Is this rat too big to feed my ball?

My ball python is 300 grams. The place I get his feeders from was all out of what I normally get him, so I got a small rat which seemed to be all they really had left of. The rat is about 60 grams. It doesnt seem to be that much bigger than the fattest part of my snake, but the rat is long and seems pretty heavy. Is this too big for my ball??

He should be eating rat pup, 20-29 grams

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Originally Posted by Hannahrenee

My ball python is 300 grams. The place I get his feeders from was all out of what I normally get him, so I got a small rat which seemed to be all they really had left of. The rat is about 60 grams. It doesnt seem to be that much bigger than the fattest part of my snake, but the rat is long and seems pretty heavy. Is this too big for my ball??

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Did you weigh it? 60 grams is like 2 jumbo Mice and it sounds the way you explained it that its much bigger than that. At 300 grams you should feed around 40 grams.
I had a bad experience once with a Rat that was to big for a 550 gram Ball Python. I was use to feeding my burm so all the Rats looked small to me and she (what I call) choked on it... she tried to get it back out of her mouth when she couldn't make it past the Hips/Back legs... i'll never make that mistake again. Scared the hell out of me. A correctly labeled Small Rat is to big for any 300 gram snake IMO


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Originally Posted by CALM Pythons

Did you weigh it? 60 grams is like 2 jumbo Mice and it sounds the way you explained it that its much bigger than that. At 300 grams you should feed around 40 grams.
I had a bad experience once with a Rat that was to big for a 550 gram Ball Python. I was use to feeding my burm so all the Rats looked small to me and she (what I call) choked on it... she tried to get it back out of her mouth when she couldn't make it past the Hips/Back legs... i'll never make that mistake again. Scared the hell out of me. A correctly labeled Small Rat is to big for any 300 gram snake IMO


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Wow that's scary. Yeah, he usually eats 30-40 gram rats. When I bought this rat today I wrapped my fingers around it to see the width and I measured it with my thumb. It seemed like a good size at the time, but after weighing it at home, it was 60 grams! He hasn't ate in a little over 2 weeks because he just got out of shedding, so I was desperate to get him some food tonight. But I guess he'll be waiting until I can get to a different petstore. Thank you

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Originally Posted by Hannahrenee

Wow that's scary. Yeah, he usually eats 30-40 gram rats. When I bought this rat today I wrapped my fingers around it to see the width and I measured it with my thumb. It seemed like a good size at the time, but after weighing it at home, it was 60 grams! He hasn't ate in a little over 2 weeks because he just got out of shedding, so I was desperate to get him some food tonight. But I guess he'll be waiting until I can get to a different petstore. Thank you

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Good call!

Better to give a good size meal in a week than something too big today!

At 300G he will be okay to wait, don't sweat it :).

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Originally Posted by Hannahrenee

Wow that's scary. Yeah, he usually eats 30-40 gram rats. When I bought this rat today I wrapped my fingers around it to see the width and I measured it with my thumb. It seemed like a good size at the time, but after weighing it at home, it was 60 grams! He hasn't ate in a little over 2 weeks because he just got out of shedding, so I was desperate to get him some food tonight. But I guess he'll be waiting until I can get to a different petstore. Thank you

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Yeah good idea, a small snake like that could get hurt too if the Rats to big and is aggressive on top of it. A small Rat will kick & fight more than a 30 gram Baby for sure.


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Are we talking live or frozen rat, incidentally ?

It sounds far too large, either way of course..

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Originally Posted by Zincubus

Are we talking live or frozen rat, incidentally ?

It sounds far too large, either way of course..

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Live but pre killed. I agree that I think it's too large. Poor thing had to die for nothing. Though I wonder if I could save it (in the freezer) until my snake is big enough

Good call on waiting.
And yes, as long as the rat has been properly stored until now, you can freeze it.

Thanks for posting this question! I actually recently got my first ball, and went to the pet store and they recommended small frozen rat for him. Even though I had done a ton of research before I got him, through the internet and YouTube, I wasn’t sure how much he weighed and didn’t know. Bought a scale and turns out he is only 320g. I was going to ask if the small rats were too big as well even though he didn’t have too much trouble just took him a good while to get it down. So next issue, none of the pet stores around me cary anything smaller than a small rat. Where do you guys get your feeders? Any reliable places you order from? Thanks!