Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I had heard that power feeding is not good to do after about a year. I also heard (from same, possibly unreliable source) that power feeding means once a week. I read about a lot of you guys feeding once a week even though the snakes are quite large (over 1000g). Is this power feeding? How should a snake be fed? As often as he'll take it? Thanks.

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1.0 BP, Syd (and Nancy is coming soon!)
1.0 Frilled Dragon (Frankie)
0.0.2 Firebellied Toads (Stanley and Stuart)
0.2 French Lops (Jacquotte and Lapine)

Power feeding would be more than one time a week. IMHO Once a week is normal. Babies grow the quickest in their first year, so feeding more than once a week isn't such a bad thing. Once that year is over and their growth slows you have problems like your animal becoming obese. This is my intake on the subject.
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John Light
Pristine Pythons
ristinePythons@Hotmail.com">Contact Me

New Web Site Comming Soon!

"Powerfeeding" pssshhhawww!!! I OFFER my sub-year old balls food every 4-5 days, if they are hungry, they'll eat. No forcing going on here, if they want it, they take it, if they don't, they won't. The people who you hear talking about "powerfeeding" are the people who's balls aren't growing fast enough for their liking. Sour grapes.

in my opinion power feeding could be determined by each snake. If your snake feeds every 4 days and continually grows longer and larger then the snake isn't becoming overweight. if the snake just keeps getting fatter then you need to cut down on the feeding. I have a male normal bp that will eat every 3-4 days and is constantly growing even though he's well over 2 yrs old. on the other hand i have a female normal that eats ever 5-7 days and anything less than that makes her a fat slob and she is probably right at the 2 yr old mark ( don't know for sure because i bought her from a friend and he didn't feed her like she needed to be fed and was stunted ). the male is right at 1200g and the female is right at 1000g. the male has grown 400g in the last 5 months and the female has only grown 100g in the same 5 months. so an older male growing faster than a younger female based on their individual genetics/growing rates. so basically you have to determine if you are feeding your snakes too much or just the right amount.
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2.0 het pied
1.1 het albino
1.7 normal
1.0 american pit bull terrior
1.1 damn taco dogs (ankle biters)
1.0 grey cat

a BAD dog is MADE not bred, support the American Pit Bull Terrior as the greatest breed of dogs on Earth!!!!!

I feed a smaller sized food item 2x's per week nomatter how old or large the animal is, and only cut back to once a week when they start to get too fat for my liking. Size of food has alot to do with it, as does frequency & # of food items being offered.

Remember an obese snake is "usually" an unhealthy animal that will probably not reproduce to its fullist ability. Same thing goes for a thin snake. Keep them on the chunky side, but not so much that it has trouble making a tight coil. Chunky Bp's are healthy Bp's since they usually go off feed for many months every year & use up the extra fat you put on them.
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Chad Bachman

What do you consider a small feeding item? A mouse, small rat or rat pups?

All my snakes eat at different times because they are not all hungry at the same time. 1.1 normals will eat every week while my other 1.0 normal will only eat every 3 weeks. My het pied eats every 2-3 weeks, but not more often while my pied has refused food for the past 5 weeks - and still managed to shed.
I have a little baby, about 4 mos old that will eat a mouse every 5 days. And of course, the Suriname will eat anything, anytime!

Picky eaters!!

Any ideas on how to get them all on the same schedule?
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...got balls?

graycat

Letting me live here:
2.2 normals
0.1 pie ball
1.0 hetpied
0.1 Suriname
? Common snapping turtle
? Alligator snapping turtle
1 Guinea pig
2 gold fish (turtle survivors)
3 pet rats and
3 cats
Oh yeah, and 3 children!

When I say small I mean no larger than the thickest part of the snakes body (usually smaller though).

All but a few of my Balls eat very well, so I'm not sure why you would be having problems. Try smaller caging maybe? Caging that is not clear like glass will also help (I use opaque Sterilite & Rubbermaid boxes). I also have 11 "04" babies in 28 quart Rubbermaids, and they eat everytime, so cage size is not always that important, but for some it is (smaller is usually better until they are feeding well).
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Chad Bachman

My animals are all in black Boaphile racks, and I believe that the enclosed dark feeling they get from these racks helps alot.

JMO, and others may have some good advise that is completely oposite of what I do, but this setup is working very well for me and I don't plan on changing it anytime soon.
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Chad Bachman

I have my 04' het albinos in shoe box rubbermaids. They eat rat pups 2-3 times a week. I feed my big 1290 gram females a colossal rat everytime they will take them (could be 3 weeks between feedings). A snake can take a meal up to 3 times the size of it's largest girth! I've found my balls grow much fast on rats for one. For 2 a larger meal less often also seems to help. I'm in no hurry to get these girls up to size. I feed everything in their first year pretty much as often as they will take.
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John Light
Pristine Pythons
ristinePythons@Hotmail.com">Contact Me

New Web Site Comming Soon!

Personally I think that once a week is too often to feed a large BP. I feed my big male about twice a month, and he is still on the husky side. It is bad if they develop fatty deposits. I do feed my young growing '03 Bps once a week, but honestly they seem to be getting a bit too chubby and I may go with once every 10 days.
Honestly, I would never go by the rule "if they'll take it, it's OK to feed them." My boa (bci) would honestly eat a dozen small rats if I kept offering them to him, lol. I guess that if we are keeping them in artificial domestic conditions, we have to "think" for them and feed them a diet that wont cause obesity and early death.
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2.1 Ball pythons: Goblin, Nothing, and Bela
1.0 Boa Constrictor Imperator: Apache
0.1 albino Cranwell's horned frog: Bene
1.0 Tiger salamander: Slasher
1.0 black kittycat, Inky
A bunch of Oscar cichlids, one giant pleco, huge breeding lot of "fancy" (read: deformed) goldfish, and me an' the boyfriend.

Balls aren't boas.