Feeding Babies

Hey,

So I have a couple 2 month old ball pythons that I've been feeding live mice to. I was told that younger ones had to eat live mice and then they could then me transferred over to pre-killed or frozen as they got older. However, some of my reading says differently. Do you guys have opinions on feeding younger balls live or pre-killed?

You can feed live or F/T mice, rats or ASR to BPs of any age. Most people start babies on live as it is easier, but some start right out on F/T. Also there is no "need" to ever switch off of live. All mine eat live and are doing great and have been for years.

Thanks for the response! I would personally prefer to feed pre-killed or frozen compared to live. Just easier for me.

You can feed a baby ball rats, just sometimes mice are easier as they have a different smell. Though the best thing to do is to go for rats off the start or switch to rats ASAP because this can be a problem when they get larger and one mouse per time doesn't cut it, then it'll cause them to grow slower.

I will always recommend f/t over live because if your snake hits that mouse/rat wrong and that mouse/rat takes a chunk out of your snake it can cause issues that would of been easily avoided by feeding f/t. Your snake can get a bad infection or that can seriously cause a BP to go off feeding and tons of other things. So it's honestly best to do f/t though not always the most convenient for breeders and what not. I brought some f/t feeders to a girl and I watched her feed her king snake a weanling rat and because it didn't get the head just right I saw that rat take a chunk out. It's cheaper to go with f/t over live in the long run unless you breed your own.

The black pastel I have when I got him had only eaten one meal a hopper mouse, I fed it f/t rat pink for it's next meal and it's been on rats since, so whoever told you that is quite wrong.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Jonathan.R

Hey,

So I have a couple 2 month old ball pythons that I've been feeding live mice to. I was told that younger ones had to eat live mice and then they could then me transferred over to pre-killed or frozen as they got older. However, some of my reading says differently. Do you guys have opinions on feeding younger balls live or pre-killed?

---

You can feed them whatever they will eat. My hatchlings vary from live ASF rats to f/t rat pups.

Most will give babies live when they hatch usually just to get them eating right away. If you wanted to, you could offer a f/t mouse/rat and see if your Bp will eat it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Jay Mechtly

You can feed live or F/T mice, rats or ASR to BPs of any age. Most people start babies on live as it is easier, but some start right out on F/T. Also there is no "need" to ever switch off of live. All mine eat live and are doing great and have been for years.

---

Same here! All of mine are on Live Rats and have been since they were little.

Again, thanks for the responses! I think I'm going to try to feed frozen next time. I'd definitely prefer to be feeding them rats instead of mice but I can't seem to find any small ones around. I've been debating on buying a small breeder colony of ASFs but I can't decide.

I start all my babies on rat pups.