Just tried switching to rats, is this too big?!

I agree its a "tad" big, but I have also made this mistake, sometimes its hard to eyeball it right off the bat, and you are sweating. And most of the time you dont want to err on the side of caution (well, at least not too much) because you don't want to "Starve" the snake. I would feed it a much smaller rat next feeding, and maybe step it back up just a little. I only reccomend the smaller rat to make it easier on the jaws assuming you feed weekly.

Ps. Snakes can survive off VERY little food, but lets face it we want our snakes a little fatter than some wild ones ;)

i once fed my bp who was 300+ grams at that time a rat that weighed 89grams. she looked so fat and full after that. lol.. didnt feed her for another 2 weeks. i just stick to 40-50g now. someone also suggested that in this forum. just cant rememeber who..

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Originally Posted by giaach

2 adult mice arn't enough, the mice around here are all so tiny it takes 3 to satisfy him.

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Question: how exactly does that work do u feed the mice one after another or do u wait a certain period of time b4 u feed em' the second one?

I just had the same kind of issue
I went to the petco today to get 2 mice for Uli because the one mouse just wasn't cutting it anymore, so I get there, and they're all out! All they had was small rats. The Petco around here is worthless...I wish I knew somewhere better to get feeders. (or somewhere else period)
So the rats all looked a *little* big, but I just took the smallest one they had. It was about the same size as her girth (maybe the tiniest bit bigger), but it was every bit of 15% of her weight if not more

well anyway she struck at it immediately and didn't have any more problems swallowing it than she ever does with a mouse, so it's fine I guess

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Originally Posted by Spider

Question: how exactly does that work do u feed the mice one after another or do u wait a certain period of time b4 u feed em' the second one?

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Feed one, let him consume it and then when he's moving around again or chillin, i drop the second one in. It doesn't even have to be back to back..sometimes 30 minutes later is fine.

Experiment and do what works for you :gj:

I was having the same problem.. but my pet store that I always go to had a woman there that was a lot of help. She grabbed me a small rat pup that was just the right size. My snake is 475g. Maybe ask for rat pups and find the smallest one in the bunch

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Originally Posted by giaach

well I do have a digital scale, and I get a weight on him every month or so. He has grown pretty consistantly over the past 6 months and is now, like i said, 31 inches and 420 grams. He has never refused a meal and eats anything I throw at him. The reason I got a rat this past weekend was because all the feeder mice were hoppers, it would have taken like 5 to sufficiently feed him so the rat what my best bet. He seems to be doing fine, while a few of you say "hes gonna regurge" I don't think that's in his future. He has been in his hide and seems to be acting fine (poked his head out for some water, a look around, and back in the hide)

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Not to say it WILL happen (the regurging) but it's more likely to happen with a reaaaally big meal. Just better to be safer, than sorrier.

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Originally Posted by Spider

Question: how exactly does that work do u feed the mice one after another or do u wait a certain period of time b4 u feed em' the second one?

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I usually wait til he's almost done swallowing the first tail, before I drop the 2nd mouse in...and a little bit away from him so he's not scared, or intimidated. Then I wait to make sure he'll actually HUNT the 2nd one.