What size rats do you feed your adult female balls? POLL

well ive been looking over the BP.net thread again and from what im seeing everyone that seems to be passing all these golden nuggets of knowledge down seem to be feeding live prey


now if that is the case Im ALL FOR FEEDING small meals...jsut feed multiple prey items and theres no problems

I know ALOT of folks that do just that...now as for me i feed live to maybe 5 outta 200 bps...adn the live eaters never get anything bigger than a larged weaned rat...Becuase if you drop a large rat in with a BP that gets tagged by the rat or other wised stressed out from it,then it WILL fast...

all this crap about feeding large meals will make snakes fast tho is total BS and this i know from years of experience...i would say 75% of my breeder females will eat all the way up until develop VERY large follicles and i would say that 25% those will eat right up until they ovualte and my ALL my breeder males will eat straight thru the breeding season (i give them a meal every 2-3 weeks while breeding) and then feed them heavily again on close to same regimine as i do my females and juvies

And there are quite a few folks that have posted in this thread that have been to my house numerous times and seen my animals and can attest to the fact they do eat and eat well,and that most will try to tkae off yoru face when you open a tub LOL

Originally Posted by jglass38

I'm not going to bother rehashing it. Feel free to read it there yourself. www.ball-pythons.net . Do a little search on Jake and some of the stupidity that has come out of his mouth.

I've made my points here clear. My opinions..

Man... Okay. fine. you know what... Ignore my last statement this is getting ridiculous, and i just feel the need.


that last comment was Not Necessary....not in the least.

I read the thread and did not see him trying to say "ALL BIG BREEDERS DO THIS NO MATTER WHAT EVERYTHING I SAY IS 100% FACT." and NEVER did i see him say that "I spoke to this breeder and he said"..... so... wheres that coming from Jamie?

I actually saw him making a pretty good point, and adam backed that up, that... everyone does everything different, and everyone has different personal experiences. same song you are getting here.


You seemed to have made the ASSumption that he said and thought things he did not though...

Originally Posted by BryonsBoas

Now we're getting somewhere.

One other question for whoever. Is the reason for the smaller size feeders due to feeding live?

I've had alot of girls in the 1700 - 3000 gram range taking mediums to larges without any ill effects or obesity. Not sure why this is such a touchy subject.

Safety of the snake is always a concern with me when feeding live. Just one more reason that I choose small prey items. When I fed all FT I fed smalls as well.

Its a hot button subject like all the others I mentioned earlier. There is no winning, just going round and round. I didn't start this thread or the one on the other forum. I can say I've never started a prey size, ft vs live, heat or humane killing of feeders thread. But I'll certainly post when I feel I have something of substance too add.

Originally Posted by Gib

well ive been looking over the BP.net thread again and from what im seeing everyone that seems to be passing all these golden nuggets of knowledge down seem to be feeding live prey


now if that is the case Im ALL FOR FEEDING small meals...jsut feed multiple prey items and theres no problems

I know ALOT of folks that do just that...now as for me i feed live to maybe 5 outta 200 bps...adn the live eaters never get anything bigger than a larged weaned rat...Becuase if you drop a large rat in with a BP that gets tagged by the rat or other wised stressed out from it,then it WILL fast...

all this crap about feeding large meals will make snakes fast tho is total BS and this i know from years of experience...i would say 75% of my breeder females will eat all the way up until develop VERY large follicles and i would say that 25% those will eat right up until they ovualte and my ALL my breeder males will eat straight thru the breeding season (i give them a meal every 2-3 weeks while breeding) and then feed them heavily again on close to same regimine as i do my females and juvies

And there are quite a few folks that have posted in this thread that have been to my house numerous times and seen my animals and can attest to the fact they do eat and eat well,and that most will try to tkae off yoru face when you open a tub LOL

Agreed on the first part and agree to disagree on the other. And the world keeps spinning!

It would make alot more sense to disagree with the rest of it if you actually had some experience with what your talking about...Instead of regurgitating what you heard someone else say

Originally Posted by Mooing Tricycle

Man... Okay. fine. you know what... Ignore my last statement this is getting ridiculous, and i just feel the need.


that last comment was Not Necessary....not in the least.

I read the thread and did not see him trying to say "ALL BIG BREEDERS DO THIS NO MATTER WHAT EVERYTHING I SAY IS 100% FACT." and NEVER did i see him say that "I spoke to this breeder and he said"..... so... wheres that coming from Jamie?

I actually saw him making a pretty good point, and adam backed that up, that... everyone does everything different, and everyone has different personal experiences. same song you are getting here.


You seemed to have made the ASSumption that he said and thought things he did not though...

Alicia,

I am not sure where your crusade to save young Jake from himself started. I don't care. Feel free to search for old threads and you will see some of the things he has said in the past. Once again, he was suspended for a comment to a moderator that I won't repeat. Jake wants to talk like a man so quit defending him and let him fight his own battles.

Originally Posted by Gib

It would make alot more sense to disagree with the rest of it if you actually had some experience with what your talking about...Instead of regurgitating what you heard someone else say

Let me reiterate for the cheap seats. I have PERSONALLY seen fasts in MY collection that I can attribute (through record keeping) to feeding prey items that were too large. I don't know how to make it anymore clear. It wasn't a one off situation. When I first kept Ball Pythons I knew very little. I overfed them. I gained a lot of knowledge through others, as I am sure you did, and over the years began to experience these things for myself. This argument is getting old.

Originally Posted by jglass38

Safety of the snake is always a concern with me when feeding live. Just one more reason that I choose small prey items. When I fed all FT I fed smalls as well.

Its a hot button subject like all the others I mentioned earlier. There is no winning, just going round and round. I didn't start this thread or the one on the other forum. I can say I've never started a prey size, ft vs live, heat or humane killing of feeders thread. But I'll certainly post when I feel I have something of substance too add.

Thats why I was always there with 12" hemos when feeding live. A little persuasion to keep the rats head where I wanted it when it wasn't a face grab.

I have a 2 year old male pastel that was a mouser for 2 years , he's not much bigger than the yearlings I raised from babies on rats. Not seeing the feeding small meals approach really working. Now that I have him on rats he's finally getting proper muscle tone instead of the 3rd world look. I'll stick to my way.

Originally Posted by jglass38

Alicia,

I am not sure where your crusade to save young Jake from himself started. I don't care. Feel free to search for old threads and you will see some of the things he has said in the past. Once again, he was suspended for a comment to a moderator that I won't repeat. Jake wants to talk like a man so quit defending him and let him fight his own battles.

Oh, jake can defend himself if he wants to, im not about to take on any game like that, believe you me. BUT....but. i wont let a post with inaccurate information pass by either. Granted it was in the other forum, i feel it needs to be brought to light.

Regardless of whatever past history you have with jake, WAS irrelevant to this thread. It was not any attack on you, and was just a mere mention of another "unnamed forum" where the discussion was taking place.

Jake did not SAY he spoke to any big breeders in that thread. so... where you got that from, i do not know. No crusade, just plain ole Right Vs. Wrong.

Originally Posted by BryonsBoas

Thats why I was always there with 12" hemos when feeding live. A little persuasion to keep the rats head where I wanted it when it wasn't a face grab.

I have a 2 year old male pastel that was a mouser for 2 years , he's not much bigger than the yearlings I raised from babies on rats. Not seeing the feeding small meals approach really working. Now that I have him on rats he's finally getting proper muscle tone instead of the 3rd world look. I'll stick to my way.

Sounds good! Glad we could discuss things like civil adults!