switching from one week to two weeks?

I know that but what I'm saying is how inconvenient is it to feed an animal once per week. I would downsize the prey size a little and still feed every week.

I didn't mean to come off as rude if I did I'm sorry

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And I'm referring to the op's baby not your 2 year old


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No worries :gj:

Mike does have a point; these snakes are getting life so much easier than their wild cousins...even a younger snake COULD probably deal with a 2 week wait.

Since these aren't wild animals though, we usually spoil them some :p

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Originally Posted by Crazymonkee

I know that but what I'm saying is how inconvenient is it to feed an animal once per week.
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If you're having to drive any significant distance to a pet store then it could be inconvenient.

I have a 2 year old female bp, and feed her every 2 weeks. She seems to be doing great and is eating medium rats. I agree that babies up to a year should be fed once every 5 to 7 days. But to eaches own :).

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Originally Posted by Mike41793

If you're having to drive any significant distance to a pet store then it could be inconvenient.

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I hear ya... but that's why I get at least 2 and keep them in a critter keeper... it's not that difficult.

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Originally Posted by Crazymonkee

I just need to ask... why is it so difficult to feed an animal once a week?
I feed my dog everyday, ferrets everyday, rabbit 15 times a day lol.
Seriously feeding an animal that young every two weeks??
I feed Lex every 5 days she's about 4 months old.... I have no intention of switching her for another month or so to every 7 days.
Please think of your animal before yourself.

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Well said.

It can be done, but I couldn't tell you any breeders off hand that would because quicker they get to size the quicker they can try to breed. If I wasn't breeding, I'd say honestly switch to a 10 day feeding schedule with appropriately sized prey.

Don't pay any attention to the 10-15% of the body weight rule. That's something that should honestly stop getting posted. I mean realistically how many keepers that are only keeping a few snakes actually have a scale. Then of those keepers 99% of them probably don't breed their own rodents, so it's not like somebody is really going to take a scale to a pet store and start weighing rats/mice. This is why the 10-15% thing should stop being posted altogether.

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Originally Posted by Neal

It can be done, but I couldn't tell you any breeders off hand that would because quicker they get to size the quicker they can try to breed. If I wasn't breeding, I'd say honestly switch to a 10 day feeding schedule with appropriately sized prey.

Don't pay any attention to the 10-15% of the body weight rule. That's something that should honestly stop getting posted. I mean realistically how many keepers that are only keeping a few snakes actually have a scale. Then of those keepers 99% of them probably don't breed their own rodents, so it's not like somebody is really going to take a scale to a pet store and start weighing rats/mice. This is why the 10-15% thing should stop being posted altogether.

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I think the 10 - 15 percent rule still serves a good purpose, especially for new Ball Python owners. For someone new to reptiles and even rats for this matter, this rule is a nice baseline to go by. For me, being a new owner when I picked up my normal python, I didn't want to "eyeball" the rat or guess if it was the right size, I wanted to make sure I gave it exactly the size he needed. (just me being ocd) I didn't take my scale to my local pet store, but I use to ask them to weigh them before I bought the rat to make sure they were the right size.

Having two Ball Pythons, for a little over a year now, I'm much more comfortable visually picking out the appropriate size food for my guys. Only reason I even weigh the rats now is just for my feeding records. I think if the 10 - 15 rule didn't exist, we would see a lot more threads asking, "is this rat ok for my snake".

The 10-15 general rule of thumb, for me, was really helpful when I first entered this hobby.


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Originally Posted by martin82531

I think the 10 - 15 percent rule still serves a good purpose, especially for new Ball Python owners. For someone new to reptiles and even rats for this matter, this rule is a nice baseline to go by. For me, being a new owner when I picked up my normal python, I didn't want to "eyeball" the rat or guess if it was the right size, I wanted to make sure I gave it exactly the size he needed. (just me being ocd) I didn't take my scale to my local pet store, but I use to ask them to weigh them before I bought the rat to make sure they were the right size.

Having two Ball Pythons, for a little over a year now, I'm much more comfortable visually picking out the appropriate size food for my guys. Only reason I even weigh the rats now is just for my feeding records. I think if the 10 - 15 rule didn't exist, we would see a lot more threads asking, "is this rat ok for my snake".

The 10-15 general rule of thumb, for me, was really helpful when I first entered this hobby.


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99% of new snake owners don't have a scale, and you're lucky your pet store had a scale. Most don't. What's so hard about visually picking out a good size item? It's an old rule of thumb that hardly applies anymore, especially if the snake is underfed.