new to this... please help

i just bought a BP today, and just had a few questions for you more experienced people.
1. how can i tell how old my BP is?
2. right now i have him in a 10g tank, at what length should i move him to a 20g?
3. is it better to feed live or frozen mice?
thx again people for the help, cant wait to get good at this...

1. There is t any reliable way to tell 100% how old your snake is by size. There are too many variables, like how often it was fed, how well it ate, whether it is male or female and so on. 2. A tank is not really ideal at any size but to answer that question you kind of need a picture for size reference.

3. If you can get it to eat f/t that's always better than live as live can hurt the snake.

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Originally Posted by gambit_BP

1. how can i tell how old my BP is?

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No, they all grow at different rates.;)

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Originally Posted by gambit_BP

2. right now i have him in a 10g tank, at what length should i move him to a 20g?

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Most people will tell you to take it out of glass and move it to a tub.
I am not big on keeping snakes in a 10g just because there is not much of a thermograde area.
Make sure your temps and humidity are right and you should be good to go.

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Originally Posted by gambit_BP

3. is it better to feed live or frozen mice?

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This is another "to each his own" question. Frozen is safer as the mouse cannot fight back but live is almost always a guaranteed feed:gj:

man I am typing slow again:rofl::rofl:

If ur snake is very small look at its belly. You may be able to so see a mark where it was healing from umbilical. When I got my normal she was tiny and I saw that so I knew she was only a few months at the oldest. If you can keep the entire tank at 80-85 while maintaining good humidity it should be ok. If ur snake has room to stretch out almost entirely then it should be ok. But you don't want the tank multiple times bigger than ur snake. F/t is preferred by most, including me cuz they can be kept in the freezer. It easier than breeding ur own or going to the store and hoping they have the right amount and right size. With f/t u don't have to supervise feedings. Just drop it in and move on to the next. And u can leave them in overnight when some will only eat it.

Age varies on too much to tell unless you know a hatch date. If its under 115 grams its probablly only a few months old at best beyond that its a guessing game. As far as enclosure you can do as big of a setup you want as long as you can keep an ambient temp of 89 in the enclosure. Now feeding live vs ft. Live feeding will always keep the kill response good which equates to good feeding response. Also you dont have to worry bout things like salmonella or other things that can come from feeding frozen. Also they process and digest live better. If your worried bout the prey item biting then simply grab it by the tail and give it a good whack on the head against something hard to stun or knock it out first. Ive fed live for 20 years and as long as your paying attention you wont have issues. If anyone remembers recentlly mice direct had a huge salmonella outbreak with their frozen rodents and it sparked a 50 state recall. No wY id ever take that chance

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Originally Posted by snake lab

If anyone remembers recentlly mice direct had a huge salmonella outbreak with their frozen rodents and it sparked a 50 state recall. No wY id ever take that chance

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I was looking for a decent place to order rats from when I came across the news article on this. I was on the fence with micedirect, but now I'm looking for some one else :( ideally hoping to stumble on a local person...

WWW.rodentpro.com they've always been good to me

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Originally Posted by Salodin

I was looking for a decent place to order rats from when I came across the news article on this. I was on the fence with micedirect, but now I'm looking for some one else :( ideally hoping to stumble on a local person...

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I've read about many mouse/rat sites that are great. To each their own I guess...

However, I just purchased from http://www.themousefactory.com and was pleased with the service on the phone, the speed of delivery which was 2 days from time of call, and the rats were immaculately clean. I would recommend them.

just my 2 cents.... :)