Rat feeding question

Hey guys, so I have a question. I was planning on getting some frozen feeders for my snakes which I'm getting soon and just getting all of my questions answered before I do while I wait for my enclosures to be built.

So my question is: if I buy frozen rats in bulk, how many do I need so my snake doesn't outgrow them? I don't want to buy a certain amount and then my snake gets too big and I'm forced to finish those and they are too small for the snake and have to buy bigger ones. So what is the best way to buy them?

I know they have to be the same size or 1.5x bigger than the thickest part of the snake and/or 10-15% of the snakes bodyweight but how fast will it change?

Also, out of curiosity, let's say I started breeding rats in a few years. How fast do they grow? If I fed the snakes one week and the rats keep growing, they would get too big for the snakes after a few weeks right?

Depends on the actual animal. I have some 1 year girls that are around 800-900 grams then I have a 2 year old girl who's picky af and is around 600 grams.

I wouldn't be too concerned about them outgrowing their food source. Worst that can happen is you loose one bag of feeders. Or you double feed some smaller stuff to a bigger girl.

In general as soon as my animals start taking f/t pups they get pups till about 400 grams. Then smalls till about 1000 grams. 1000 and up get mediums. All depends on the size of the snake as to when I switch this is just in general.

Buying in bulk sizes vary so smaller girls get smaller smalls and so on and so on.

Also depends on what your feeding schedule is. If you feed weekly they take longer to grow or if feeding every 3-4 days they will grow faster.

I've never raised rats or mice past hoppers/pups. In general gestation is about 3 weeks and add a week or two to get to hoppers/weened size.

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Originally Posted by sp0420

Depends on the actual animal. I have some 1 year girls that are around 800-900 grams then I have a 2 year old girl who's picky af and is around 600 grams.

I wouldn't be too concerned about them outgrowing their food source. Worst that can happen is you loose one bag of feeders. Or you double feed some smaller stuff to a bigger girl.

In general as soon as my animals start taking f/t pups they get pups till about 400 grams. Then smalls till about 1000 grams. 1000 and up get mediums. All depends on the size of the snake as to when I switch this is just in general.

Buying in bulk sizes vary so smaller girls get smaller smalls and so on and so on.

Also depends on what your feeding schedule is. If you feed weekly they take longer to grow or if feeding every 3-4 days they will grow faster.

I've never raised rats or mice past hoppers/pups. In general gestation is about 3 weeks and add a week or two to get to hoppers/weened size.

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Wow. Thank you. That makes sense. Screenshotted this for my ball python folder 😂 thanks again

Younger snakes grow at a faster pace and change prey sizes more frequently than older snakes. I usually don’t buy more than 25 of one prey size for young snakes. I know the snake will finish them off even if I have to feed doubles before moving up to the next size. I feed a varied diet to my snakes so I try to keep at least 2 prey sizes/types on hand. If my snake is eating small rats, I’ll also keep and feed them medium rats, chicks, and jumbo mice.

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Originally Posted by EL-Ziggy

Younger snakes grow at a faster pace and change prey sizes more frequently than older snakes. I usually don’t buy more than 25 of one prey size for young snakes. I know the snake will finish them off even if I have to feed doubles before moving up to the next size. I feed a varied diet to my snakes so I try to keep at least 2 prey sizes/types on hand. If my snake is eating small rats, I’ll also keep and feed them medium rats, chicks, and jumbo mice.

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This is what I was looking for. Thank you. The guy who I'm getting them off has 20 fuzzies in a bag so I was curious. Thank you and great idea getting various types of meals.