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

Originally Posted by Jake The Snake

I was told at an un named forum that it is basically in a conclusion unhealthy to feed your balls a rat anything bigger than 50-70 gram range.

How naive.

You should ask "the expert" how many ball pythons they keep...and more interestingly, how many they've bred.

Ive gotta agree with Doc nothing wrong with feeding small meals My friend larry feeds basically nothing but weanling and small rats year round and he feeds multiple prey items and he feeds often very often LOL he also raises his own feeders so it makes it economically infeasible to really feed anything bigger cause theres no point in feeding the food

I always went by the girth rule. Never had a problem. Quite a few of my girls couldn't eat a small due to the inability of being able to safely constrict it. Typically the info that we have available is often referred to as guidelines since not everyones setups are the same. Some happen to be able to provide the optimum , some may be just below optimum and have to adjust accordingly. Go with what ya know and what works best for ya.

Ahhhhh...I see. After reading further in the thread things became a lot more clear.

Jake,
Just do what you know to be right...based on the info that you've been given by people who have actually kept and bred more than a few of the animals in question (whether ball pythons or otherwise). People like Sammy, as this...

Originally Posted by shrap

Folks, if there is one thing I have learned in over 25 years of keeping reptiles it is that there is not a single right way to do anything.

Any person that insists that there is only one right way of doing anything is the last person anyone should be listening to.

...was good advice.

Originally Posted by Dr Owens

How naive.

You should ask "the expert" how many ball pythons they keep...and more interestingly, how many they've bred.

Unfortunately Jake is a child and children sometimes don't comprehend everything they read. Nobody ever said unhealthy. What was said is that it is unnecessary to feed Ball Pythons large meals. They have a slow metabolism and have no need for large meals. Feeding overly large meals can lead to prolonged fasts. He maintains that many big breeders feed med/large rats every week. He was asked to name names and couldn't. I choose to feed small rats to even my biggest adults. I choose this because of the knowledge I have gained through my own experience and the experience of people that I trust. Jake (and anyone else) can do whatever they want with their animals. There are a lot of experts all over the place. A lot of people that have posted on this thread feed large, jumbos and even rabbits. Something I personally would never consider and find to be excessive. In the wild a Ball Python might eat 12 times a year. We overfeed already by feeding them every week of the year. For those looking to make some money as a breeder they have to,otherwise it would take 6 years to get an animal to breeding size.

Its a series of neverending arguments on every Internet forum.

Small prey or large?
Live or FT?
92-94 on the hot spot or no more than 86?

Do what you want, but if you post your opinion and it isn't backed up by anything except your personal feelings on the subject then expect to be taken to task.

Originally Posted by Dr Owens

How naive.

You should ask "the expert" how many ball pythons they keep...and more interestingly, how many they've bred.

i will have to say that, i think that does not matter in some cases. In my case, for example. I have not bred, and don't keep many compared to some, but i know that there is no one way to go about it, and each individual animal is different. Species wise as well they are all very different too.

The breeder should know what that animal can handle, and whether it is a responsible choice to make or not.

Originally Posted by Dr Owens

Ahhhhh...I see. After reading further in the thread things became a lot more clear.

Jake,
Just do what you know to be right...based on the info that you've been given by people who have actually kept and bred more than a few of the animals in question (whether ball pythons or otherwise). People like Sammy, as this...
...was good advice.

It seems maybe you are making assumptions on what people do and don't know. Jake made some statements on the other thread that just don't make any sense. He was questioned about it by multiple people and decided to bring it here.

I have the utmost respect for Sammy (If only he had a male Pied instead of those 2 females!) and think he made a fine point.

Everyone should do whatever they want....

LOL this is too funny!

o what you want, but if you post your opinion and it isn't backed up by anything except your personal feelings on the subject then expect to be taken to task.

In the wild a Ball Python might eat 12 times a year.

Do a lot of field research in africa??

Originally Posted by Gib

LOL this is too funny!









Do a lot of field research in africa??

No, but others have. There is all kinds of field research that can be READ by almost anyone.

I never claimed to have done any field research, did I?

Originally Posted by jglass38

No, but others have. There is all kinds of field research that can be READ by almost anyone.

I never claimed to have done any field research, did I?

Can you post such information? or link to it?