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

Originally Posted by Cat_72

I will say though, if I'm short on a certain size, I do tend to always err on the side of caution and go a bit smaller than usual as opposed to going larger.

Same here. My next order won't arrive until Oct 11th. It is all of the small sizes. Instead of going up a size, I am going to get frozen feeders at the petstore for the next feeding so I can feed the right size.

You want to see size differences, the petstore here sells as large rats what RP sells as smalls. I found that out when I asked for a small and they bagged up a tiny little pink rat.

Originally Posted by Mooing Tricycle

Its pretty amusing that you seemingly have absolutely no care in the world about how you compose yourself online.

Does it have to get so petty? Seriously....

Alicia,

You do realize that this small online community is not the real world, right? In the grand scheme of things its completely insignificant. The BOI is a really useful tool. The rest of this site, well you know...

Lets me make it really clear once again. I don't care what anyone does with their snakes. I don't feed mine anything bigger than a small small once per week (sometimes I even skip a week). It works great. They eat, they grow, they shit and they breed. Everyone else should do whatever they want.

Incidentally, did you ever wonder why the big breeders have almost nothing to do with Internet forums?

I'm done for the night because I have a real life with real work to get to early in the morning.

Enjoy the rest of your night!

Originally Posted by jglass38

First off, I never pretended to be anything I am not. I never claimed to be a big breeder.

No...you just try to pretend to have more experience than you do. You go around acting like a know-it-all, when in many cases (this one for example) you simply don't know what you're talking about. You know what your experience has taught you, but you're failing to recognize that your experience is limited at best.

I am a small hobbyist breeder with quite a bit of knowledge gained through my own personal experience and through working with and learning from good friends in the business.

Then we must have different interpretations of what "quite a bit of knowledge" means.

Not that it matters, but I own an IT consulting business. But just as my Ball Python experience isn't sufficient in your eyes, I don't expect that will be either. But as I said, I couldn't care less what you think.

Honestly, I don't care what you do. You were the one that brought up profession.

I never said that your ball python experience wasn't sufficient. I simply pointed out that it was limited. You should learn to recognize that before you go around telling others that their methods are wrong...when they're not.

Nicely put Doc!!!

the only question i have about any of this is why after reading jamies posts here and the crap on BP.net why do all these folks have it stuck in there heads that when Bps eat large meals it makes them fast??

Originally Posted by Gib

Nicely put Doc!!!

the only question i have about any of this is why after reading jamies posts here and the crap on BP.net why do all these folks have it stuck in there heads that when Bps eat large meals it makes them fast??

I'm not too sure where that claim comes from either. Of course, it does stand to reason that if you feed a bigger meal that the snake will go longer between meals than if you feed it a small one. Duh...

Originally Posted by jglass38

Alicia,

You do realize that this small online community is not the real world, right? In the grand scheme of things its completely insignificant. The BOI is a really useful tool. The rest of this site, well you know...

Oh for sure. Its definitely not the real world. ( aside from all my hopes and dreams that i wish it was though!.....) Because, for one, I dont think the "real world" is quite so full of so many interesting and intelligent insightful people in one common area, which is pretty unfortunate.

BUT, on that same thought, This site in and of itself CAN have a significant impact on future dealings/business. and, regardless of what many people who like to use the excuse " This will never hurt my business, ever, because its just a stupid silly site" may think. It DOES matter how one interacts with others in the online world, because... as we have seen in the past, and will in the future no doubt, people visit this site. it is one of the FEW large forums that people tend to visit, if people dont see it now, they more than likely will in time to come.
there are those here that base their business transactions soley on character. some that base their decisions on how professional someone sounds. Be it a name, or how they type. so regardless how one MIGHT think that it does not matter, those are people you dont even know about that you are losing sales to.
Granted you are doing this as a hobby, so it obviously does not matter to you in the same business sense as i am speaking about, but, the point is, how one composes/acts/behaves online does make a difference, even to those that would possibly sell to you.

That may be one persons opinion over another. BUT ive seen enough scumbags go down pretty hard because of they way they acted on this very forum, to know... it definitely can happen. and does. often. One would think it wise to be careful/respectful, especially having been here and seen in firsthand. But i suppose i could just be talking to the wind too.....

