Is he getting enough food?

Baby ball pythons can be fed every 5 days...they're growing like crazy and while this wouldn't be a life-long feeding routine, they'll grow a lot during their first year.

Does anyone breed their own mice/rats?

I breed my own rats.

How many breeding couples would it take to keep a constant supply of food for one ball python?

None. It wouldn't be cost-efficient at all to breed rats or even mice for one Ball Python. I would just find a clean pet store so you can get 1-2 feeders a week.

Mice or rats, it doesn't matter. As long as they are eating consistently every week and gaining weight. They will only need about 50-60g of food as adults every week, so either 2 mice or 1 weaned rat, and they will be fine.

Babies: 1 small to medium adult mouse or one fuzzy rat
yearlings: 2 large mice or a 2-3 week old rat
Sub adults: 2 large mice or a 3-4 week old rat
Adults: 2-3 adult mice or a 4-5 week old rat(weaned and about 60g or so)

Whatever is easier for you to get locally, and your snake will eat it, then get that.

Well I like rats. But really I'm accumulating too many different pets. Different species I mean. Dogs, cats, turtles, snakes, fish... it's like a full time job when you have so many different types of animals.

I have a good source for live prey, I just haven't ever looked at their rat selection, but I will tomorrow. I want to try a rat pup fuzzy if I can find it.

Quote:

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yearlings: 2 large mice or a 2-3 week old rat

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Do you guys feed multiple prey in one feeding for yearlings and adults? I am guessing the answer is yes based on the above quote.

I like rats too(I have about 25 of them), which is why I feed bitey, stinky mice :)

One plus side is, if you get a rat pup that isn't weaned, and your snake doesn't eat it, you will have to either take it back or euthanize it and freeze it for later feeding. If you get an adult mouse though, it's not going to grow any bigger and you can keep it alive until the next week when you try to feed again.

And yes, as adults they can have multiples. Some of my females are getting prepared for breeding season, and they are getting 4-5 mice each depending on their attitude. They usually get 3 if they aren't breeding.

Have you thought about buying F/T fuzzy rats?? When I only had a couple snakes I use to just buy a couple months worth so you didnt have to make the trip back and forth to the pet store every week... Have you tried feeding F/T yet? Also do you feed in the cage or out? I feed in a separate container and I had no problem getting my 07 hatchlings to eat F/T even though they were all on live before I got them. It doesnt matter either way (in cage or separate tub) but I can vouch for getting strong feeding responses feeding in separate container from all my snakes.

can anyone tell me if this link is a good reference for prey sizes or not?
thanks...

I breed my own rats. To clarify, the word "pup" is used in general reference to all unweaned rats but it isn't really very specific when it comes to picking the right prey size. Here's a quick rundown on rat developmental stages (includes pictures).

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ght=rat+stages

As you can see there are huge growth potentials in all three stages but most especially in the pup stage. A pup of 16 days of age is a much smaller feeder animal than a pup that is say 3 weeks of age so it's important to understand prey development when it comes to rats especially.

Male rats are called "bucks", females are called "does" and the litter of babies is often called "kittens" or "kitts" by fancy rat breeders. Personally I refer to all the unweaned ratties as "teat leeches" LOL

All our 07's started on rat pinks then moved up to rat fuzzies. A couple of them are still on rat fuzzies, a couple are now on very small/young rat pups. They are fed every 5 days until they reach about 200 grams, then they go to every 7 days.