It was just the first image to come up onGoogle
Everyone is screaming in human emotion about the lack of science, but what Mike is actually doing is science. This is how it works. It doesnt require a white lab suit and a phd… its literally testing a theory and examining the results. Besides the typical appeal to emotions that many on here are running on, you should also read what is being actually said before blasting accusations. They are literally getting the same biomass of food over the same time frame, just in small dosages… ie “not power feeding”.
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Well said. I don’t think anything Mike has done is wrong. He tested his theory and it worked.
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I agree this seems like a hypocritical statement. Attacking Mike but then bragging about selling more. From what I’ve seen is Mike keeps up with today’s prices. I mean do you think we’ll pay 1000 for the same snake we can get for 300 just because your name lol. I think Mike keeps up with today’s going rate. Also I’ve only seen compliments about his animals.
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I got my first ball python from Mike in August at NARBC Arlington. Had no clue what I was doing. I knew absolutely nothing about snakes - especially ball pythons. I chose my banana because it was active in the display case. Overall this snake had thrived for me, He is docile, curious but not aggressive, never has skipped a meal, and has had two perfect sheds for me so far. I plan on buying from Mike again in February at NARBC Arlington. Hell, I even know which animals I’ll be looking for.
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This has been a very interesting thread to read. I hope we could see more expert articles in the future. Hopefully this bump adds a few more readers. It has given me a lot to think about. Thanks
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Omg 
perfect Mike
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When I was a about 12. A chicken snake fell out of a tree that had a Robins nest in it. She had eaten every one of the babies. From what I remember the snake had 4 lumps in her belly. So given the opportunity the snake will eat what they want.
If a person feeds 1 meal to a baby BP a week, using 100 grams as a reference for that meal, then what Mr. Wilbanks is saying is he splits that 100 gram meal into 7 pieces and feeds approximately 15 grams of that meal to the BP every day. (Just my interpretation of it.)
Until the BP reaches 500 to 600 grams in body weight. Then He goes back to feeding him every week or 2 weeks the 100 gram meal all at once.
Correct me Mr. Wilbanks if I got it wrong. I am new at this. But looking at it the way I understood it; I don’t see anything wrong with it. Everyone has there own way of understanding what is written by someone else. And some people just don’t want too.
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I know I’m really late to the party but I think this is an interesting concept/experiment. If you have time to reply, how long have you been doing this for?
I have been feeding smaller items more frequently for about 15 years to young animals, though not quite to this extreme, and my experience mirrors a lot of what you are saying. Better feeding response, and the meals being smaller, there still isn’t overly large fat reserves. My animals are still the correct proportions and not obese.
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Mike, this was very interesting to read. Seems like the comments got pretty out of hand. I will say that I have 12 ball pythons now, 3 of which have come from you. Last June I purchased a clown female from you and was actually in Oklahoma city with my family visiting my wife’s side of the family. While I was in town you/your staff allowed me to come to the facility to pick the snake up and even showed me around the facility and let me check out some of the other snakes. At the time that was my 3rd snake so I thought it was very cool that y’all would take the time and allow me to do that even though I wasn’t some big name spending thousands of dollars. Since then I purchased a fire sugar female and a pied female and will definitely continue to purchase others! Thanks for the info and thanks for the awesome snakes!
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I have to say, I have read this and applied it. My friend who was stuck on once a week the same day always … her snakes are not growing like mine. Not even close. She has a male who will be a year and smaller then mine who was hatched in September. She’s finally switching to smaller meals more often (only shows the start of when I got my new calendar book haha) .
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Yes, agreed, snakes digestive tracts shut down when not in use, especially in hibernation. and yes by keeping them running longer they will grow faster. A bit like not hibernating the first year for those species that need to hibernation to breed.
I think a bit of extra feeding is ok, (I do twice a week sometimes for youngsters) But I question if it’s healthy to do it to the extreme degree suggested. In my opinion, daily feeding leaves no rest and recovery period.
I believe digestive tracts need a rest in most animals. Even Humans.
I had serious medicated digestive problems for decades until I switched to one meal a day.
