Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Granted, my BP is not a retic python. However, this retic ate near its own body weight. Also, I am not saying that you should try to feed a bp its own body weight. ***Listen very carefully to what I AM saying: With all the feeding that we feed BP's, we are no where near their limit!

For example, when my bp was 500g, I fed him a 200 gram meal (consisting of a 15g mouse followed by a 185 gram rat). This would be way less than body weight. It actually was way less than 1/2 body weight. The BP handled it well and I have never had a bp regurge from large meals. I train my BP's to eat very large from the time they are hatchlings.

(My 500 gram BP eating a 200 gram meal:

I know I will get some admant disagreements to what I am saying. Hey, but that is just the way the world is. When an accepted practice has been taken as dogma, anyone new coming along and saying a new way is just fine will be labelled a heretic.

So, I am prepared for the flames. Most readily, I am ready for the obligatory statement: "Longtang, you have no idea what you are doing. You are killing your snake."

Oh, let's not forget my favorite: "poor snake!. Longtang: I feel sorry for your snake "

p.s. (sorry to start out so defensive. However, I am experienced enough at these forums to anticipate the kind of flame I am going to get!)

Here is the link to the thread on Bobclark where I found the retic feeding picture. If you won't listen to me, I refer you to the experts. The experts on this thread have more knowledge than I can ever hope to gather. They have opened my eyes to go against conventional wisdom!
Click this blue line to read a thread posted by an Expert!

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Longtang. I like snakes and rats.

Just kidding...

>>Just kidding...

Funny one! Thanks for look'n

sincerely.

P.s. Please have a great Ball Python Feeding Day!
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Longtang. I like snakes and rats.

The story was a oil rig worker went missing and then found here... But this is clearly a LARGE animal (hog?)....
Sry.... The by-line made me warn you....

Who would have thought they would find a retic in South America? HAHAHAHA
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Justyn
Intense Herpetoculture

I think I have seen this pic before. Maybe not this one, but similar - they cut the captured snake open, and found a human body. The pics showed the body being revealed, obvoiusly not placed there for a photo op, you know?

Don't know where I saw that, and it's been a few years, at least....

facinating creatures we are all so in love with, aren't they?
Material Witness

That picture was a hoax. It's been circulating for many years, and as you can see from this before pic, it's not a person, unless the snake started eating from the butt or knees. Also in the after pic, where the snake was cut open, the person inside did not look like you would expect. These snakes have viral digestive acids and they work fast. I'm not saying it isn't possible for a large snake like this to eat a person, just in this case......it isn't the case.

Brandon Osborne

yeah, i heard about that one too... the human they showed wasn't digested enough. i agree it was a hoax.

-Matt
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perfect7.com - Website Design & Development

1.1 Leopard Geckos ("Owen" - normal & "Wee One" - patternless)
0.1.1 Ball Python (both normal: Monty & Musota)

While I've never had a ball regurgitate from eating too large a meal I have had several back off large meals that they apparently thought where too large to swallow. Relative to what I've seen Boa Constrictors and Burmese pythons eat they really weren’t that large of meals per snake size and I was surprised that they gave up. Maybe my ball pythons are wimps.

I've also had balls that seemed to go off of rats right after being offered one that they apparently thought was too big. I think they can get intimidated and then have to start working up with smaller prey animals again.

If yours will eat huge meals and have no problems from them then good for you. I'll probably continue to test the limits of mine from time to time but am pretty conservative about it.

I did once loose a milk snake that suffocated trying to eat too large of a meal. It was an odd situation where the previous keeper hadn't been able to feed for a while and I didn't have the right size item but felt I needed to feed right away (very thin). Of course in hindsight I feel terrible about it but I learned that at least it is possible to loose a snake that way. Anyone ever have a ball that couldn't back off a feeder that was too big to swallow?

>>While I've never had a ball regurgitate from eating too large a meal I have had several back off large meals that they apparently thought where too large to swallow. Relative to what I've seen Boa Constrictors and Burmese pythons eat they really weren’t that large of meals per snake size and I was surprised that they gave up. Maybe my ball pythons are wimps.
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>>I've also had balls that seemed to go off of rats right after being offered one that they apparently thought was too big. I think they can get intimidated and then have to start working up with smaller prey animals again.
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>>If yours will eat huge meals and have no problems from them then good for you. I'll probably continue to test the limits of mine from time to time but am pretty conservative about it.
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>>I did once loose a milk snake that suffocated trying to eat too large of a meal. It was an odd situation where the previous keeper hadn't been able to feed for a while and I didn't have the right size item but felt I needed to feed right away (very thin). Of course in hindsight I feel terrible about it but I learned that at least it is possible to loose a snake that way. Anyone ever have a ball that couldn't back off a feeder that was too big to swallow?

I have had back offs at least 3 or four times with two different Snakeys. They were both BP's. I think of it as another insurance where the BP themselves know what is too big.

I am actually kind of like you. I test the limits only time to time. What I mean is that I don't test the limits each and everytime I feed.

Most of the time, I feed much smaller than the 185 gm rat. In fact, I have only fed 185 gm rat one time. The second larges rat is a distant 110 grams.

cheers.
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Longtang. I like snakes and rats.

yup, I have. More than once. I have an adult female ball who is very picky, so I thought I'd follow her rat crawler with a larger than usual pk adult rat. It didn't even seem that large compared to her, and she had started swallowing it. I checked back with her an hour later and she was still fighting to get it down - coiling around it and trying to reposition it. I left it with her anyway and the next morning there was the rat with a bloody and mucus covered head and neck where the snake had obviously tried multiple times to swallow and didn't succeed.

The same thing happened with a different adult female (except that I left a ft rat in her cage, which she took on her own) and I've had a blood python regurge a huge meal after a couple days, which is pretty disgusting.

It sounds like you have only seen the same things I've seen with balls, them backing off on their own from a meal they didn't think they could swallow. I was wondering if anyone had balls regurgitate after a large meal or die trying to swallow a one too big. I'd be surprised if someone hadn't seen each of those but then again it looks like ball pythons hardly ever get egg bound so maybe the are also better than other snakes about not taking too big of meals.

np

I have had balls stop eating large meals or rats altogether then go back to mice also....they do not like BIG stuff and it does scare them /hurt them/or at least make them stop.......

JY

that is stupid....I don't care who did it........
Bob probably doesn't feed that large stuff at all or all the time..
maybe it was an experiment?........
maybe the retic died?.....puked?.........
still stupid.........

.......pythons digets slowly..........no need to feed large....
balls digest slower than alot of other big snakes even I think ?

balkls are fine on small rats once a week or less.....

YES I know people that killed balls from over feeding.....(and they used mice to do it).........(wasn't MY $15,000).....

do as you wish.........

???WHY do you think we sell so many snakes every year??????

answer.......people KILL so many snakes every year.......

it equals out.......

Yep

JYReptiles..........

(that balls' rat is TOO large too)..........