weight of food vs weight of bp

I have a "formula"... but being as I've only kept BP's for a little over 4 months now, I don't know how exact or right it is... :) All of my snakes eat every week without fail, not one refusal yet (knocking on wood right now), and all I did for my new snakes was look at the feeding record for my older snake that I've been able to run from 120g at purchase to a little over 720g now only 4 1/2 months later.

I feed one adult mouse per week until at 200g, then two mice a week (on the same day) until at 450g, then a small rat (60g or so) for the rest of life. :) In a few years when my females get up to 2000g or so, I'll probably give them 2 smalls a week a couple of months before breeding, and the same a month or so after they've layed their clutches just to pack on some fat stores for the breeding season.

As far as everything I've heard, even the largest of large females can do just fine with two to four mice as adults. But like Adam said, some just like the smaller meals, and as most of us already know, BP's are imprint feeders, so some will refuse everything except for mice, and some are strictly ratters.

I've fed both to all of my snakes, and like I've said (knock on wood again, I just KNOW I'm jinxing myself :) ) have never had a refusal.

Good luck!

As far as judging size of your snake for when you are at the store purchasing mice, Use some type of objcet to help you with size. Be it a quarter, your thumb, a dollar bill, or a volkswagon, just something that is about the same size as your snakes largest part, then you can take that with you and judge your mouse, rat, rabbet, horse, whatever. Maby this will help with your food selection. As for the rest of these things. Though I have not been in this forum in quite a while, I have yet to be steered wrong by Adam_wysocky when it came to advice. (No offence to anyone else) Matt at Mg Reptiles has also been very helpfull a bunch. Accept any advice that is endorsed (sp) by either or both of them. Good luck.


Cheers
Ray