That gave my digestive tract a rest from acid and a chance to heal. I now have no more daily pain and no more medication.
I know that’s just anecdotal but there is increasing evidence for the health and rejuvenation benefits (autophagy) of not eating all day long.
Maybe Snakes need a rest and recovery period too?.
I may be wrong, Not really an opinion, Just a thought about the topic.
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I didn’t read daily? Must of missed that. I do twice a week small meals one week then the next week I do their one big meal.
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Note : we are talking about a ball python. This is something that we know has a slower metabolism. Kings and milks have faster metabolisms in general. Though this might work with things that have slower metabolism i.e. boas or other pythons (also with Ashley’s point, they would be big enough as hatchlings to feed appropriately sized smaller whole body items)
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I will sometimes do this for some males. After a year of it I haven’t had any issues. Good luck to growing out your males. Hopefully your friends snakes will start to add on additional weight as well.
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This is not meant as an accusation, just to preface. My understanding of power feeding has always been that it is either a) feeding meals too large or b) feeding meals too often, which in both cases prevents the animal’s digestive system from having the necessary time to recover before they are again offered a meal. It takes a long time for a snake’s stomach to empty entirely, plus think about how narrow they are - I’m sure there’s a lot of strain as well due to organs shifting to accommodate a meal, even a small one. So based on my understanding, this method would still fall until the definition of power feeding, as you’re feeding the animal so often that their digestive system never gets a break. Now, I think it’s an interesting approach and I’m not convinced it is the same as power feeding in the traditional sense, but I think it would be incredibly important to look at the lifespan of the animals that have been fed this way, and necropsies. I would be willing to bet there is a similar detrimental effect to “normal” power feeding (ie feeding larger meals more often) and I wouldn’t ever be comfortable trying it myself until there is a 100% guarantee that this method does not reduce the lifespan or health of the animal in the long-term at all.
Also, I do think we need to ask ourselves why we want to feed quick and breed quick. Part of our responsibility with breeding is to better the health and genetics of the species. Objectively speaking based on the previous studies we have, quick growth is generally not good for these animals in the long-term, no matter how it’s done. Can we not have the patience to wait for our animals to grow at a normal, healthy rate?
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There are many different ways one could interpret “power feeding” to try and control the narrative which ever direction one wished to support. I would say the best “generic” definition however, would be that “power-feeding” is: Excessive caloric input above and beyond what is needed for normal growth.
Under that umbrella, I feel Mike’s methodology does not constitute “power feeding” because the total amount of calories he provides in a week of frequent small meals in no different than the total amount of calories that would be provided by a single meal once every week.
As an analogy, there is no caloric difference between you eating a quarter of a BigMac every six hours versus me eating the whole BigMac in a single sitting at noon. At the end of the day, we both ate the same number of calories.
Power feeding would be you eating three-quarters of a BigMac every six hours versus me eating the whole BigMac in a single sitting at noon. At the end of the day, one of us has had a lot more calories than the other.
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Sadly, the pyramid-scheme mentality that most of this hobby was built on precludes this from happening. Breed sooner to make babies sooner to sell sooner to buy the next big project sooner to repeat the cycle sooner. Wash, rinse, repeat.
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I suppose it does depend on the individual definition you use. I can see the caloric intake definition being the widely accepted one, and under that definition of power feeding I agree that this method wouldn’t classify. That said, I personally feel we have plenty of research out there to suggest that the digestive system in many species needs down time in order to remain healthy, so I would still argue the likelihood that the constant use of that system may be incredibly taxing on the animal long-term, even if the caloric intake is the same. So I may not classify it in that case as power feeding, but in the same vein I absolutely wouldn’t do it and would probably advocate against it given the chance.
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There is actually very little out there on python digestion. There are the couple that show the massive physiologic changes that occur when an adult animal takes in a large meal after a period of fasting, and I would agree that constant feeding of larger items to an adult with no downtime is detrimental. However, there is nothing about how young animals feed or how very small meals are processed by adults.
For the first year-ish of growth, I do not think frequent small meals is particularly damaging. But sustained constantly I would think it quite detrimental
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