Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i got my first ball python in april of 2010 and she is an 09 hatchling from late in the year. My friend hasa male pastel i want to breed to her (shes a yellowbelly) but no matter how often i feed her, she still grows slowly. Now she is about 37 inches long and about 850 grams. I try to feed her 2 adult mice every 5 days. Even with a packed feeding schedule, she is not growing at the speed i was told she would. Is it possible the breeder i got her from sold me a male by accidant? Or do you guys have suggestions on how to feed her if i want to breed her in the '11-'12 season?

Is there a reason that you are not feeding her rats? Even with feeding every 5 days, 2 mice is not a whole lot of food if you are wanting to put weight on her.
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John Vandegrift

If possible you should always try and feed your female ball pythons rats. If your snake just won't take a rat and she will eat mice I would offer her the largest mice you can find preferably retired breeder mice every other day. On this schedule you will begin to see weight gain.

Good luck

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Brian Gundy

www.for-goodness-snakes.com

Switch her to small rats and feed her every 4-5 days.
She'll grow.

My first season I traded a female pastel to a friend. (4 years ago).
I got her back last October and she was 500 grams. (Yeah...)

I weighed her yesterday...and she's 1750 grams. All I did was feed her whenever she wanted to eat. (Which is pretty much all the time, so I made sure it was at least 4 days after her last meal).

You should be able to get her up to size for next season easily.
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"What is man without the beasts?
If all the beasts were gone,
men would die from great loneliness of spirit.
For what happens to the beasts,
soon happens to men.
All things are connected."

-Chief Seattle (Duwamish Tribe)

I agree with the other posts, try feeding her small rats. However, there is a limit on how fast a snake will grow no matter how often you feed it (and they might refuse to eat if they aren't hungry enough).
I don't think it's realistic to think that you can make a female snake grow to breeding size in a year. On the other hand, what's wrong with waiting a little longer for her to reach a breeding size? what's the rush?
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Sed et serpens erat callidior cunctis animantibus terrae quae fecerat Dominus Deus...

Substitute your 2 adult mice with a rat slightly larger than small but smaller than medium and she will start packing on some weight. If you get her switched now….she could be ready for the 2011/2012 season.

Pitoon

>>i got my first ball python in april of 2010 and she is an 09 hatchling from late in the year. My friend hasa male pastel i want to breed to her (shes a yellowbelly) but no matter how often i feed her, she still grows slowly. Now she is about 37 inches long and about 850 grams. I try to feed her 2 adult mice every 5 days. Even with a packed feeding schedule, she is not growing at the speed i was told she would. Is it possible the breeder i got her from sold me a male by accidant? Or do you guys have suggestions on how to feed her if i want to breed her in the '11-'12 season?
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Alright it looks like i got some good suggestions and i thank you all for the help. So im going to switch her over to small rats and see how she does on that.
Thanks,
Matt

you got at least 8 months....people have had 850 gram females lay eggs...and she'll be a better age than 22 month olds I have bred....(big ones)....you got time.....bigger cage also makes better snakes.....

mice make big snakes....trust me...I have bred snakes at 22 months old and over 2000 grams and they ate all mice diets...
yes huge mice...but like 2 at a time maybe 2 times a week?....they digest totally...and use every bit of those mice....

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........JY