What size mice?

Fed my ball python for the first time yesterday and the petstore just got it in from the breeder literally a day before I bought it so they didnt know when it had last eaten. So after I set him/her up in the cage I waited 2 days till last night to feed. The petstore recomended I give it some pinkies at first to see if he will eat those since ball pythons can be picky eaters. Well not for this snake! I had 6 pinkies and it ate all of them one right after the other. The snake is about 21-22" long not sure on weight. I am not sure if that was enough to eat it seemed as if I put another in it would have been eaten as well. Should I wait till next week and then move up in size to fuzzies or should i try sooner? Should I keep giving them till he/she stops eating or will they stop when they are full? Also about handling now that it has eaten I should wait to handle but should I wait till it poops or will he/she be good to go after a day or two of digesting? I searched but didnt come up with problems about eating multiple mice mostly about not eating at all lol.

Your snake could very readily take a mouse hopper or a rat pup. I would try to get it to take a rat pup.

Ball pythons shouldnt be picky. They are normally pretty aggresive eaters if everything is right in their world. I would for sure get it on rat pinks and stay on rats. Nothin worse then trying to get a mouse eater switched to rats when it get bigger

The general rule I follow is that I want to feed mice/rats large enough that I see a lump after the snake swallows. But, you don't want to go too large that it may regurgitate.

I wouldn't recommend handling the snake after it eats. I usually wait a day or two so I don't stress them out and possible cause regurgitation.

I have had some of my snakes eat more than one...they were hungry. Feeding them larger rats also allow me to wait two weeks between feedings.

Thanks everyone! I will definately try to find rats most likely will have to order online but in the mean time should I try gradually move him up in size? Or should I jump right to mouse hoppers and skip fuzzies until I can source some rat pups? Also should I try to feed him sooner than a week or just wait till its one week? One more thing is if he is full will he stop eating or will he eat anything I put in front of him....

Thanks again! I am learning so much from this site

Since you have already fed him, I would wait until the next scheduled feeding day then offer a mouse hopper.

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Originally Posted by okswerve16

Thanks everyone! I will definately try to find rats most likely will have to order online but in the mean time should I try gradually move him up in size? Or should I jump right to mouse hoppers and skip fuzzies until I can source some rat pups? Also should I try to feed him sooner than a week or just wait till its one week? One more thing is if he is full will he stop eating or will he eat anything I put in front of him....

Thanks again! I am learning so much from this site

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BP hatchlings are usually started on mouse hoppers or rat pinks (depending on size). You will be fine on hoppers until you can get to rats. But like someone said earlier, switch them over ASAP...

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The quicker you can get him/her on rats and off of mice, the quicker he'll/she'll grow and start to put on weight. Took me a while to learn this lesson, but in my experience, it's true. Once they get to be adults, feeding one approprate sized rat is so much easier than feeding a bunch of mice.

You want something just a little thicker than the thickest part of your snake. It took me a long time to realize just how large of a prey item they can eat. If you feed them something that hardly leaves a bump it's going to take a long time for the snake to grow/fatten up.