Chapter 5 of 12 · Manny's Care Guide
Feeding
Disclaimer: I'm not a veterinarian and I don't hold a degree in animal science or animal care. This is a guide I compiled and use with my own ball pythons. For a sick animal, a reptile vet is the authority.
Prey
Size. Prey about as wide as the snake at its widest point, never wider, and roughly 10 to 15% of the snake's body weight [2]. If the lump is obvious a day later, the meal was too big.
Rats or mice. Both are complete food. Rats come in sizes that follow a ball python all the way up, which is why most breeders use them.
Frozen-thawed over live. Live prey can bite and scratch a snake badly, and vet references recommend pre-killed or frozen-thawed [3][4]. Thaw in the fridge overnight, then warm the prey in a sealed bag in warm water (warm, not hot, never a microwave) until it's about body temperature, 98 to 100 °F, which takes roughly 15 to 30 minutes [2][3][5]. If you must feed live, stay and watch, and take the rodent out if it isn't eaten in 15 to 30 minutes [2]. The one exception is eyes-closed rat pups for hatchlings, below.
Schedule
| Age | How often | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Hatchlings and young juveniles | every 5 to 7 days | Fast growth; prey is small so meals are frequent [6] |
| Sub-adults | every 10 to 14 days | Growth slows and prey gets bigger [5] |
| Adults | every 10 to 21 days; most keepers say two weeks | Merck: most snakes every 1 to 2 weeks; LafeberVet: every 1 to 4 weeks by size, smaller snakes more often [3][4] |
| Breeding females | more often, into the season | Building weight for eggs [5] |
Smaller and more often, or bigger and less often? Both work. What the body cares about is the total over a month and prey that's never too wide, not the size of any one meal. Smaller meals digest faster and regurgitate less; the trade-off is more disturbance and a feeding response every time a lid opens. If you go smaller and more frequent, weigh monthly so the total doesn't creep up. Wild ball pythons don't offer a template here: they're ambush feeders that eat what walks past, and the one Nigerian diet study found young snakes eating mostly birds and adults mostly rodents, so the menu changes with size too [7].
Feed in the enclosure. Moving a snake to a feeding tub stresses it and causes refusals, and "cage aggression" from feeding inside is a myth as long as you announce yourself before handling [1][2][8]. Merck still mentions a separate feeding tank as an option for heavily handled snakes [3]; in a breeding collection it just isn't needed, and we tap-train instead.
Hands off after a meal. Leave the snake alone after it eats, or it may regurgitate: ReptiFiles says about a day, Merck says three days; we wait 72 [2][3].
Refusals
A few skipped meals around a season change or a move are normal if the weight holds, and a snake in blue often refuses too [2][8]. Adult males often fast through breeding season, and females around 1,000 g sometimes hit "the wall" and stop for a while [2][8]. Weigh the snake; if weight is steady, wait.
When refusals stack up, check husbandry before you worry about the snake [8]:
- Confirm the warm side with a temp gun and the hides are tight and dark.
- Stop handling until it's eating again [8].
- Offer at night, lights off, leave the room, and leave the prey overnight [6].
- Try a different scent: African soft-furred rats are the classic fix for a stubborn feeder, and scenting the usual prey with a preferred one helps too [3][8].
- A vet visit when weight keeps dropping. ReptiFiles treats more than 10% body-weight loss as the line [2].
Starting hatchlings
- First shed comes about 7 to 14 days after hatching [9]. First offer 3 to 5 days after that shed, at night, lid closed [10].
- Wilbanks starts hatchlings on live rat fuzzies (mouse hoppers as the alternative), left in overnight with the lights off, and moves them to frozen-thawed after the first few meals [6].
- Offers 5 to 7 days apart, never daily [2][6]. Weigh weekly.
- Some hatchlings need help getting started [10]. ReptiFiles' 10% weight-loss line is the alarm [2].
Sources for this chapter
- ReptiFiles, Ball python care guide
- ReptiFiles, What to feed a ball python: diet and feeding guide (replaced Everything Reptiles' feeding page on October 27, 2026; that domain no longer resolves)
- Merck Veterinary Manual, Nutrition in snakes
- VCA Animal Hospitals, Snakes: constrictor; LafeberVet, Basic information sheet: boas and pythons
- LafeberVet, Feeding snakes (PDF)
- Wilbanks Reptiles, Dealing with feeding problems in ball pythons
- Luiselli, L. and Angelici, F. M. (1998), "Sexual size dimorphism and natural history traits are correlated with intersexual dietary divergence in royal pythons (Python regius) from the rainforests of southeastern Nigeria," Italian Journal of Zoology 65(2): 183–185, doi:10.1080/11250009809386744
- ReptiFiles, Ball python not eating
- ball-pythons.net, breeder thread on first sheds and first meals
- ball-pythons.net, breeder thread on starting hatchlings