Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I had posted a month ago about my ball eating too much...i was told i ssshould be be grateful

well, i am

but worried too

because she just wont stop! she is just 20 inches long (about 5 months old) and as fat around as my wrist....i offer food about every 5 days and she takes it as SOON ass i put it in her feeding cage

tonight...3 adult mice....

is this too much even for a hungry girl?

input very welcome..please!!

I offer my snakes food twice weekly, and I have some real eaters too. What I watch for as far as overeating, is whether the snake feels stuffed full of feces - especially if it is a baby. If she is hard to the touch and you can just tell she is packed full of meals and poop, then it's time to leay off for a week or so until she gets some of that out of her system. So long as things are moving freely, I pretty much let my snakes eat as much as they want. I tend to prefer a couple of small food items to one huge meal, because I do think it's easier for them to digest. Just my two cents...

Good luck!

Christy

>>because she just wont stop! she is just 20 inches long (about 5 months old) and as fat around as my wrist....i offer food about every 5 days and she takes it as SOON ass i put it in her feeding cage
>>
>>tonight...3 adult mice....
>>
>>is this too much even for a hungry girl?
>>

I am by no means an expert, but usually I get told I feed 'WELL' and that is about double what mine would get. If she is truly only20 inches and the heavy then she is fat. My male is a bit over 2 ft and eats a 40-50gr rat once a week.
I think it is time to cut back on yours.
JMHO
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Sonya

Well from what I've read from books, such as "Reptiles and Amphibians for Dummies", and "Pythons" by Barlett and Barlett, and also from a Melissa Kaplin's website, it saids to feed the prey item not wider than the snake widest part of the body. They all said that the snake can regurgitate if the prey is bigger than the widest part if the temp is not right, I think it's either too warm or too cold. They should be able to get by for 10 days before eating again. Believe me that is plenty, considering they have low metabolism and can digest almost everything. One of the advantages of being cold-blooded is you don't need to eat unlike mammals, which burn tons of calories to keep a constant high body temperature. Crocodilians only need to eat very little food in proportion to their body size. In fact, their stomach is only as large as an adult human head, and some of these guys can grow to to 15, 20 feet long.

Some snakes can go for as long as a year without eating and not showing any sign of permanent damage with their low metabolism. Ball python is one of those snakes, and also I think the gaboon vipers.

Sorry, I got it mixed up that's 3 to 6 weeks interval between feeding. They don't need to eat a lot...they are amazingly efficient creatures.

>>Well from what I've read from books, such as "Reptiles and Amphibians for Dummies", and "Pythons" by Barlett and Barlett, and also from a Melissa Kaplin's website, it saids to feed the prey item not wider than the snake widest part of the body.

By that measure this snake should be taking rats...pretty good sized ones and that is NOT the case for a 20inch snake. So, yeah, I would say 3 mice is too much and the snake is fat or a whole lot longer than 20inches.
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Sonya

If your 20 inch ball is as thich as your wrist, then I'm guesing enough is enough. However, common sense should also poke it's head out every once in a while also. If your ball looks like it's going to explode, stop feeding it. It sounds like your ball is going to explode into a bloody mess. SLow down, let it poop out all it's food, weigh it and re-post.