Feeding too little?

I am going out of town for a few days and my son is going to be keeping an eye on the BPs for me. Yesterday I got them out and handled them for a almost an hour after letting them relax for 2 days after their last meal of a few medium mice each. Since I am going to be gone for a few days I decided to try to feed them in case Im not back in time. Both took a f/t mouse each with no prblems at all! The bigger of the two was actually postured like he was ready for another when I whent to put him back in his cage. After a minute though he calmed down and let me pick him and put him back.

This makes for two sucessful feeding in one week. Im happy for that but I wonder, are these guys ready for bigger meal size? One is a little over 3 ft the other is exactly 3 ft. I dont know the weights since I dont have a scale.

Snakes are opportune hunters so they will eat whenever food comes their way because, in the wild, they do not know when their next meal will be. Though ball pythons have a reputation for being finicky eaters, they still carry this instinct.

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Originally Posted by Flatheadhunter33

I am going out of town for a few days and my son is going to be keeping an eye on the BPs for me. Yesterday I got them out and handled them for a almost an hour after letting them relax for 2 days after their last meal of a few medium mice each. Since I am going to be gone for a few days I decided to try to feed them in case Im not back in time. Both took a f/t mouse each with no prblems at all! The bigger of the two was actually postured like he was ready for another when I whent to put him back in his cage. After a minute though he calmed down and let me pick him and put him back.

This makes for two sucessful feeding in one week. Im happy for that but I wonder, are these guys ready for bigger meal size? One is a little over 3 ft the other is exactly 3 ft. I dont know the weights since I dont have a scale.

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Well if you do not have a scale you can eye ball the girth of the prey versus the girth of the snake at its most girthiest part.

You want the prey to aprox the girth of the snake at its widest part, and it is ok for the prey to be slightly bigger......slightly. I think from what I read is it is better to feed one appropriatly sized meal when you can than two or more undersized meals.

My new B/P was being fed one large mouse when I bought her. My first feeding the mice I got for her were noticably smaller than her widest girth. I fed her two and she took them greedily. She also was irritable until the next week when I fed her a small rat which matched her girth perfectly. Two days later she was more in line with the docility I had thought I should expect and was an perfect angel. Until she went into shed, but then that is expected from an uncomfortable and blind animal.

A 3 foot ball python would weigh in at roughly 900-1200g give or take.
You're currently feeding (at largest) 30g mice.
You could EASILYT be feeding your ball python 100-125g rats at that size.
So yes, I believe you are underfeeding your ball python.

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Originally Posted by mykee

I believe you are underfeeding your ball python.

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underfeeding would be more like a 6 month fast...