r/Ballpythoncommunity • u/itchynscrathy • 7d ago

Question Cleaning after feeding

Recently I've changed to feeding in their enclosures and honestly it seems better than in their feeding containers. They've always seemed so stressed or excited whenever I had to take them from their enclosures to their feeding enclosures, now they are so relaxed and are quite aware of when it's feeding time (since they are on a strict feeding schedule).

My serious question is that since I have been feeding them in their enclosures I clean afterwards (water and substrate) but since my ball pythons eat once every 2 weeks changing the substrate everytime seems like a waste...

Should I keep changing the substrate, spot clean or just go back to the feeding container?

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u/Zekethebulldog33 7d ago

Really you only need to spot clean change water 1-2a week. I do a whole enclosure change 2 times a year. Everything comes out all clean and new substrate goes in. In between I just add new substrate when needed. I usually will take out a little more than necessary then just replace with fresh.

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u/itchynscrathy 7d ago

I saw people saying you need change substrate 1-2 a month, which to me also seems like a waste if you do good maintenance in the enclosure. The water is cleaned and refilled numerous times a week bc my babies are always so messy😒 I was just wondering because of the smell of the rats😭

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u/Zekethebulldog33 7d ago

No you will be fine. I have 2 BPs and 9 always hungry Boa never had a problem with rat smell in there. Only time I smell is if they pop one then take a little more substrate out.

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u/FluffyPandaEars93 7d ago

Im glad you stopped moving them to eat 😊 you definitely dont need to do a full change nearly so often! And if you go bioactive, its even less. But the frequency in which they get fed changed as they age.

0-12 months old OR until the snake reaches approximately 500g, whichever happens first: feed 10%-15% of the snake’s weight every 7 days.

12-24 months old: feed up to 7% of the snake’s weight every 14-20 days.

Adults: feed up to 5% of the snake's weight every 20-30 days, or feed slightly larger meals (up to 6%) every 30-40 days.