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

Originally Posted by jglass38

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 assumed, huh? Well, since I haven't read the other thread, then feel free to enlighten me as to what he said there. However, nothing that he has posted here has been off based. However, your contentions are...and you are the one acting like a know-it-all.

Just seemed like your posting personal opinions without anything to really backit up...same thing your giving others grief for...


and as far as snakes in the wild...your probally right dead on about that,but Bps well really ALL snakes are opportunistic feeders in the wild,they get a meal whenever they can and also eat whatever they can...that one snake that might only eat 12 times a year Might very well take 5 of those meals in 5 straight days...and this i know FROM doing a lil field research...but that is neither here nor there cause we arent talking about animals that DONT have access to regular food we are talking about Captive pets...are you suggesting i should only feed my snake once a month and let it reach its maximum growth potential???

Another tidbit of fact for ya...basically the main reasons any ectothermic animal's metabolism slows is for lack of food(which puts the body into starvation mode which makes it burn very little energy adn store its food intake straight to fat,this one is true for all animals actually) and number 2 is by lowering of the core temperatures of said animal....now as for snakes fasting...thats a different subject all together no a healthy animal should ever fast unless its been stressed,in breeding mode or one of the 2 aforementiond tidbits on metabolism

HEALTHY is the keyword here

Originally Posted by Dr Owens

I assumed, huh? Well, since I haven't read the other thread, then feel free to enlighten me as to what he said there. However, nothing that he has posted here has been off based. However, your contentions are.

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..

Well i read thru the BP.net thread...im still tryin to figure out why everyone assumes that BPs that eat large meals fast???

Originally Posted by Gib

Just seemed like your posting personal opinions without anything to really backit up...same thing your giving others grief for...


and as far as snakes in the wild...your probally right dead on about that,but Bps well really ALL snakes are opportunistic feeders in the wild,they get a meal whenever they can and also eat whatever they can...that one snake that might only eat 12 times a year Might very well take 5 of those meals in 5 straight days...and this i know FROM doing a lil field research...but that is neither here nor there cause we arent talking about animals that DONT have access to regular food we are talking about Captive pets...are you suggesting i should only feed my snake once a month and let it reach its maximum growth potential???

Another tidbit of fact for ya...basically the main reasons any ectothermic animal's metabolism slows is for lack of food(which puts the body into starvation mode which makes it burn very little energy adn store its food intake straight to fat,this one is true for all animals actually) and number 2 is by lowering of the core temperatures of said animal....now as for snakes fasting...thats a different subject all together no a healthy animal should ever fast unless its been stressed,in breeding mode or one of the 2 aforementiond tidbits on metabolism

HEALTHY is the keyword here

As far as posting personal opinions without anything to back it up, not exactly. What I backed it up with is real world experience by me and by people I respect in the reptile world.

Meanwhile Jake said, "You can just as well feed a ball a 150-200 gram rat every 7-10 days as compared to 50-80 grams every 5-7 days, infact, I'd rather feed a larger meal every 2 weeks compared to a small meal every week.".

Gib, you are correct in saying that Balls are opportunistic feeders in the wild. They may come across a rodent burrow, eat everything in there and then take over that burrow and not eat for months.

I certainly wasn't saying that you should feed your snakes once a month, although I believe you wouldn't see a negative affect. I believe from everything I have seen (again, in my personal experience and in the experience of people I respect in the business), that overfeeding leads to fasts so the animal can catch up.

But once again, everyone should do what works for them.

One thing i'm not seeing here is the size of the adults being fed. Since no snake is equal you can have a 2 kilo female thats long and slender and have one thats short and stocky. Without at least some general sizes to go by here advice is subjective.

Originally Posted by jglass38

My opinions..

Haven't we gone over this before, Jamie? You shouldn't go around espousing your opinions as fact...especially when you don't have the experience upon which to formulate educated opinions.

Originally Posted by BryonsBoas

One thing i'm not seeing here is the size of the adults being fed. Since no snake is equal you can have a 2 kilo female thats long and slender and have one thats short and stocky. Without at least some general sizes to go by here advice is subjective.

Bryon,

I feed even my biggest girls no more than 2 weans/small small rats per week. My biggest is probably 3600-4000 grams.

Originally Posted by Dr Owens

Haven't we gone over this before, Jamie? You shouldn't go around espousing your opinions as fact...especially when you don't have the experience upon which to formulate educated opinions.

Owens,

Haven't we gone over before that you don't have a clue of my experience or lack thereof? I espoused my opinions based on REAL WORLD experience, mine and others that are respected in the industry. Try to get it through your head, please.

Why do you even both posting replies to anything I say? Its clear that your agenda remains the same. I don't like you, you don't like me. Lets leave it at that.

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.