How Often to Feed a Ball Python (By Age and Weight)

Quick answer by age

How often to feed a ball python depends on its age and weight. Hatchlings eat about every 5 to 7 days. Juveniles eat about every 7 to 10 days. Adults eat about every 10 to 21 days. Pick a meal that's about 10% of the snake's weight. Then let the scale guide you. Stretch the gap if it's getting heavy. Shorten it if it's getting thin.

Those ranges come from the Wilbanks Reptiles feeding guide. Vets say much the same for snakes in general. VCA Animal Hospitals says smaller or younger snakes "usually eat twice each week." Larger, older snakes typically eat about once every 7 to 14 days.

So how often should you feed your ball python? Start with the age. Then fine-tune by weight. The table below does both.

Ball python feeding schedule by weight

How often do you feed a ball python by weight? This ball python feeding schedule answers that. It's keyed to weight, not only age. Snakes grow at different speeds, so weight is the better guide. The feeder column uses the 10% rule many keepers follow, matched to real feeder sizes in grams.

How we built it: the day ranges come from Wilbanks Reptiles and the vet-reviewed chart at More Reptiles. The sizes and grams match the feeder size guide. Treat it as a starting point, not a rule.

A note on the 10% rule

Guides don't fully agree on meal size. ReptiFiles suggests feeders that are 10% to 15% of the snake's weight. The More Reptiles chart uses smaller meals for adults, about 6% to 9%. Chewy's vet-reviewed guide adds a width check. Prey bigger than about 1.25 times the widest part of the snake is too big.

The 10% line sits in the middle. It's what the "good for" column on Mike's live feeder rats page uses. For a closer look at sizes, see What Size Rat for a Ball Python?

How often to feed an adult ball python

Adults are where most keepers go wrong, usually by feeding too often.

Wilbanks says adults typically need one feeding every 10 to 21 days. The More Reptiles chart puts young adults on about 14 days. It moves adult females past 4 years old to about every 21 days.

A few things push an adult toward the long end of the range:

• It's over 1.75 kg and eating Large rats
• It's holding its weight or gaining
• Its body is getting round, with no spine showing at all

And a few push it toward the short end:

• It's a younger adult still putting on length
• It's lost weight after a fast or a breeding season
• You can see the spine clearly

How often to feed a ball python a small rat? Small rats (45 to 85 g) fit snakes around 450 to 850 g. At that size, most guides land near every 10 days. Once the snake passes about 850 g, it's time to step up to a Medium rat. Our guide on switching a ball python from mice to rats covers that move.

Is it bad to feed a ball python too often?

Yes. Overfeeding is a common problem. Wilbanks warns that ball pythons "can become obese when overfed." ReptiFiles goes further. It calls obesity "a rampant problem among pet snakes, and especially in ball pythons."

Feeding big meals close together to grow a snake fast is often called power feeding. More Reptiles says moving a growing ball python to a 10 to 14 day schedule helps "reduce the chance of obesity or power feeding" (More Reptiles). Fast growth isn't the goal. A steady, lean snake is.

Here's the easy rule: a growing snake can eat more often. A grown snake should eat less often. If an adult is still on a baby's schedule, stretch the gap.

Adjusting by weight and body shape

The schedule gets you close. Your scale and your eyes do the rest.

Weigh on a schedule. Use a kitchen scale that reads grams. Wilbanks suggests weighing babies every 1 to 2 weeks and adults monthly. ReptiFiles suggests once a week for best results. Log every weight next to each meal. Our ball python weight chart shows typical weights by age.

Look at the body shape. The More Reptiles guide uses a body condition scale. Picture a slice through the middle of the snake:

ReptiFiles puts it simply: "an invisible spine means that the snake needs to eat less."

Change one thing at a time. Move the gap by a few days, or change the feeder size by one step. Then weigh again before the next change.

Feeding many snakes on one day

If you keep several ball pythons, a set feeding day makes life easier. Here's a simple plan.

1. Group by size. Sort your snakes into Small rat, Medium rat and Large rat groups.
2. Give each group a gap. For example, juveniles every 10 days and adults every 14 days.
3. Use a log sheet. One row per snake: weight, feeder size, date fed, ate or not.
4. Count ahead. Add up how many of each size you need for the next round.
5. Feed one at a time if you feed live. Stay and watch each snake. Take out any rat that's not eaten. VCA says never leave prey in with a snake for more than two hours. A live rat can bite.

Here's a worked example. Say you've got six adult ball pythons on Medium rats, fed every 14 days. That's 12 Medium rats every 4 weeks. At Mike's 10-or-more price of $3.90 each, that's $46.80 every 4 weeks, plus Arizona sales tax.

Prices are per animal, plus Arizona sales tax (6.1% today). Sold as feeders, not pets.

Want the same order again next time? Call or text Mike at (520) 451-4380 and ask about a repeat order. He'll tell you what's ready now. For the full cost picture, see How Much Does It Cost to Feed a Ball Python for a Year?

What if your ball python won't eat on schedule?

Skipped meals are common with ball pythons. Shed, season, breeding and stress can all put one off food for a while. Weigh it and keep a log.

A fit adult can often go a long time without a meal if its weight holds. A baby can't. Read How Long Can a Ball Python Go Without Eating? for the 10% weight-loss rule. For causes and fixes, see Why Won't My Ball Python Eat?

Keep other snakes too? Feeding gaps vary a lot by species. See How Often Do Snakes Eat?

Mike breeds live feeder rats and mice in the Tucson area. Rats run from Small (45 to 85 g) to Jumbo (375 g and up). Mice run from Hopper (7 to 12 g) to Adult (18 to 30 g). See rat sizes and prices or mouse sizes and prices. Nothing ready in your size? Get batch alerts.