Re: does he look big enough?
Holy Cow!!!! :O
What size rat was that???????
I don't even feed my breeding females anything that big!!!!!!
I suggest (strongly) that you don't feed your snake for a couple of weeks; at least. Take that time to go and get yourself a scale. Try prey that is about 10-15% of your snake's weight. The largest prey I feed my snakes is about 90g.
Re: does he look big enough?
The easiest method of determining prey size is simply looking at the snake. Feed your snake prey the same size or slightly larger than the largest part of the snakes body. That rat appears to be about 3 times larger than your snake.
Re: does he look big enough?
Agreed with Fatboy on this one. That rat looks huge compared to the snake, I'd say that is about 3 weeks worth of food in one sitting.
I generally feed my balls according to their girth, sometime a little bit bigger or sometimes a little bit smaller:gj:
Re: does he look big enough?
Wow! From one mouse a week to that? That's a huge jump. I know you said that's the smallest rat that they had, but I would have said no thanks and gotten two mice instead.
He's not going to need to eat again for several weeks.
Re: does he look big enough?
If you want to feed him weekly, he should be on rat pups right now. The rat in the video was WAY to big. Give him a couple weeks off from feeding then start again with rat pups.
Re: does he look big enough?
alright sounds good i did kinda think that the rat was too big but thought id try it anyways. guess ill have to find a different pet store that has smaller rats next time.
Re: does he look big enough?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
84montesc
Just because he can take it, doesn't mean he should...
Feed the same size as the thickest point on the snakes body. That is twice as large, and too much for him to eat. Feeding too much can be very dangerous.
Edit: Didn't see second page! But still, don't handle him for a good while and don't feed him for a couple weeks, that is probably pretty hard on his system. Also, just so you were aware, that is not a 'small rat' that is the smallest 'large rat' they had.. because that thing is huge.
You can find small rats that are much much smaller than that.
Re: does he look big enough?
Yeah, dittos on FatBoy's post. It's real simple and you don't even need a scale!
Largest part of it's girth is the largest prey you should feed to be safe. You don't want it to explode.
Re: does he look big enough?
I start my ball python hatchlings on pink rats, so yes he will be fine to start on appropriately sized rats.
Re: does he look big enough?
i went to a different pet store today to see their selection of rats. they had a momma with some pinkie's but they were so small that the mice they had were actually bigger!
they did have some small rats and the ones they had were smaller than the one i fed but i dont think they are smal enough for me.
i guess ill have to stick with mice or jumbo mice if i can find em until hes a bit bigger
