Too small prey

[tempo36]

So I ordered a bag of rat pups that were supposed to be 20-29g and a large number of them are under weight. Some as small as 15g and a fair amount in the 17-19g range.

My BP is 150g at the moment. Thoughts on what I should do with these? Is there a problem with feeding under weight prey? I hate just throwing them out, but I also don't want to cause problems for my snake by giving him undersized prey...he had a really hard time getting into a stable feeding pattern!

[303_enfield]

Snake will be fine with smaller prey. Start with the smallest first.

Feeding guide, take a look:

Ball Python Feeding Guidelines (ball-pythons.net)

Good luck!

[Gocntry]

Snake will be fine with smaller prey. Start with the smallest first.

Feeding guide, take a look:

Ball Python Feeding Guidelines (ball-pythons.net)

Good luck!

I agree with 303 enfield, When my snakes were smaller I gave them feeders about 10% of their body weight until they got older,

So starting with the smallest in the bag and working your way to the bigger feeders should work out good.

[Bogertophis]

I agree...don't worry, just feed them. You don't think snakes find "perfectly sized prey right on schedule" in the wild, do you? Besides, you could also save the 15 g. ones until last, & feed 2 at once (one right after the other within an hour), though some BPs won't easily accept 2 items per meal, so that's a gamble. I'd probably just feed them in order too, smallest to largest. Silly to think of throwing them out.

[tempo36]

Thanks all! Like I said...he was such a horribly difficult eater, I don't wanna "break" anything.

[rlditmars]

You may find with the smaller prey items, that he may eat better. If that turns out to be the case, you can always try feeding him in shorter intervals. If your normal schedule is once every week, then change it to once every 5 days. If you were expecting the pups to average 25 grams apiece, and you would normally feed 4 in 4 weeks, then that's 100 grams of food in 28 days. if you do once every 5 days and they average 18 grams apiece, that's approximately 100.8 grams in 28 days.