My baby just ate his first rat.

[XoKarma]

He just finished shedding, during which he missed his food day. The idiot at the pet store argued over the rat she gave me being a weanling, when it was bigger than a weanling. But I took it and offered it. And he snatched it right up. I was worried he wouldn't be able to swallow it, but he did and doesn't really have much of a lump.

1.0 ball pythons - Koba
0.1 pitbull/lab - Cinnamon
0.1 collie/elkhound - Fluffy
0.2 children
1.0 boyfriend

[barbie.dragon]

The rat looks a little big... How much does your snake weigh? They should ideally eat prey items that equal to 10-15% of their body weight.

[NormanSnake]

If the snake swallows the prey and keeps it down, there's no problem with feeding a snake larger prey items if needed. (Within reason). They don't care what comes by them in the wild. Big or small, as long as they can swallow it, its on the menu.

[XoKarma]

I thought it was big, but he ate it just as quickly as he did the mouse. The picture makes him look small, hes almost 2ft. It doesn't help he was double wrapped and partially burrowed in his substrate, but he had no problems.

1.0 ball pythons - Koba
0.1 pitbull/lab - Cinnamon
0.1 collie/elkhound - Fluffy
0.2 children
1.0 boyfriend

[FrankieCarbone]

my recommendation to you is KEEP HIM ON RATS!!!!!

i was just looking thru the pages of my notebook of my BP's history (i write everything down since i got him 2 years ago) and i remember him eating rats alot bigger than he was supposed to be getting no problem, and on sept of 2011 when he weight around 550g he took down a 118g rat! after that he was taking down 70-90g rats, until i got lazy and just started getting mouses cuz they were easier to get around where i live, what a mistake that was, my BP has been a mouser and only eat 20-30g mouses for a year now, and wont touch a rat,

so KEEP FEEDING HIM RATS! dont let him loose the taste for em.

[XoKarma]

That's my plan, I got the rat instead of a mouse this time because I wanted to switch him and im breeding rats now. I thought for sure he was going to be a pain to switch but he didn't discriminate. He never thought twice about tagging that rat, i'm proud of him.

1.0 ball pythons - Koba
0.1 pitbull/lab - Cinnamon
0.1 collie/elkhound - Fluffy
0.2 children
1.0 boyfriend