What is the largest sized prey you feed balls?

I had always thought that you feed 15% bodyweight. But it seems more and more I am reading that people are feeding 80 - 100 gram rat per week even for the biggest balls. This would mean than a 2000 gram snake would eat 100 gram rat which is 5% only?

If that is the size of prey then I don't see what the problem is with mousers then because I can easily just feed 2 jumbo mice that are about 40 - 45 grams each and it would cost the same as a 80 - 100 gram rat, at least according to my rodent sources' prices. I find that balls much more readily take mice than rats and if it only takes that small volume of food then I don't see why not just feed them mice.

Large rats are the very largest prey I give ball pythons.

The largest rat i would feed would be like 125g. Even the biggest bp doesnt need more than that every week. Im sure some big ones COULD take bigger rats than that. I just dont see it to be necessary. Just my opinion.

The percentages rule is only good for babies and juvies imo. Once theyre over 1,000grams or so i wouldnt really go by that anymore. Some people have huge bps. Youre not gunna feed a 3kg snake a 300gram rat. Or a 4kg snake a 400gram rat...

I feed small rats to my adults once a week. Multiple smalls to the big girls. At the very most, medium.

I feed smaller and more frequent meals to avoid feeding larger and less often. I feed live, so this is the safest way to go about feeding since large rats have the potential to be really dangerous.


Nothing is wrong with feeding mice. They have almost identical nutritional value as a rat. However, it's more convenient to feed 1 rat compared to multiple mice. And sometimes a snake won't eat more than 1 or 2 prey. I have an adult female who eats 2 small rats in a sitting. She refuses a 3rd each time. If I had to feed the equivalent amount of mice, she probably would be pretty skinny if she only takes 2 mice at the max.

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I feed Mediums to my big girls, some get seconds depending on the animal and their feeding response that day. Like Nikki, I also feed live and Large rats can be pretty mean when they are fighting for their life.

For my large female she gets a large rat or 2 if shell take it but i dont feed every week. the smaller bps get fed every week but my adults unless im trying to get them up to wieght get fed every 10 to 14 days.

I have 2 snakes thatwill eat jumbo( retire ) breeder rats if I let them . if i do give them such a prey size I offer it about eery 3 weeks then noithng until 3 weeks ( or they crap it all out.
I found my one het pied prefers the huge meal and to mbe left alone for a couple weeks to bothering her every week. I know cause i am not there daily checking on her i foud she more hungry than normal I guess she been only getting fed and cleaned and no handling with my mother watching the snakes. like i would do .

I sorta follow the 10-15% rule but I mostly eyeball it and feed a prey item based on the thickness rule more but I have started feeding each snake every 7 days about 5 weeks ago and I am noting better growth rates than when I was doing 5 days for my little guys and 6 days for my juvies. The big girls get med f/t rats weekly. Its funny cuz when I offer them small live rats they are not interested so I have to euthanize and produce my own f/t stock. If I were feeding my large snakes live I wouldnt go any larger than a small rat. The mediums I feed are about 125-150g for my biggest girls that are 1100, 1600, 2000, 3000g.

My biggest girl will take a large rat occasionally (f/t) but I usually stick to small-medium rats for the adults.

Medium rat about 125 grams even to my biggest girls.

Males get something around 65 grams.