Hatchling feeder.

What do you all uses as feeders for your hatchlings? My rats are just starting and I've noticed that even the pinkies might be a little too big for first few feedings? Might be wrong at that but I have a friend who breeds the mini hamsters (stay mouse size) and he feeds the hatchlings those babies then switches them too rats. I don't want a breeding colony of mice but thinking the mini hamster route wouldn't be bad to get a couple for just hatchling frozen food. So what do you all do? Am I over thinking everything and rat pinks are fine or do you recommend adding a smaller pray colony.

We start our hatchlings on hopper mice and switch to rat fuzzy's after 3-4 meals

K so you think if I got some of those mini hamsters to make a stock pile of their babies that would be good? Mice mess with my allergies too badly, one or two isn't bad but a colony makes me itch and sneeze if I'm in same room as them idk why cuz I have to problem with rats.

Have you tries african soft furs?

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Yea id go with asf's instead of hamsters.

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Originally Posted by iCandiBallPythons

Have you tries african soft furs?

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I've thought about them but they aren't for sale anywhere by me that I can find. We really only have petco, and then an hr north there is a mom and pop herp shop but they don't have AFS either. That's why I was thinking those little hamsters they stay small, and the snakes switch over easy. It's nice knowing I'm correct that rat pinkies are too big haha.

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Originally Posted by Mike41793

Yea id go with asf's instead of hamsters.

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Can I order them live off line? I can't find them in Minnesota... Maybe in st.paul but I'm 2.5 hrs north of there

A pinky rat should pretty much never be too big for ball python hatchling. There are some tiny hatchlings that are under 20 grams that may have some difficulty taking one down, but I would bet they still could. I have a 15 gram Kenyan Sand Boa that can take down rat pinkies. I wait till my rat babies are about 1-2 weeks old before I will bother feeding them to my hatchlings (when their patterns and color are easy to see). You want the prey item to be just slightly thicker than the snake, you should see the bump when they are done eating.

As for ASFs I would stay away from them unless you have a snake that absolutely refuses to eat them. ASFs aren't easy to find, even if you have a breeder nothing says they will always be breeding them.

I wish you could see what she was eating better, but this is a 40 gram hatchling eating a 1-2 week old "fuzzy" rat. Probably close to double the size of a rat pinky. They don't have fur, but you can just barely see their fur starting. If there was something in between pinky and fuzzy that would be what I use.
http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t.../babies017.jpg

This is the stage/age I use for my hatchlings, the pattern/color is in, but the fur isn't quite there yet. This is about a 1-1.5 weeks old.
http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t...s/1e336bb0.jpg

Pinky rats are fine. Realy no reason to use mice unless you realy want to.

Ya I don't want mice I wouldn't be able to go into my snake/feeder room then haha and if rat pinks are fine then ill just stick with my rats and get a couple more females :) ill just gas them at a week or so old for hatchlings then just keep jumping up and gassing them. I'm just starting the breeding and stock piling I want done by time I get my first breeding girl