How many mice to feed?

Hi, my snake Mitch likes mice over rats. so i am feeding her what she wants. so far she ate 1 mouse last night, and 2 mice tonight. How do i know she is done? will she not eat any more? do i stop after a few?

It's not good for her to eat day after day like that.

I have several mouse eaters myself, and they eat once a week. Anywhere from 2 to 5 mice depending on the size of the snake.

How big is yours ? That will tell you how many will make a meal for her. Rarely one will eat too much, usually they stop when they get full, but overeating does happen and can result in a very sick snake.

Gale

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Originally Posted by angllady2

It's not good for her to eat day after day like that.

I have several mouse eaters myself, and they eat once a week. Anywhere from 2 to 5 mice depending on the size of the snake.

How big is yours ? That will tell you how many will make a meal for her. Rarely one will eat too much, usually they stop when they get full, but overeating does happen and can result in a very sick snake.

Gale

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she is a year old. probably 2.5-3 feet

I have a bp similar in age and length to yours. I weigh the snake and feed 10-15% of it's body weight. It usually equals out to be apprx 2 large adult mice. I feed once per week.

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Originally Posted by Mikekrause2000

she is a year old. probably 2.5-3 feet

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At a year old, two or three adult mice are more than enough once a week. I would wait until 7 days from her last meal, then offer her a mouse. Once she eats that one and has re-adjusted her jaws, offer a second. If she takes that one, once it's gone and she's actively looking again, try a third. She may or may not take it.

Do not give her more than three. Even if she acts like she'll take another. Watch her for a week, and if she has no problems, you can stick to the two or three mice once a week.

Gale

Do yourself a favor and break her of the mice habbit. You can get them off mice. Sometimes it takes alittle time but rats are alot better for them for growth and developement. If you still want to feed mice then feed whatever the animal will take at one feeding. Its not good to be feeding day after day. Also when feeding like that it screws up their digestive system. Its better to fill them up on one feeding, let them process and digest that and then get them on a bi weekly feeding schedule if your feeding multiple meals. If you do switch to rats then you can feed one appropriate rat weekly or bi weekly

my problem is that i buy a rat, she wont eat it. then it grows too big for her to even want to look at it. then i have to kill it. then im out 7 dollars.

If my snake skips a meal, I just wait another 5-7 days and try again. I've never had persistent problems with my snake eatting mice or rats, and I've gone back and forth depending on the supply at the pet store.

My favorite phrase in the kitchen is "Hunger is the best spice". I guess that's not the best thing to say when you're the chef...but I'll go out on a limb and say your snake will eat that rat if she decided to skip her last meal or two lol.

Have you tried smaller rats like a pup or weanling? My snake is about the same size as yours, and even a weanling is hit or miss on whether it's too big for her, so I stick with rat pups or weanlings that I can inspect before I purchase; If not, it's mice all the way until she's a little bigger.

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Originally Posted by snake lab

Do yourself a favor and break her of the mice habbit. You can get them off mice. Sometimes it takes alittle time but rats are alot better for them for growth and developement. If you still want to feed mice then feed whatever the animal will take at one feeding. Its not good to be feeding day after day. Also when feeding like that it screws up their digestive system. Its better to fill them up on one feeding, let them process and digest that and then get them on a bi weekly feeding schedule if your feeding multiple meals. If you do switch to rats then you can feed one appropriate rat weekly or bi weekly

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How so? I raised my first set of females on mice alone. Their growth and development was not hindered by them growing up mousers. They were gaining about 100 grams a month on mice.

I switched them to rats when I started to breed my own food, and had no interest in breeding mice. But not because I felt rats were nutritionally better for them.

Anyone who tells you that they are is really just expressing their opinion, since no one has done a study of the nutritional REQUIREMENTS of ball pythons. It could be that rats are too fatty for ball pythons and mice are the perfect ball python food. We simply don't know, since no one has done that study yet. :)

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Originally Posted by Mikekrause2000

my problem is that i buy a rat, she wont eat it. then it grows too big for her to even want to look at it. then i have to kill it. then im out 7 dollars.

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You have one ball python - feed what works best for you and your snake will take, not what other people tell you that you should feed.

When I had mousers, I was feeding them 2-3 adult mice every 7 days. Their growth rate was just fine.