Feeding Size Q. (with pic)

[icygirl]

I'm so nervous about this. I have been feeding my BP hoppers, and he has been doing fine with that. But I heard from people on this site and breeders that they feed their hatchlings hoppers and whatnot, and mine is a few months old already. So I decided to try an adult mouse. I feel like maybe it was a bad idea, because he stretched his mouth wider than I have ever seen, and now over a day afterwards, he has a big lump on his body still where the mouse is, and the scales are all stretched out.

Opinions Please

I'm so worried that he will regurgitate, etc.

Here's the pic:



edit: Better yet, anyone have any pics of their snakes feeding so I can judge what an appropriate size feeder is?

[Moriar]

my male is 24 inches and he took 2 adult mice. i was a bit concerned but he is fine and active as we speak. check your gut out come thanksgiving after all that turkey we get stretched out after a big meal too

[dr del]

Hi,

Are the cage temps stable and at the right level?

Maybe see if there is an inbetween size you could get next time- small adult or whatever. Either that or you could try offering two hoppers one after the other for a little while till he gets bigger.

It does look a little bigger than what I would have chosen but they can eat considerably larger prey than we tend to offer. I wouldn't handle him or stress him till there was no sign of the lump as a precaution and make sure the temps don't dip but other than that you should hopefully be ok.


dr del

[Roswell]

Judge the size of the feeder by the widest girth of the snake. Thats usually a good rule to follow when choosing appropriately sized prey.

[lookout4theyeti]

My ball is about 20" long, I would say about average girth for his size, and i was feeding him two fuzzies for a couple feeds and decided to step up when some people here said they were too small. I fed him an adult mouse, and after the 48 hour no handling period after feed, he seemed fine and no extra bulge in the belly. He just took his second adult mouse the other day and is fine still and he didn't regurge either time. I got him from petco and he seemed really underfed when I got him, but he's been fine and ate every time for me with no issues.