I also disagree with your comment "The rest of this site, well you know.."
Because there is Definitely a TON of useful information here, granted, again that is a matter of ones own opinion. but since you are stating yours, im going to be stating mine.
The site itself as a whole is a very important tool. I have learned alot, and not just on how to be cautious about who to buy from and what to look for, but about other species of animals and their care as well. Things, that i did not know before i came here. and im 100% positive that others can say the exact same thing.
Maybe for some its not as good as other sites ( and then i ask, why are you here then?), but for many... its one of several of the most informative websites around, and people can feel pretty at home. Nothing wrong with that.



Definitely not something insignificant by any means. But of course, those are just my personal feelings on the matter.

Of course, it does stand to reason that if you feed a bigger meal that the snake will go longer between meals than if you feed it a small one. Duh...

LOL not at my house...unless when you mean "IM going to come at you like a retic if you have food"

heres a normal looking animal at my house after feeding



thats 3 large rats in her...she eats that way every 7-10 days like clockwork....

and heres what happened to her from feeding her this way



and a shot sans mom



12 eggs...first time breeder..they are hatching as im typing this atm and mom is very close to being back to full weight and will be ready to go again this spring

Originally Posted by Gib

Nicely put Doc!!!

the only question i have about any of this is why after reading jamies posts here and the crap on BP.net why do all these folks have it stuck in there heads that when Bps eat large meals it makes them fast??

I bet it aint from personal experience. Most likely from regurgitating what someone else told them.

I got my first Ball Python in 1980. I was 11/12 years old. The snake was older than I was. I walked a half mile every week (uphill, both ways) to the G. C. Murphy department store (aka Murphy's Mart). In the pet section there the only choice you had were adult mice, adult hamsters or adult rats. I always got adult female rats. That snake ate an adult female rat pretty much every week for the 7-8 years I had that snake before it died.

So yeah, I dont know where these people come up with that. It surely aint from their own personal experiences.

Originally Posted by Gib

LOL not at my house...unless when you mean "IM going to come at you like a retic if you have food"

Too funny. That is exactly how Big B acts. She does not act like a BP when it comes to food. VERY agressive feeder. She strikes first and asks questions later. As a matter of fact she ate up until her prelay shed. Now she is refusing but she is just about to drop so I kinda expect her to not really want to eat.

I also have a few males that will breed, eat, and go right back to breeding (including one I got as an import adult that took f/t the first time offered).
There is only one male here that goes off feed in the fall and that is because he wants to breed but since he is just a normal male "pet" I never put him with a female. Like clockwork, he will go off feed in about a month and not eat again until around Feb and then start eating weekly as usual.

Not all BP's go off feed but from what I have dealt with and heard from others, it's usually mature animals at breeding time that do go off feed.

Soooooo jamie, you managed to get 6 clutches so far and are hoping, HOPING for 15 to 20 next year.

You do realize that I, like many others, have hopes of winning the lottery next year too, don't you?

You talk often about "the big breeders" you've spoken to and have discussed things with. Who are these guys? Anyone any of us would recongnize or is the Big one of those "relative" words that you need to describe thoroughly to know what it's in reference to, much like using a gram weight to establish sm., med., and lg. since those terms bring to mind different sizes.

I know you like to argue. I know you think you're some big deal over at bp.net. I know almost everyone who knows you wishes you would go somewhere else too.

Jake may be a kid in years, but he's a pretty bright kid and when he's not listening to jerk like yourself, he absorbs information and then works it into real life experience. He's not merely a regurgitator like you.

WHY do you keep coming here? You don't like anything but the BOI, you don't do this for a living, you don't like most of the people here, and it's mutual from what I see, and then you get all butt hurt when people don't grant you the status YOU seem to think you deserve for all the "experience" YOU seem to think you have.

Dude, you're still a baby in the ball world, being spoonfed information and spitting it back up ad nauseum, ONLY because someone YOU think is big, told you it was true.

Then, you equivicate and say that there is NO ONE right way to do things.

What a wuss. First it's my way is right except that there is no one right way.

Jake is a better source than you. At least he'll tell you he doesn't know for certain but he thinks such and such is true. You try to pass yourself off as some sort of expert.

Kinda makes me laugh to see you struggle, but it's the kind of laugh a three legged frog would get trying to hop away from a hungry gartersnake, hop and flop, hop and flop, circular and repititious and in the end you know who gets bit on the ass.