Quick feeding question

I recently added a female Spider (165g...but thick). Going by the rule of food items being about the size of their mid-section, I bought her medium mice. She seemed to take it fine, though the first 1/4 of her neck seemed to stretch almost to her max. After that, you could hardly tell a noticeable bump as it went down.

In your opinion and experience are the medium mice fine for her weight and size or would you step back to the small mice? Here's a pic of her:

http://www.ballophile.com/public/isis1.jpg

How much does the mice weight? For younger BPs I go by the 10-15% rule (feed a feeder that's 10-15% of the snake's weight, so roughly 17-25 grams) but if medium mice aren't showing a lump after swallowing I would actually recommend upping the size of the mouse/rat.

Is that a small CC Pet Lagoon? If so, then by comparison she looks large enough to take large adult mice to me. I wouldn't worry too much about the neck thing - it'll always kind of look that way. If you couldn't see a bump at all after she finished her mouse, that's also an indication that it may not be big enough.

Either way, she looks like she is in great body condition and fat and sassy, so even if the medium mice aren't the biggest meal she can take, they'd be more than fine for her for a little while.

-Jen

Thanks all for the replies! I think for now I'll stick with the medium mice and see how she does the next month or two. I would hate to split her neck which I think a large mouse would do :(. The medium fit in her mouth perfectly and there was a small bump as the mouse progressed so I think medium mice it will be. I'll keep an eye on her weight and keep an eye on any behavior that would indicate she's hungry earlier than feeding day.

I was just surprised at how much her neck had to stretch that short way as my 2012 female Normal's (113g) neck doesn't stretch that much with fuzzy mice and was was a little worried. Maybe I need to up my Normal to hoppers...;)

She won't split her neck open. Usually, if a snake thinks the meal is too big it won't try to eat it. They can take exceptionally large meals that you'd otherwise think they wouldn't be able to handle.

Fuzzy mice are way too small for baby BPs, even hatchlings can be on mouse weanlings/smalls.

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Originally Posted by ballophile

Thanks all for the replies! I think for now I'll stick with the medium mice and see how she does the next month or two. I would hate to split her neck which I think a large mouse would do :(. The medium fit in her mouth perfectly and there was a small bump as the mouse progressed so I think medium mice it will be. I'll keep an eye on her weight and keep an eye on any behavior that would indicate she's hungry earlier than feeding day.

I was just surprised at how much her neck had to stretch that short way as my 2012 female Normal's (113g) neck doesn't stretch that much with fuzzy mice and was was a little worried. Maybe I need to up my Normal to hoppers...;)

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Don't worry about her neck.
They have very stretchy skin. Their throats are built to do that.
Fuzzy mice are too small. They can take hoppers right out of the egg.

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