Couple of Feeding/rat questions

[Amanda1226]

Hey guys,
I have a question about my female hypo ball python. She currently weighs about 700 grams, and is eating a 70-80 gram rat every 7 days. My question is when should I slow down her feeding to every 10 days?


My next question is, the next size rat is the mediums, and they come 10 to a package when I buy them from Big Cheese. They range from 90 to 150 grams each rat, I think. Should I buy 2 packages of these when I buy rats again to keep the rats from out growing her quicker than she can eat them? Or will she grow fast enough that this won’t be a problem?

Up till now, the packages have come with 15-25 rats to each package, and now they are starting to only come with 10.

Thanks for any help,
Amanda

[PitOnTheProwl]

I offer all of my snakes every 7 days, if they eat then cool and if they don't its no big deal.
I would stick with smalls till she doubles her current weight at least.

[purple python]

I would continue to feed smalls but that is my preference. I feed all my snakes every 7 days and even my 2200g female gets a small rat (45-80g). If you do choose to feed mediums, feeding every 10 days sounds like a good idea, but I would wait until she is closer to 1000g.

[brock lesser]

Bp's rarely need more than a small rat, there are exceptions but a small every seven days sounds good to me.

[Amanda1226]

So, once they reach about the 700-800 gram mark, the rule of feeding 10% of their body weight, or making sure the prey makes a noticeable lump no longer applies?

I just ask because I know some of the 50 gram rats look awful small compared to my girl, and I don't want to under feed her, but on the flip side, I don't want to over feed either.

Thanks,
Amanda

[Morris Reese]

I have have a female that is at 764 grams and eats a 60-70 gram rat every 5th day. After eating she does not go directly to her hide. She cruises her enclosure and her tong flicks on about every spot where I danced the F/T rat. I am confident she would take another. She is 7 months old and not at all over weight. Below is a picture of her just 1 day after eating. Unless she has just ate you can see her backbone very well as she crawls around, so no, she is not fat. I would not say there is a max size to feed all BP's across the board. Judge your snake and it's size and feed accordingly.

[MrLang]

70-80g sounds good for now. Youll probably have at least a dozen more of those to feed before it can go to 90 - 150. Once it's on 90 - 150 you can feed those for life. Some people also feed 70 - 80 for life as well.

[Amanda1226]

70-80g sounds good for now. Youll probably have at least a dozen more of those to feed before it can go to 90 - 150. Once it's on 90 - 150 you can feed those for life. Some people also feed 70 - 80 for life as well.

Well, she's a bit bigger than I thought she was. When I weighed her in June she was 660, and today after weighing, she's at 860.
The place where I order their rats sells smalls in packages of 15.
So, would you buy 1 more or 2 more packages of smalls before moving to mediums?

I like to keep her well fed because she is easier to handle when she eats a properly sized meal, and that makes me leery of feeding the 50 gram rats to her again.

Also, should I go ahead and buy a package of mediums to save myself the cash on shipping?
The place I buy rats from charges a flat rate on shipping, and I assume that medium rats will be the largest rat she should ever need.

Thanks,
Amanda