Upsizing Prey Question

All of my sub adults are almost ready to eat small rats. I have 2 females (566g and 589g NOT empty) and one male (around 700g NOT empty but he's currently breeding so I can't pull him out to weight him ;)) who all ate on the 12th (male ate on the 13th).

Last week, I went to my feeder store and they were out of everything. I drove across town to the only other place I know that sells them and all they had were small rats. So I picked them all up a small rat. No one had any issues eating.

I feed weekly (every Tuesday). Do you think I should just go ahead and give them all small rats? Or should I keep the girls on weaned rats for a few more meals and then bump them up but buy my male a small? Or should I keep them all on weaned rats. I have a feeding plan somewhere that I think says to feed up to 600g weaned rats and anything 600-1200g can eat smalls. What's your opinion?

If they will take them no problem then I don't see any issue with it.

You need to keep in mind that there is no widely accepted weight/size ranges for rodents. What some people call small rats other people would call weaned and vise versa.

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Originally Posted by The Serpent Merchant

If they will take them no problem then I don't see any issue with it.

You need to keep in mind that there is no widely accepted weight/size ranges for rodents. What some people call small rats other people would call weaned and vise versa.

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I know this all too well! Some of the smalls I've seen are more like mediums and some are more weaned rat size. I usually go by weight. My weaned rats have been in the 40-55g range but these smalls were 70-85g range. No one had any issues eating them. They all struck, coiled, and ate just fine. I gave them an additional day of no handling but they all seem good. I just wasn't sure if it was truly advised against it. At first, I thought they looked huge but they didn't seem to care. Here's my male eating his. His was the largest at 88g and the ones I have the girls were about 75g each.

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphot...54929782_n.jpg

And yes, he was being funny and killed his rat backwards. Silly boy.

I was about to ask if it was problem that my (around 400g) girl was on small rats but my friend, boy you weren't kidding when you said people's sizes are different! That's definitely a medium rat as far as my suppliers say. xD

Beautiful pic though, love his colors!

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Originally Posted by anwhit

I was about to ask if it was problem that my (around 400g) girl was on small rats but my friend, boy you weren't kidding when you said people's sizes are different! That's definitely a medium rat as far as my suppliers say. xD

Beautiful pic though, love his colors!

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That's a good size small to mine! Mediums for me usually run 120-150g. The lady who owns the shop gets her rats from two different suppliers. One's small rats are the size my boy was eating and the other's small rats are just weaned. So yes, it varies a whole lot! That's why I always eyeball the feeders before I purchase them and then weigh them before feeding. I will give the smallest ball python the smallest rat, etc.

Thanks for the compliment! He's such a good boy. He's breeding two females this season and is growing like a weed!

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h1...ps6c837bf2.jpg

Actually this is about the standard sizing most breeders go by ;)

Yep, Pitt's chart is roughly what I follow. I up my kids to small rats when they are somewhere in the 400-500g range, depending on the size of smalls and weanlings I have available at the time.

I think I'll just keep them on the small rats. They did fine eating 70-80g smalls so I don't think they'll have any issues.

I don't wanna start a new thread plus I feel like my question is similar to the OP's. I have a 2 yr. old male weigh 695g, the previous owner told me he feeds him medium rat but when I purchased a medium, I felt like it was too big. Instead, I start feeding him 2 small rats every 10 days. Is what I'm doing ok? Thanks in advance.