Size of Food Help

[Jon14]

So, I would like to try to switch my BP to rats, and I went to the pet store and picked up some frozen adult mice and some froze small rat since they had nothing smaller for rats. My BP practically inhales an adult mouse, and I am unsure if she could handle the small rat. Her widest part of her body is larger than the small rat, but the rat is 2x the length of the mouse (unsure if length makes any difference). The adult mice are 18g ea and the small rats are 40g ea.

[pariahdog]

As long as your BP is wider than the rat I'd feed it, especially since he's "inhaling" adult mice, he's probably hungry. After a while you get used to eyeballing the sizes

[EL-Ziggy]

The length of the prey item isn't a big deal. How much does your snake weigh? If the rat is within the 10-15% range of the snake's body weight you should be good.

[Jon14]

The length of the prey item isn't a big deal. How much does your snake weigh? If the rat is within the 10-15% range of the snake's body weight you should be good.

She is 440g, so the rat is under 10% of weight.

[EL-Ziggy]

Sounds like a good sized meal to me.

[Jon14]

Sounds like a good sized meal to me.

My thoughts exactly.

[ItsAllNew2Me!]

Here is a great chart that I found very helpful when I first started out.



Also as stated above 10-15% body weight is a good rule of thumb. That will help you until you get acclimated prey item size...then you can just eyeball it and "know"

So a 44g to 66g prey item is what you need. That would be a small rat

[Jon14]

Here is a great chart that I found very helpful when I first started out.



Also as stated above 10-15% body weight is a good rule of thumb. That will help you until you get acclimated prey item size...then you can just eyeball it and "know"

So a 44g to 66g prey item is what you need. That would be a small rat

Thank you so much, this table is extremely helpful.

[Lady mkrj58]

Thanks for the chart.......

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