Guys the 1000 gram wall is definitely real

she wouldn’t eat for 5 weeks after hiting 963 finally eat tonight

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Yes! And sometimes the 700g wall, 450g wall,1200g wall, …… Just saying! Ball pythons, you have to love those hunger strikes for absolutely no reason!

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Are you feeding on a weekly schedule? Since I have switched to feeding less I rarely have any stop feeding. I think the wall is a myth most ball pythons fast because they are over fed so they take a break.

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I agree with @saleengrinch, I think the “1000g wall” stems from people powerfeeding younger snakes, and then when their growth starts to slow down they are so overfed they start refusing. I switched to feeding all of my younger ones every two weeks when they hit 200/250g, and all my adult females (1500+ g) eat a medium once every three weeks. None of mine have ever hit the “1000g wall”, they just sail right past it.

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Another point to bring up I feed all my males once a month and almost all of them will eat through the entire breeding “season”

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i feed her weekly and she is actually a little tiny she pipped 11/11/19 and weighs 963 the person before i got her maintenance feed her

also my bumblebee never hit a wall and she weighs 1500 grams eats every week

I fed weekly the first 5 years I kept ball pythons and have reduced the feeding schedule over the last 3 years keeping them. I usually have around 60 of various ages and sizes at all times. I can tell you during the five years feeding weekly I always had multiple snakes not eating, fasting, hitting “walls”. Now I go months without any refusals. Only time I have any ball pythons go prolonged periods without food is when females are gravid.

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I completely agree.

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I believe you and the health of the snakes could probably benefit from changing the feeding schedule up a little. Weekly is a lot to handle for them. I also started off on a weekly basis, but have changed to 2 weeks for most, or 3-4 for my breeder males. Apart from 1 that is a mouser and just doesn’t consistently eat in general, the rest do much much better on a spread out schedule.

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Looking at this, I might start feeding my non-colubrid snakes on a bi-weekly basis. Would save on feeders and from what it sounds like, benefit in the long run.

Though I will mention that I feed on a weekly basis but rarely ever have refusals outside of breeding season related things. Then again I tend to feed smaller meals than what is “conventional”

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YepI have had this too, but subscribe to the puberty (to early practice follicle) theory.
I dont worry, just let them eat again when ready.

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Interesting idea about too frequent feedings. Do you up the feeder size for the bi-weekly or less frequent feedings? How long do males and females usually take to start producing with less frequent meals? I have 2019 girls STILL against the wall so can’t say getting them to 1,000 quicker worked out for me.

Would be interesting if we could discover the underlying mechanism. Is it math like fat + puberty or something like gut biome from not getting empty enough? If so, could the wall be treated?

No I do not.

Males around 2 years but I don’t breed my males until they are around 700 or 800 grams and females 3 to 4.

I have one girl breeding from 2019 and four not breeding but all are over 1000 grams. I’m sure the other four would breed if I paired them but I’m going to wait until next year.

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So feeding every 5-7 days for younger snakes is too often? I have my first BP and have been feeding him when he looks hungry (every 5-7 days when hes really active at night and appears to be hunting around for food). Tried to feed him day 6 and he refused. Tried again last night (day 7) and he refused again. Hes been eating immediately after i present him a meal up until now (had him about 6 weeks). Should i wait another week to try again? Do you think he just isnt hungry? Hes only 5mo old. No idea what his weight is, but hes definitely grown since i got him. Doesnt show signs of shedding, but hasnt since ive owned him.

I personally think that’s way too often, and the absolute minimum times between feedings should be a week. A week without food is absolutely nothing to worry about, so don’t offer every day, just offer once a week and if he’s hungry he’ll eat. Unless he’s losing a significant amount of weight (which he won’t in a week…or even several), it’s not a huge concern

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Ok thank you! I really appreciate the advice. Ive done a decade of research before purchasing, so despite knowledge, i lack actual experience lol.
His breeder said every 7 days. I have a log of every feeding hes had his entire life and have continued it myself. I was feeding sometimes 5,6,or 7 depending on his behavior. Hes on day 8 now. How many days should i wait to try again?
Hes just a pet and i have no goals for weight or anything for breeding purposes. I just want my lil dude to be “happy.”

He doesnt look like hes going into shed to me either :woman_shrugging:t2:
He isnt my first reptile and im confident i could tell if he was. Hes hiding under his paper towel today for some reason lol. Hes in between sizes for hides (too big for his original, but too small for the new one so ive left the small one in for now).

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Do you have other adult females he can smell? all my males ate during early mating, until it got intense and the cycle/smell/female breeding hormones more advanced recently, and now will not eat over the last few months, but will mate very very readily.
My rule is if you don’t want to eat, then you can do the other thing :two_hearts:. Or wait until the female hormones calm down.
If the male has eaten well throughout the year and has decent body weight, it will be fine with a fast.

One thing I do with males though is to wash them after mating to get the female hormones off them and hopefully get their minds off it. But at pieck season/female hormones, it doesn’t help much in a small snake room.

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Hes the only snake ive ever owned lol. Ive wanted one since i was a child and finally got him for my daughter (mostly :wink:). Hes housed near my female leopard geckos who have been glass surfing. I think they are ovulating, but our male LG is in another room and wont be breeding with anyone lol. I think ive just overfed him and hes telling me “im good.”
It makes total sense if they can smell females that they’d be distracted lol. Maybe one day I’ll get a BEL female (thats what i really wanted, but my daughter picked this guy, who is an attractive dude too so whatevs). He will be our only snake for awhile.

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