44g rat too big for a 330g female?

Is it common for a snake to turn down an appropriate size meal? First, my husbandry is good, 91 hot spot and 80-83 abmient with 60% humidity. She had been eating f/t pups but she is growing nicely so I picked up some wean rats at the Cleveland reptile show and offered her her first one on Sunday, her normal feeding day. She looked at it for about 5 seconds and then struck and wrapped. I left her alone to eat and poked my head in a couple of times to check on her. She looked like she was looking for the head for a while but then after a while she just left it be and was perched on top of her log. I went ahead and thawed another pup for her and she took it right away and ate it but they are just so small. Using the .15 recomendation she should be taking 49g rats but the wean one was only 44g so I didn't think would be too big. I want to feed her one appropriate size meal but if she doesn't take wean should I offer 2 pups? Thanks for any advice or tips.

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Originally Posted by ewaldrep

Is it common for a snake to turn down an appropriate size meal? First, my husbandry is good, 91 hot spot and 80-83 abmient with 60% humidity. She had been eating f/t pups but she is growing nicely so I picked up some wean rats at the Cleveland reptile show and offered her her first one on Sunday, her normal feeding day. She looked at it for about 5 seconds and then struck and wrapped. I left her alone to eat and poked my head in a couple of times to check on her. She looked like she was looking for the head for a while but then after a while she just left it be and was perched on top of her log. I went ahead and thawed another pup for her and she took it right away and ate it but they are just so small. Using the .15 recomendation she should be taking 49g rats but the wean one was only 44g so I didn't think would be too big. I want to feed her one appropriate size meal but if she doesn't take wean should I offer 2 pups? Thanks for any advice or tips.

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No. 44 doesn't sound too large. Anything between 33-49 should be fine. But if you have a pickier snake, try going a little smaller. Doing 2 pups is fine. Or feed smaller single meals more often rather than once a week. I feed all my snakes under 500 grams every 4 days.

Thanks! I will try feeding her two pups at at ime but I want to keep her on every 7 days because she is my daughter's snake and she likes to read with her. My preference is to give her two days to digest just to help ensure we don't have a regurge. I will try that for two weeks and see if she will take a wean then. Looks like I will be taking another trip to the expo to pick up more pups :)

My daughter has a girl that was a pickier eater when she bumped her up to weanlings. Same thing where she would hit and coil, but then not eat it. My daughter would just have to take the rat and heat the head up again with a blow dryer and offer the same rat a second time. Then she would take it again, but eat it. Not everytime, but most times. Since it's a different batch of rats, it could be they just have a scent she needs to get used to. Give it a try.

Just to be frustrating and finnicky, she refused the second pup! She got real close like she was trying to sniff it like a dog and just kept looking at it then laid her head back down. I left it in the tub with her for a few hours and no go. I know she was hungry because she was nearly coming out of the tub before the first one. grr