Appropriate size prey?

After figuring out that my bp won't take F/T at all, he took to live feeding like a champ. We're now two meals and shed into owning him/her and I'm questioning what size I'm feeding.

The first live meal was a "jumbo mouse" the pet store called it. I wasn't able to weigh it, so I don't know. The second meal was a rat pup, again wasn't able to weigh it.

I know for sure the snake is 25 inches long, but I don't have a scale to weigh it. What size rat should I feed it?

CHECK THIS OUT. Someone else posted it the other day.

Unfortunately you pretty much have to eyeball it if you don't have a scale (which would be extremely helpful). I'd say jumbo mouse is kind of an oxymoron IMO, most baby ball pythons can take a hopper, and adult mouse, or rat pup right out of the egg. I prefer to switch to rats as soon as possible (shorter shopping list, and in my experience my rat eaters grow faster than my mousers), but some people are limited, especially when buying mice/rats from a chain store.
I have this one btw:
http://www.amazon.com/EatSmart-Preci...1361505&sr=8-1

I really like that red scale :) hmmmmmm need to come up with a good reason to buy it.

The owners of my local reptile shop (very reputable), say that if it doesn't take a snake 5 to 10 minutes to eat a mouse then you need to up the prey size.

I've never heard it put like that, but I guess it sounds like solid advice.

I fed my 120g male butter, he's somewhere between 18 and 24 inches, a 3 week old rat 2 days ago. he was a little reluctant at first, but after about 15 minutes of him sitting back and watching it run around, he grabbed it and ate it without any problems. the rat weighed about 40g. so i would ask the pet store how old their rats are. 3 week old rat should be fine :)

You want the prey item to be the same thickness of the thickest part of your snake or slightly thicker.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by llovelace

I really like that red scale :) hmmmmmm need to come up with a good reason to buy it.

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I know! They have a pink scale here at our outlet mall and I really really want it! It's $40 though and I already have two scales *pouts*