3 mice at once?

[CRAZY]

So I was wondering if I can feed my 7 year old BP a 3 Jumbo mice (30-45 grams) a week? The weight depends on what I ask from my rodent provider. Am I not feeding him enough if I feed him 2 40 - 45 gram jumbos a week? (According to my breeder, a "Jumbo" is a breeder mouse nearing the end of its life.) I haven't had him for the whole 7 years, I got him from a friend who wasn't caring for him properly and didn't want him anymore. My BP just recently got off a "Feeding Strike" and seems to be willing to eat a horse if he got a chance and I really need to clean out his tank, but every time I get close he moves to the glass and gets ready to strike. Right now I have a small batch of F/T mice (roughly 30-35g) because I was trying different things to get him eating. Anyway. He's about 3 1/2 - 4 feet long and weighs roughly 1400g. I heard once that you should never feed a snake 3 mice/rats in a week. Was I being BSed to?

[Lolo76]

Most of my BPs get multiple mice at a time, since I'm not big on feeding rats (for a number of reasons). One of my yearlings will ONLY take mice, and she's now getting anywhere from 2-4 weekly... I feed live, so my process is to put one in each tub, wait until they're done, do round two, and so forth until everyone's had their fill. It's a bit time-consuming, as it can take up to an hour to feed all 9 of them, but this works for me.

So no, there's nothing wrong with feeding multiple prey - at least not in my experiences. They're all growing like WEEDS (one baby's gone from 93g to 670g in 4 months), so clearly it doesn't affect their growth either. Just make sure they're done with the first mouse, before introducing the next... I mistakenly added one too soon recently, and almost caused a regurg when he was interrupted by the new mouse. Not good!

[Lolo76]

P.S. If you feed f/t, you can just leave them all in there at once... my corn snake (who eats f/t) was getting 2 pinkies for a while, and I'd just lay them together on one paper plate. He thought it was like a Las Vegas buffet, and looked for more when he was done!

[Kaorte]

If you have access, I would just go for small~medium rats averaging about 80-100g. It would be much easier for you and the snake to feed one rat rather than 3 mice. But if you have mice now, don't throw them away, just feed multiples until they are gone.

Once they start getting that big, the 10-15% of body weight rule doesn't really apply since they stop growing as fast.

[kc261]

First, to clarify, I don't have any BPs that are 7 years old yet, so I am speaking a little bit out of my range of personal experience.

A 7 year old BP should be well past the rapid growth stage, so the 10-15% weight rule no longer applies. At this stage in your BPs life, all he needs is enough food to maintain his weight.

If you over feed him, he may take it for a while, but then it will likely result in another feeding strike to even things out.

I'd recommend staying with 2 mice of the size you mentioned per feeding, and the feedings should be no more often than once every 7 days. I know I've seen people say that they feed their adult males only every 10-14 days, so it is possible that even 2 mice every 7 days is more than he needs.

One question is are you sure this snake is a male? Although I believe 1400g is reasonable for a 7 year old male, a female that age should be bigger. Since you mentioned the snake wasn't being cared for properly, is it possible it has been underfed its whole life and has never been able to reach proper adult size?

PS - The thing you were told about never feeding 3 mice/rats per week is total BS. However, you do want to feed multiples all in one feeding, not spread through the week.

[zantedeschia]

You certainly can feed multiple mice per feeding. I've been feeding mine f/t small rats but I got tired of the dessicated, smashed rats I'd been getting and did live the last feed. Couldn't bring myself to kill a rat so I bought 2 large male mice. My BP did just fine with the two. Was kind of funny, he thought feeding time was over and went back in his hide after the first one, but was quite interested in eating the second once I tossed it in.

[CRAZY]

Thanks. I'm pretty sure it's a male. I read somewhere that males tails thin out faster ( it actually said shorter, but isn't the whole snake itself a tail?) than females. I'll try rats next time from my supplier, see what he thinks of them. So I am feeding him enough? Maybe not right now but in general? Is there any advantage to feeding him 1 80-100g rat instead of 2 45g mice? Because if I get the pack of rats (I checked the website) its 1 dollar more, so if there is an advantage then I'll get those, but he seems to be fine on the 45g mice.

[Kaorte]

Thanks. I'm pretty sure it's a male. I read somewhere that males tails thin out faster ( it actually said shorter, but isn't the whole snake itself a tail?) than females. I'll try rats next time from my supplier, see what he thinks of them. So I am feeding him enough? Maybe not right now but in general? Is there any advantage to feeding him 1 80-100g rat instead of 2 45g mice? Because if I get the pack of rats (I checked the website) its 1 dollar more, so if there is an advantage then I'll get those, but he seems to be fine on the 45g mice.

Tail length is not an indication of sex. You would need to either pop or probe the snake to find out its gender.

[withonor]

Many people feed their ball pythons of that age and size one small rat (~50 grams) per week. If you have 40-45 grams jumbo rats, one will probably be enough. Of course it can eat more but doesn't really need it. I notice the more I feed, the bigger and more frequent the poop. Keep in mind poop is an indication of excess.

[Mike Schultz]

Feed it a couple small rats per week

And also, the whole snake is not a tail. The tail begins at the vent; the rest of the snake is body