated today). I also have a female visual pied that was born on 12/6/07 that is 1600g. Maybe I am just lucky, but I think pieds/hets have just as much of a chance of being poor feeders as any other ball pythons. I have an 04 normal female that is at 850g and eats 1 small rat a month if I am lucky, and it has to be pitch black in the room just to get her to eat that. I think it is all just random. Some eat great, and some suck.
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John Vandegrift

great! My female was over 3000 grams before her first breeding at 30 months old. Her first clutch was 9 eggs and 4 were pieds. Her second clutch last year was 8 eggs and 4 were pieds. I held back 1.1 pieds from the first clutch and the female did have a short fast, but is up to 1300 grams at less than 2 years old. The male became a daddy this year to a pastel female and a normal female. I have no problems with any of mine. I've had most of my problems with pastels not feeding. Seems as though most balls begin a fast right at the 1000 gram mark......but maybe it's just me.

Good luck.
Brandon Osborne
Brandon Osborne Reptiles

I have a het pied from Pete.he is 2 years old and weighs about 500'Ish grams.......bred and made eggs but hasn't eaten in 8 months.......

I have 2 fem 66% poss het pied one 1700 grams and 2 years old......she ate last night so no eggs.....
her sister is like 1200- grams and less and laid 4 eggs.......

friend has a pair of pied that eat and grow but they just got them from Pete.....

........ask Pete...........he should know......he got a hundred kazillion of them
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......wild balls suck ! BUY AMERICAN DAMNIT

The one I am having trouble with is my female spider. She was a mouser but has gone on strike. both my f and m het pieds are every other week kind of snakes 1 the male is 05 and 980 and the female is 06 and about 500.
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5.9.0 ball python
2.1.0 columbian boa
1.0.0 rat snake (alabastered)
1.1.1 corn snake
0.1.0 Chuckwalla (Jamie)
1.1.0 Bearded Dragon
0.0.1 crested gecko
1.0.0 leopord gecko
4.0.0 Quaker parrot
1.0.0 Landseer Newfoundland (Mac)
Brian n Chrissy

"snakes are kind of like potato chips, you cant have just one"

Our 100% het male bred at 6 months (~500g) and sired 3 good clutches. Then the next year our 100% het female gave us 3 good eggs with him, and 2 were pieds. Those two pieds were about 600g-700g after their first year, so they grew great as well.
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Ben
www.australianaddiction.com