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Can you overfeed a ball python?


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Posted by serpentcity on May 16, 2003 at 23:55:29:

In Reply to: Can you overfeed a ball python? posted by gregw82 on May 16, 2003 at 14:56:17:

::Hey everyone. I just got a new ball python. I have never had a snake before so im not sure if i can overfeed it. It's about 15 or 16inches long/baby and i feed it 2 fuzzy mice. Is that to little or to much? How often should it be fed? I'm guessing once a week

:Two fuzzy mice every 5-7 days for the first couple weeks, then going to a hopper or small weanling every 5-7 days, then a little more often, slowly increasing the size. If you want it to grow fast then feed every 3-4 days. I don't know how a snake a little bigger than yours (say 18") could possible safely eat 2 adult (say 21+ gm) mice. WOW! Not a safe thing to do to a neonate (recently born) snake. Could be the baby does gag this big a meal down, finds out it was too much (ie, rips a gut in the process), then croaks upon attempting to regurgitate it. Much better to feed smaller meals more frequently than trying to set some kind of Coney-Island-Hot-Dog-Eating Contest sort of record! Also, on a serious note, many breeders try feeding small fuzzy rat pups from the start so they can avoid the trouble some BP's have transitioning from mice to rats when they're at that point. Good luck...Scott J. Michaels DVM
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