What do you feed your ball pythons?

i'm not exactly sure....maybe say silver dollar size at his biggest point.

btw he was eating small rats when he about 6 months old...dude who had him before me really stepped it up on feedings. Huge meal sizes resulted in huge bowel movements and I don't feel he's grown any faster than other males his age that I've seen.

Rats rats rats - we have a burgeoning rat population.

If anyone goes off feed this winter we'll wind up having to sell some off to the local pet store or be overrun!

Weaned rats and JAMs (jumbo adult mice). Dandylion started off on the thin side, but she has become the most aggressive feeder! :eek: I can barely get the mice in the cage! I've just upped her to two mice, so hopefully I'll have her on weaned rats soon.

Geeze Smulk, move to Michigan would you LOL. As far as I can see we don't have a single commercial rat or mouse breeder in this whole state! Local supplies at the pet store aren't always as consistent as they should be so it's off to shop around online for a bulk order very soon (oh and buy a used freezer too!)


~~Jo~~

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

Geeze Smulk, move to Michigan would you LOL. As far as I can see we don't have a single commercial rat or mouse breeder in this whole state! Local supplies at the pet store aren't always as consistent as they should be so it's off to shop around online for a bulk order very soon (oh and buy a used freezer too!)


~~Jo~~

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This is why I breed my own rats and mice, keeps costs down, but keeping a level population takes alot of work! It's either to few or to many it seems...but things have worked out well for me over the years. I don't even have pet related shop in my town! closest is probably 40 minutes. I used to go to Petco when I needed extra mice when they where selling them for under dollar but now they are all like $2+ for a scrawny mouse. In fact I think some of my mice lineage may be in fact from petco LOL.

Sorry Jo lol - ours here are nuts - about $4 per sml/med rat. Gad-farking-z00ks.

I hear ya Tek - and it takes a lot of work REGARDLESS.

The rats have daily maintenance needs - more demanding than the snakes but not too bad - minus the periodic changing of he bedding and cleaning of the tanks I maybe spend 10-15 minutes a day watering/feeding. They are MUCH less "aromatic" than mice for sure.

Rats smell less than mice? My mice breeding operation is in our extra bedroom. The smell is not bad.....but it is there. How much difference is it?

HUGE difference. i never believed the rumor that rats don't smell until i had some of my own. if you can smell them at all it's probably because you haven't kept up with the cage cleaning and you just need to keep up with things a little better. even with frozen ones though--some of the mice just plain stink but the rats have much less odor.

breeding rats is looking better and better.... What size enclosures would I need for a rat or a pair of rats?

Well put it this way Daniel, we have 4 adult rats that are pets. They live in our living room in 3 cages. One large one for the two females, then two smaller tanks for the two males. Normally the males would live together quite happily (unlike stupid male mice, rat males generally enjoy each other's company), however, our one male is very old and just can't keep up with the younger male's rougher play. They really have almost no smell at all as long as their cage is clean. They are easy to handle and quite friendly, though mom's with litters can be quite protective so Becky tells me.

Our two females are with the younger male right now hopefully they will both breed. They can stay together apparently until just prior to giving birth then they will each go into 10 gallon tanks to give birth and raise their babies until weaning, then they will become cagemates again.

I'm not sure how one goes about breeding rats in larger quantities but personally I like them far better than mice anyday. They also have the reputation of being very good mothers generally.


~~Jo~~


~~Jo~~