Ball Python Prey Size

I will try to keep this short and to the point. I'm debating with my girlfriend about the size of the food to feed our ball pythons. We have several ranging from a sub 100 gram baby to a 1400 gram adult as well as a 600 gram female and 900 gram male.

Now, to my understanding, a good indicator of the size food for your BP is about as big as their girthiest body segment. However (and if this is wrong which I think it is please back me up here) she is afraid to switch our biggest female (1400 grams) to medium rats because she feels like its too big for her to swallow. If you look at her, her body seems a little larger than what our pet store defines as a medium rat, although her head is maybe 1/4th the size of the rats widest part.

Am I wrong for thinking she could be switched? She wants to eventually breed that female to my male, but I've told her I refuse to breed anyone until we have females at at least 1800 grams. Only way to grow is to eat right? At the end of the day, when mine are big enough, I'm prepared to switch them to medium rats. (The 600 and 900 gram snakes are exclusively mine, while the other 2 are hers. I cant force her to do something she isnt comfortable doing with her pets, just like she cant stop me from doing what I think will be best for mine)

The proof of who's right will be in the results in the end. I suspect that when mine are wide bodied enough to comfortably take down a medium rat, as long as they are healthy, their head and neck will stretch to accomodate. One thing I won't do, is feed anything bigger than my snakes widest area, since I don't want to injure them. Am I wrong here? Should that big females stay on small rats, or am I not so crazy for thinking she can take mediums. She's been her current size for a long time, and I don't think she's going to get any bigger unless her food intake was to go up.

If she is right, and the head is indeed too small to take down a medium rat, would a good backup plan be to feed meals of say a small rat, and then something smaller to compensate for the difference in mass from a small rat to a medium? Any and all help and advice is appreciated.

Edit-For the sake of the argument, when I get home, I will take a picture of each snake next to an object, and then their food next to that same object to show a size difference.

My 1400 gram pastel male takes down good sized (150ish grams) medium rats no problem. Only eats about every 10-14 days but has no issues with the prey size. I was a little skeptical the first time I offered him a medium but he pounds them no problem


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Originally Posted by jmcrook

My 1400 gram pastel male takes down good sized (150ish grams) medium rats no problem. Only eats about every 10-14 days but has no issues with the prey size. I was a little skeptical the first time I offered him a medium but he pounds them no problem


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How does the rat compare to his head? Since that's the main focal point of this (albiet pointless) debate.

Substantially larger than the head and neck. But they're evolutionarily equipped for exactly that sort of situation. A rat that size actually makes a hardly noticeable bulge at his widest girth. He'd probably be fine on small rats more frequently, but he has no problem with a larger meal every week and a half or two. Also helps to plump him up for his winter feeding hiatus. Generally from October-March/April/May.


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Originally Posted by jmcrook

Substantially larger than the head and neck. But they're evolutionarily equipped for exactly that sort of situation. A rat that size actually makes a hardly noticeable bulge at his widest girth. He'd probably be fine on small rats more frequently, but he has no problem with a larger meal every week and a half or two. Also helps to plump him up for his winter feeding hiatus. Generally from October-March/April/May.


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Thank you. This makes me feel so much more comfortable in my position on the topic.

No problem! Maybe start on the smaller end of the medium spectrum and see how things go.


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Females here switch to medium rats in the 1200g range - some sooner, some later. All of the adult males here stay on small rats indefinitely.

Appropriately sized meals are the key to consistent eaters. It's the exception in my collection to have any of my animals take longer than a month off from feeding (for any reason other than when I'm expecting eggs).

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Originally Posted by jmcrook

No problem! Maybe start on the smaller end of the medium spectrum and see how things go.


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Thats exactly what I plan to do with mine when deemed appropriate. I cant force anyone to do something they don't want to, but the results will speak for themselves.

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Originally Posted by Eric Alan

Females here switch to medium rats in the 1200g range - some sooner, some later. All of the adult males here stay on small rats indefinitely.

Appropriately sized meals are the key to consistent eaters. It's the exception in my collection to have any of my animals take longer than a month off from feeding (for any reason other than when I'm expecting eggs).

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How heavy do your males get? Funny enough I always hear about crazy 2k-3k gram females but never any talk of male sizes other than the smallest they can breed.

I feed my 800g pinstripe male a smaller size medium and he has no trouble getting it down and does not even have a noticeable bump after feeding. If I knew how to post pictures I could show you what his girth is.

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Originally Posted by AlwaysSunnyJenn

I feed my 800g pinstripe male a smaller size medium and he has no trouble getting it down and does not even have a noticeable bump after feeding. If I knew how to post pictures I could show you what his girth is.

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If you're posting from a cell phone I highly recommend downloading tapatalk. It's a forum app and it is incredible and easy to uplosd pictures. If you're on a desktop computer upload the picture to facebook or another sight and then copy the share url. Then just embed it with the picture icon on the reply screen.