Reptile & Amphibian Forums

only reply if you have had ball pythons more than ten years.

How many times you going to ask the same question? Also, beggars can't be choosers.

I know the answer but I'd like to see what others are feeding their snakes, this is a forum.....thats what theyre for.

Don't you mean you're waiting for the answer that you want to hear? You've received wonderful, educated responses from some avid BP owners. Don't you trust them? Why bother posting the same question twice in as many days?

That Jeff Favelle, Randy Remington, and Jmartin all have no idea what they are talking about? From reading their posts over the last year, they have more information in their left pinkies than you hope to EVER have. Keep it up, you're making LOADS of friends!!! BTW, you can remove that bullet from your own foot with 16" locking hemostats.

I've only been keeping ball pythons right at 10 years but I haven't kept much for records so can't be much help.

The question of optimal feeding certainly seems to be open for debate. Some are suggesting larger meals (25 - 33% of the snakes weight) and long periods in between (wait for defecate) and some are suggesting smaller (5 - 10%) and more frequent (once or twice a week) meals.

Lately I've been feeding once a week because that's how often I can get rodents. My ball pythons aren't inclined to take very large meals so I'm getting moderate growth on once a week feedings.

Years ago I had a group of babies and my own rodent colony and I was feeding every 4 or 5 days and those grew up much faster than anything on my once a week schedule. I’m trying to step some border line breeder sized females I have now up to twice a week feedings of 5 – 10% of their weight (probably closer to 5%). This seems to me not to be too extreme and not to risk their health but who knows. My thinking is that their digestive system can handle the steady flow of small food and there my be some extra efficiency in not having to build up and break down the digestive system for larger less frequent meals. However, I don’t have the data to back up this theory.

If you aren't trying to grow a snake up to breed and really don't care how fast it grows then once every two weeks is fine. As long as the meal size is fairly big (10% or more) then the snake will not be starved, it just will take a long time to grow up.