How many mice?

[micbrown]

How many mice (hoppers) should my 5 month old BP be eating every week?

[llovelace]

Why not 1 med mouse? how much does the snake weigh?

[ScottyDsntKnow]

I had my girl on one every 5 days but they might be too small. If you don't already, get a scale, weigh her and get back to us on what she weighs. There are a few ways to tell what size food your BP should be taking as well. One is you should feed prey that is about 1.5 times as wide as the widest point of your snake's body. The other is that you feed prey that weighs 10-15% of what your snake weighs.

[nixer]

unless that snake is really small it should probally be eating adult mice

[micbrown]

I am not sure his weight..I dont have a scale. I have been feeding one med hopper every 5 days. But, sometimes I think he is still hungry. So, last night I fed him 1 good size hopper. waited about 30 min then fed one small hopper. He was still looking for more. So, I just want to be sure I am not under feeding.

[llovelace]

You should really invest in a scale

[Freakie_frog]

Unless they are incredibly small I've had hatchling take med to adult mice as their first meal. Hoppers are for problem eaters or corn snakes.

[kc261]

There are a few ways to tell what size food your BP should be taking as well. One is you should feed prey that is about 1.5 times as wide as the widest point of your snake's body. The other is that you feed prey that weighs 10-15% of what your snake weighs.

I do not believe it is recommended that BPs eat prey that is wider than the widest part of their body. What I have usually seen is that it should be about equal to the widest part of their body. I have seen up to 1.5x times as wide recommended for other types of snakes, such as corns.

Also, I believe both that rule and the 10-15% rule apply to young, growing snakes. Once they reach a certain size, you can stop increasing the size of the prey even though the snake will continue to grow slowly.

[micbrown]

Cool..thanks. I will switch to one adult every 5 days until I get a scale to determine his exact needs...Thanks again!

[ScottyDsntKnow]

Since I changed my setup and started feeding me girl a proper sized meal she's gone up over 40g in 3 weeks(190-232). Granted, alot of that is probably poop weight but she's pounding down 20oz adult mice every 5 days. I finally found some smaller frozen rats around here that I'm going to try and step up to in a month or so.

edit: Just order this scale from reptile basics. It goes up to 7000g and has a nifty bowl for smaller snakes. That's the one I have and its great.