Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi everyone,
I have had my ball for eleven months now, and he was seven months old when I got him. He is almost 32 inches long, and I am feeding him fully grown f/t mice. How often would you recommend I feed him? I was feeding him every 5-7 days, but he has slowed down a lot. I don't want him fat, just to grow big and healthy. Should I just throw him a mouse every time the bulge from the last one disappears and he looks ready for another (every 5-7 days or so)? I know with corn snakes that a lot of people feed them way too much too fast to get them to breeding size quicker and shorten their lives, I don't want to that just get a nice big snake.

Thanks,
Taylor

once a week is fine..if you wanna beef up twice a week...i have a girl that i've had for a year & change she's 900 grams & i've been feeding rats since she was 350 grams....small & med rats.... if you think that he's geting to fat just take off feeding for 2 weeks or so...they'll be completely empty then you can tell if he's too fat... personally i wouldn't worry about it balls are a robust python...not as wide as bloods but they def have a nice thickness to them & so far i haven't heard of feed twice a week or one big meal a week being damaging to the snake.. true you don't want him "Rerun" fat but a ball a lil on the plump side isnt horrible.
that's what i do & my snakes seem very happy about it
hope i helped later

I don't think 2 mice a week will make him chubby at all. If you want him to grow a little better/faster, I would swith to feeding him a med rat every 7-10 days.

what i do is i wait to see my BP roam around in the day and/or looking hungry at night. Then I feed her.

ive had my BP since april of of last year....and its way bigger than 900grams...shes about 1300 grams now. I would feed your ball one small rat (110-120gram) or medium rat(130-190gram) i find that they grow alot faster and get bigger that way.