need help with prey size

I recently acquired a baby BP from a friend of ours. This BP weighs 66 grams. They were told to feed it a large fuzzy/small hopper mouse by the guy who sold it to them.

We fed him a small hopper/almost weanling this weekend and it seemed rather small. What size prey would you recommend for this little guy? (is it 10 or 15% total body weight?)

I have some young adults (mice) in the freezer that I can try if you think it won't be too much.

We got our other BPs at about 100 grams and they were taking young adult mice.

One more question.... when do you go from feeding every 5 days to every 7 days?

what I do for a new baby... 1 large mous(25g) every 5 days until they hit 300g. At 300 I switch to 2 large mice or make the move to rats in which youd go with a weanling(30-40g) once a week. @500 I bump them up to small rats where they stay. Id invest in a digital scale(35$) just to help you keep a better eye on how much the food your feeding weighs... I know when I first started I was underfeeding bc the rats/mice seemed OK to me but once I weighed them they I found out I was way off.

DO NOT feed this little snake an adult mouse!!!!! :O
At most it ought to be getting a mouse hopper (10g) every 5 days; maybe even a fuzzy for a few feedings @ every 5 days.

I bump my snakes to feeding every 7 days when they are ~200g.

As for more specific prey info, I feed my snakes rats, so I really can't be much help :oops:

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Originally Posted by starmom

At most it ought to be getting a mouse hopper (10g) every 5 days; maybe even a fuzzy for a few feedings @ every 5 days.

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All of my babies hatched at 65-70 g last year and started off with large hoppers/rat pinks. There is no reason, in my opinion, to start a healthy ball python with anything smaller than a good sized hopper mouse. I prefer starting all of mine on rats if they will take them.

Feed him every 5 days or so and increase prey size as he grows. I switched all of my babies to every 7-10 days once they started taking weaned to small/small rats. This varies depending on how fast they grow, but it is usually around their first year old.

Thank you all so much! I knew a large mouse didn't sound right... that's about the size I'm feeding my 178 g BP... not the baby! I'll try to find a mouse or rat in the freezer around the 10 g mark and go from there... let's just keep fingers crossed that I can talk him into a f/t next meal ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JoshJP7

what I do for a new baby... 1 large mous(25g) every 5 days until they hit 300g. At 300 I switch to 2 large mice or make the move to rats in which youd go with a weanling(30-40g) once a week. @500 I bump them up to small rats where they stay. Id invest in a digital scale(35$) just to help you keep a better eye on how much the food your feeding weighs... I know when I first started I was underfeeding bc the rats/mice seemed OK to me but once I weighed them they I found out I was way off.

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Where did you purchase your scale?

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Originally Posted by the_Ryno

Where did you purchase your scale?

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You can find a digital cooking scale at any target/walmart ect.

Or if I was in the market for a scale again I would probably pick this one up.

http://www.reptilebasics.com/My-Weig...l-p-16191.html

Yup, that's the one I have and it's awesome!! I highly recommend a scale and not just to weigh prey. A monthly weight on your snake is a good part of record keeping and very helpful for the vet should any health issue arise :gj:

I just started two hatchlings last night, they had their first shed a week ago. They both took down good-sized hopper mice for their first meal. I would say the snakes are about 55-65g. They took the mice down easily and swallowed them just fine. Left a slight thickening but wasn't too large of a meal.

how soon after a snake hatches does it have its first shed?