How to Feed a Python

Pythons are a family of non-venomous constrictors. These snakes hunt and feed by capturing small animals with their teeth and then coiling their bodies around their prey and squeezing to suffocate it. Two species, Ball and Burmese pythons, are known for their docility and attractive coloring and are often kept as pets. Ball pythons are small, usually reaching a length of 3-4 feet and feed on small rodents. Burmese pythons grow to be giants reaching a length of up to 30 feet! Their usual diet is also fairly small animals but adults occasionally eat small pigs or goats. They have become an invasive species in the Florida Everglades where escaped pets have established a breeding population. There they have been known to attack and eat small alligators. This article focuses mainly on the Ball python which is the species most commonly kept as pets. The steps to feed a python are similar for both species with a few exceptions described at the end of this article.

Things You'll Need

  • A supply o food (lab rats or mice usually work well and are inexpensive)
  • Secure enclosure
  • A hiding place for your python to sleep after feeding
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Instructions

    • 1

      Provide a habitat for your python. Pythons need to feel secure before they will feed since they sleep for days while digesting a meal and are more or less helpless. Make sure your python has a secure enclosure with several dark hiding places. The temperature should be warm and reasonably humid.

    • 2

      Don’t overfeed a python. A juvenile Ball python needs to feed about every 7-10 days. Adults should be fed every 2-3 weeks. At times pythons will stop eating as part of their natural metabolic cycle, such as during winter, breeding season, or after molting (shedding their skin).

    • 3

      Find a source of food. This easiest option is to buy lab mice or rats as long as the python will eat them. Pythons identify prey by smell and image and some don’t recognize a particular animal as prey so you may need to use another small species like gerbils.

    • 4

      Buy pre-killed rodents or kill the animal before giving it to the python. Most pythons will eat dead prey and it is safer for the python. If you do use live food never leave the python alone. A rat will fight back and can inure a python badly enough to cause scarring (and the snake may refuse any rat as food in the future).

    • 5

      Check temperature and humidity if your python reuses to eat for long enough to lose 15-20% of its weight. You may also try different kinds of animal as or different colored rats or mice. Some pythons even develop a preference for male or female prey.

    • 6

      Leave your python alone following feeding. A Ball python curl up in a dark hiding place and sleep for 4-5 days while digesting its meal.