I finally made the transition to rats from mice, and I am not pleased with my initial observations. Maybe I'm just paranoid, as usual. Prior to this feeding tonight, I would feed my BP 2 large mice a week - this worked out well, I suppose.

Alright, so I just finished feeding my BP a medium rat; actually, I was misinformed by the pet store. According to the guide at http://iansvivarium.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=75#p248 , the rat I fed my 26-27 inch male was about 6-7 inches long and is considered a medium rat.(head and torso by themselves, excluding the tail.) If these measurements include the tail, then HOO BOY. The pet store I ordered acknowledged that I was ordering a rat pup, then told me that they were getting me a small rat when I picked it up; I didn't have the option to get my money back as you pay in advance for live shipments. That thing was a monster and in no way whatsoever was I going to feed it live to Schemer. I don't want to get in the "bone-crunching" details, so I'll just state that this was also my first pre-killed meal. I did the zombie dance and he struck and coiled around the corpse.

What I'm concerned about is the fact that immediately after finishing his meal, he's been bobbing his head around side to side and rubbing it on his hides. He's resting now on his hotspot, but I'm curious to know if this is normal behavior after larger meals. It didn't look like corkscrewing, but just really jerky movements. Will he be alright? Also, is the meal size fine? I'll probably have to slow down the feedings; the clerk in the pet store said 3 weeks should be long enough, but I have my doubts that it should be longer what with the size and all, plus the fact that she misinformed me like 3 times about what I was paying for.

Here's a post-meal pic of his bulge:
http://img560.imageshack.us/img560/56/1000832.jpg