Is he getting enough food?

[jwarriner]

Hatched in late May, '07. We've been feeding him a fuzzy every 7-14 days. The fuzzy mice, at their widest, are about the size of his girth. Is this normal? He does not seem under weight but I've had trouble finding a table of age/normal weight (plus I don't have a scale) so I am going by looks. I want to try a hopper tomorrow. Most people seem to be feeding hoppers, or larger, to anything other than hatchlings but they seem too big for my snake. Can I try a pinky rat pup? What about a fuzzy rat pup?

[elevatethis]

Hatched in late May, '07. We've been feeding him a fuzzy every 7-14 days. The fuzzy mice, at their widest, are about the size of his girth. Is this normal? He does not seem under weight but I've had trouble finding a table of age/normal weight (plus I don't have a scale) so I am going by looks. I want to try a hopper tomorrow. Most people seem to be feeding hoppers, or larger, to anything other than hatchlings but they seem too big for my snake. Can I try a pinky rat pup? What about a fuzzy rat pup?

You can certainly step up the feeding if you'd like to. You'd be surprised what they can actually take down. At 4 month of age, most babies could be eating live adult mice, so if you think its time to switch up, I'd go ahead and do so.

[JoshJP7]

Yea and with babies you can feed more often than every 7-14... When I first got my 07 babies they were feeding every 5 days for the first couple months... now I'm feeding them large mice 1nce a week and theyre around 4 months like Brad said so yea you can bump em up... rat fuzzies are pretty much the same as a large mouse i believe... all depends on where you get them from but you should be good.

[jwarriner]

Thanks for the advice. I've wanted to give him larger food but my girlfriend has been apprehensive because "he's just a baby." Which, I know, is dumb, but he is her snake, I just do all the work and research

[elevatethis]

Thanks for the advice. I've wanted to give him larger food but my girlfriend has been apprehensive because "he's just a baby." Which, I know, is dumb, but he is her snake, I just do all the work and research

She should drop her preconceptions and listen to you then...

[jwarriner]

She has decided to defer to me on this one, as she usually does.

I'm going to see if I can get a rat pup.

I haven't had a chance to build a CO2 chamber since finding out about them yesterday so I want to get something that will be helpless and harmless (as in eyes still shut).

[elevatethis]

She has decided to defer to me on this one, as she usually does.

I'm going to see if I can get a rat pup.

I haven't had a chance to build a CO2 chamber since finding out about them yesterday so I want to get something that will be helpless and harmless (as in eyes still shut).

Rat pups are no danger to your snake. Their eyes aren't even open yet...

[dalvers63]

I hatched out some babies on May 20th. I started them on rat pinks or mouse hoppers (for those that insisted on mice).

The one female that I kept hatched out weighing 70 grams. I just weighed her yesterday and she's now at 180g. She easily eats small adult mice or large rat fuzzies. I noticed when I fed her the other day that the fuzzies are a bit small now and I'll probably start feeding her rat pups once a week from now on.

One thing to try, if your ball is a good eater, is to offer a F/T rat pup. They're just easier to come by and cheaper (my two main reasons for using F/T for my guys). I got lucky and my girl is just like her mom..she'll eat anything, anytime. These are the girls I'm going to keep breeding :-)

[rottendj]

I know, is dumb, but he is her snake, I just do all the work and research

I say kudos to you. im a new keeper too, my sister got one when i did but didnt do any research before hand. i try to tell her what i have learnt but doesnt listen. thinks she knows best but doesnt.

im feeding mine a hopper every 9 or 10 days (about 12 grams), he is 4 - 4 1/2 months old seems to be doing ok but also not putting much if any weight on so i might start feeding a day earlier on a regular basis and see what happens.

i go by the prey sizes here: http://www.frozenfeeder.com/sizing.html

hope this helps.
regards, Mike...

[SatanicIntention]

To the above post, try feeding every 5-7 days. Every 9 or 10 days just isn't often enough, especially when feeding small hoppers. That's just not enough food and he/she isn't going to grow very well.

I have babies that are in the 70g range and they eat live, small adult mice(not fuzzies, not hoppers, not weaned mice, small adults). They take them down just fine and they are ready to eat again in 7 days. These babies hatched a little over a month ago and do well with this size meal.

Your snake is very capable of taking down the prey safely by himself, they have evolved over millions of years to be able to do this. Either a small adult mouse or a small rat pup would be fine. Just pre-scent the room for about 30 minutes prior(mouse in a cage beside the snake's enclosure so the snake knows what is going on and can prepare himself), then drop the mouse in on the opposite side of the enclosure as the snake(there's no need to move him for feeding, if you have been). Make as little movement as possible. It works well for me to make the room dark and just carry around a flashlight to see to feed everyone.

If he's been on mice, I'd stick with mice for a bit unless you can easily find same-size rat pups every week. I can get mice easier and they don't outgrow the sizes I need, so all of my Ball Pythons eat those(all 35+ of them).