Ball Still Hungry?

[Virgil]

Hello!

I'm a first time ball python owner, and I've had my Pastel, Virgil, for the last five months. He's a little over 6 months and weighs (as of yesterday) 184 grams. His humidity is generally balanced between 65-70%, but sometimes it dips below 60%, about once a week. I'm still perfecting it. The UTH temperature is kept at 91, and is regulated so it doesn't burn him. The ambient temperature is too low, about 70 (room temp) but I'm getting a heat lamp ASAP to solve this. He lives in a 10 gallon tank with aspen bedding, with a hot hide and a cold hide.

Everyone always seems to ask about the husbandry when I read the threads, so I started with that. I don't have any photos of Virgil or the tank on my computer, but I can get some tomorrow.

My question is, should I feed Virgil more? I fed him tonight two mice who together equaled 26 grams (14% of his body weight), but even after downing both of them (about an hour and a half between each one), he hasn't curled up into his hot hide, and is checking everything out half in, half out his hot hide. This is the second week in a row he's done that, and my question is, should I be feeding him more? I know he's young and growing.

I have about 15 of the mice he is currently eating. They're kind of between hoppers and weanlings, I think, about 13-14 grams each. I bought them from a local reptile breeder and seller. I don't want to waste them. I'm trying to save money for his 20 gallon, but if I have to make changes I will.

Should I feed Virgil 20% of his body weight (about 36 grams for now) instead of 15%? Could I potentially feed him a third, smaller mouse, like a fuzzy, without making him ill or overfeeding him? If so, should I give it to him after the second mouse, or should I give it to him a few days later? Should I even be feeding mice back-to-back, even with an hour and a half at least in between? I don't want to have a constantly digesting snake that I can't hold. I want him to be as used to me as possible so I'm not too stressful for him and he doesn't become aggressive. But his health and well-being comes first, always.

[Yzmasmom]

Not sure about feeding a third but maybe try putting him on rats. The breeder of both my girls never uses mice for the balls, always just starts on rats.

6 months and 186g? Are you sure of the age and is your scale correct? My 5 month old is 307g. I got her at 2.5 months old and have been feeding her between 10% to 20% of her body weight in rats once per week. She was on fuzzy pups when I got her and is already on weaned pups.

[Virgil]

Rats. Hmm. Alright, what size of rats? I'll accept my losses on the mice if that means Virgil's eating correctly. Is there any nutritional difference?

As for his weight, I'll measure him again as soon as he's digested. There's a chance I'm not using my scale correctly. I'll also attach a photo of what he looks like. Maybe I have unintentionally been underfeeding him??? Which makes me feel horrible just thinking about it!! I really love this snake!

I bought him on October 8th, and the breeder said he had been born six weeks prior. He was about 18 inches long then. I don't have his weight from then, as it was before I started keeping a journal. After surfing this forum so much, I've been lead to believe hatchlings aren't usually much longer than 10 inches. Can they grow 8 inches in six weeks? Maybe the breeder mistakenly (or purposefully) told me his age wrong? The breeder I bought Virgil from is located about six hours away, so I can't visit him in person, but I can call him. What's the chances of him keeping logs of all his hatchlings, especially if he sold a snake at a reptile show in my hometown, on a day when he probably sold many?

Since living with me, though, Virgil has never refused to eat. Now I'm worried that's because he's always hungry, not because I was keeping a stress-free environment.

Thank you for your help!

[Virgil]

Also, how do I post photos? I found a photo I took on my Snapchat from a couple of days ago that shows Virgil's length, and converted it to a .png image. However, I can't figure out how to post it here? How do I get a photo's URL?

I may be a college student, but I'm horrible with technology.

[BBotteron]

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...-Post-Pictures

This helped me although I had to use the Tapatalk app and it's pretty easy


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[cchardwick]

You can use either rats or mice, I usually feed all my younger ball pythons mice. And I'll usually keep the mice in case one refuses a rat, sometimes it's the other way around, sometimes I offer a mouse and they refuse then will take a rat. I actually like mice the best because they breed like crazy and are so easy to produce compared to rats. And since I breed them they don't grow too big for my ball pythons like rats do. Rats grow super fast and if you don't feed within a few weeks they grow to be really huge, that's where my Reticulated pythons come in handy LOL. For me it seems like feeding small rats the size of mice is really a waste since I can grow them up to be a much bigger size in a short amount of time. For my bigger ball pythons feeding one medium rat is equivalent to 3-4 mice, and my Reticulated python is getting so big he just ignores mice because they are so small LOL. He is already up to jumbo rats! I have yet to have a snake that will only take mice vs rats or have a preference for colors, i.e. white rats vs grey / black / brown. Seems like it just depends on their mood on that particular day.

[GoingPostal]

He could be on bigger meals at that size, rat pups would be fine or an adult mouse. Snakes will stay in feed mode for several hours/days so don't view him still looking for food as actually underfed or hungry. One properly sized prey item is what's usually recommended over multiple smalls but you could probably do 1 one feeding, 2 the next type deal or feed 1 every 4-5 days until they are gone and move up, he will be fine either way. Are your hides nice and snug with only one entrance?

[Virgil]

I'll begin weaning him onto rats then, alternating between a single rat pup and two of the mice until I run out of the mice. Thank you so much for your help!

[BR8080]

From this thread....https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...=feeding+guide

As much as this topic comes up, I'm sure this guide will prove itself useful. Enjoy!

[Vipera Berus]

My suggestion is to offer two different sized rodents, I fed my BP approx. 15% of her weight this way - mouse and a rat, if their still hungry try adding a mouse as well if they take that then upgrade the rat.