Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,

I have heard several people report that pieds are notorious for going off feed.

Just wondering your experience with them on feeding and overall adult size compared to the other morphs?

Anyone working with large pieds? I have read some people report 3-5,000g bp's. Anyone have pieds get that large? Thanks....

Jonathan

I currently have Pied females over 2000g and I have a Pied female around 2600g(who is getting ready to drop eggs, if not gravid I'm sure she would be pushing 3000g). I also have a few Het Pieds that are all over 2000g. They are some off my most aggresive feeders. They will skip a feeding every so often just like any other Ball Python. But for most part I have never experienced any long term feeding problems. I hope this helps.
Brian Galley Reptiles

My first male pied took 9-months off eating every year once he reached breeding size. For those 3-months he did eat he'd eat a lot!

My biggest female pied has been a mouser most of her life, but will eat 4-7 adult mice every 5 days when she wants to eat. She has always had good proportion and never looked thin. She was 1500 grams at the beginning of the breeding season, but I knew if I let her become gravid she would lose a good portion of that weight when she dropped her clutch so I didn't breed her this season. She's currently around 1800 grams. She should be well over 2000-2500 grams before I introduce pairs in the late fall/early winter.

Three of my current 2011 females are all voracious rat feeders and are all 700-800 grams and don't refuse meals, but as most females do, they'll probably become "full" anytime and take their first break from feeding. I've been working with balls long enough to not worry about them going off feed. They do it and I've never lost one yet.

Pieds are an amazing naturally occurring ball python and I can't imagine not having some in my collection. They're still my favorite "morph", even with all the crazy combos out there.

thanks for the feedback. maybe it was just their personal opinions.

i have a female pied that is almost a yr old, about 700g, and been off feed for about a month. she is well proportioned, and my favorite bp

i think it's interesting getting to know them individually. my female pied started off slamming f/t, then went to live rats, then live mice, now off feed for a month. i have a female ax het snow that is the same age that has never stopped eating anything she can fit in her mouth. lol

i really like the pieds and in the process of getting a couple projects going. looking to add another female to my little collection. i have to admit that i really enjoy raising them. i steered clear of bp's for a lot of yrs because of the feeding. compared to pitts, kings, and the old world rats, they are a lot more picky when it comes to eating. the bp's are really growing on me though

jonathan

Some of the biggest bps I own are pieds and the absolute biggest (5k is a het pied)
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J. Kobylka Reptiles
JKR 2011 Birthing Records

Warning: Snakes have been shown to cause death in laboratory rats.

My largest animals are my Pied and get Pieds. The largest being over 5500 grams at prime breeding weight. One of her Pied daughters at 3000 , and one of my late 2010 girls at 2000. I have never had an issue with any of my pieds.
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Brandon Osborne Reptiles

I have a 3 year old pied female that is maybe 1000gms and doesn't eat. I move her to a new tub, give her hides and she eats for a month or so and then stops again. Then I usually try something else to get her e Rey so often to try to g her to eat. I put a male in with her this season hoping to get her to eat more, seems to be working. We will see.........

correction.... my female pied is eating again. i remembered that the last thing she ate a month ago was a white mouse. she slammed one as soon as i put it in! little booger! then ate a second one!

in the past month i had tried f/t rats & mice, live small rats of various colors, and live mice various colors except for white.

well, you know what they say... "once you go white, you'll never be right." lol

guess i'm stocking up on the white ones

jonathan

this begs the question: with most morphs, are there behavioral differences? like feeding? i bet not and that we attribute these things to different lines of parentage, not morph - in many cases, it is not so far off from being a paint job. like saying does a red prius guzzle less gas than a two tone prius.

of course some visual morphs do have behavioral differences, like the spider wobble. but for the morphs that really are the same except for coloring, i think there is no difference in these matters.

just my opinion - i'm no biologist.

paul, you may be correct. i'm far from an expert when it comes to bp's. that is why i asked on here to learn from others that have more experience with them. i have seen dramatic differences between individual feeding patterns. as to whether that is because of them being different morphs or just different individuals, i don't have enough experience to really say.

brandon, niiiiiiice.... let's see a pic of that 5,500g beast

jonathan