First time ball owner

We adopted a 3 year old ball a month ago. Last night he fed for the first time I was concerened it would gross me out but man what an awesome snake. The lady who had him first told the people at PetCo that she fed him one medium rat a month. Although it seems to me a small rat once a week would be better for him. He seems to have adjusted to us real well. He's very comfortable with us and we are certaintly enjoying him. After he feeds should we leave him alone for a couple of days? The rat was small so he doesn't have a bulge or anything, but I don't want to mess up his digestive process. I'm learning more and more about him but am still a novice. Could use any inside info experinced owners could give. Thanks

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Originally Posted by Sonja

We adopted a 3 year old ball a month ago. Last night he fed for the first time I was concerened it would gross me out but man what an awesome snake. The lady who had him first told the people at PetCo that she fed him one medium rat a month. Although it seems to me a small rat once a week would be better for him. He seems to have adjusted to us real well. He's very comfortable with us and we are certaintly enjoying him. After he feeds should we leave him alone for a couple of days? The rat was small so he doesn't have a bulge or anything, but I don't want to mess up his digestive process. I'm learning more and more about him but am still a novice. Could use any inside info experinced owners could give. Thanks

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Any info about balls would be great.

One small rat a week would be great. Most ball pythons can live their entire lives on one small rat a week. Feeding the smaller prey item more often instead of a large prey item every now and then can make the bp a much more consistant feeder also. You should leave the ball python alone for at least 48 hours after a meal...that means no handling :) Do a search and you will get tons of info on ball pythons. If you have anymore questions, let us know :)

ive heard that you aren't really suppose to handle them for about a week after u get them. anyt truth to this? i just got mine three days ago but it has already eaten yesterday when i fed it. it took the food really good. soo i can start handling after it eats once right?

I would wait until it has eatten several times before I start handling. Also, you should wait 48 hrs after the snake has eatten before any handling. No handling reduces stress on the bp...and it is best to limit stress for the first couple of weeks and until the bp is eating consistantly.

SONJA - please allow more than 5 minutes for a reply to your post before hammering. You are doign great on giving him digestion time but might want to increase the rat size to the same girth as the middle of the BP and feed weekly - monthly is not going to help maintain a healthy snake.


10-16-2005 01:55 PM
10-16-2005 01:57 PM
10-16-2005 02:01 PM



There is some great information to be had in our BP caresheet here:
http://www.ball-pythons.net/modules....warticle&id=52

Yeah, my apologies everyone! You can delete that if you want... For some reason, my replies weren't working, and I used this one as a test. Sorry again...:confuse: