mmm, yummy fuzzy

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Originally Posted by mlededee

ok, well i have two more fuzzies in the freezer for her but i don't want her to not be getting enough of a meal out of them. should i feed them both to her at the next feeding if she will take them or should i give them to her at closer intervals--like one tuesday and then another saturday--and then switch to the hoppers? i don't want to waste what i already have either when there is a perfectly hungry snake in the next room...

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Sounds like a perfectly good idea to me... just as it's okay for a prey item to be a bit bigger than ideal, a bit smaller is perfectly fine too. You could just feed them according to your regular schedule, or perhaps a little bit sooner than usual.

Two at a time is fine too, in my personal opinion. Once the feeding response kicks in from the first fuzzy, she'll most likely take the 2nd one as well, especially if you offer it just as she's finishing the first one.

I wouldn't do the 1 day apart thing though; she will have only just finished or still be digesting and there's a chance she'll refuse the 2nd fuzzy.

thats great mlededee, i fed mine a couple days ago for the 1st time too! i do have a question though, the place i got my bp from said they were feeding it 1 pinky once a week and they said hes about three months old. i havent measured him really, but hes only about 12 inches. does this sound right??? should i think about feeding him something bigger or should i just stick with the pinky? thanks in advance for any advice :lol:
-jess

the more i think about it maybe they meant to say three weeks instead of months? i dont know, does like sound more like the right age for being 12 inches long?
-jess

Unless a ball python is significantly smaller than a normal hatchling or is very reluctant to eat but seems interested in pinkies, there is no reason to ever feed them a pinky. Just 12" would be a bit smaller than usual, but it's easy to underestimate a hatchling's length when not measuring them.

At any rate, Jess, if I were you I'd switch him over to hoppers or small adult mice. The size of the biggest-around part of the prey should approximately match the biggest-around part of the snake, with a little bigger or a little smaller also being okay.

after reading several other posts from first time snake keepers here on the site, i think that we just totally don't realize how big of a prey item our snakes can handle. like, i was feeling a little doubtful about whether nellie was going to be able to down the little pinky mouse or not when i fed her, and then i was pretty surprised by how quickly she did get it down once she found its head. it just doesn't look like something that size could fit down that slender little bp neck...another way in which nature is just truly amazing :mrgreen:

looks like I'm going to have to bust this picture out again.....

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/...1/f81bcdf3.jpg

any questions?

yeah see now that is borderline freaking me out :shock: i have much to learn 8)

Yeah, I took that picture the first time I offered Amber a rat. It was a small rat, but the largest prey item she's even coem across. It was probably exactly equal to her largest point of girth, and she had no problems whatsoever getting it down.

Very impresive picture Brad.

I remember a while back I fed Jojo medium sized rat because they gave me the wrong size (which I was reamed for BTW) anyway, its amazing much their skin can stretch. Nature designed them to take wider prey animals hence the wide head and the articulating jaws. Now that jojo is larger he takes small rats like nobody's business. he has it constricted and swallowed in at least 15 minutes.

In my experience, all the ball pythons I ever had were never interested in a pinky who knows why maybe its because they have no fur thus they dont have that "mouse" smell to them. I usually get a stubborn baby ball to eat with a live fuzzy mouse then a fresh killed hopper and go from there.

God I love these snakes.